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Collage Awards
Collage: A Journal of Creative Expression, an MTSU outlet since 1968 that moved under Honors auspices in 2005, publishes about 60 pieces of work every semester from around 350 blind submissions.
Creative Expression Awards are given each edition to top-ranked poetry and prose (named in honor of Martha Hixon), photography and artwork (in memory of Lon Nuell), and sometimes audio, video, and/ or song lyrics.
Collage was recently awarded first place in the 2025 National Collegiate Honors Council Publications Contest for the Student Published Division Journal Category.
View issues at collage.mtsu.edu
Fall 2024
Poetry
Emilee Vecchio, “Love or Loss”
Prose
Katie Olexy, “Dead or Alive?”
Art
Jess Hayes, Plexus
Photography
Vega Rochat, Neon Nights
Video
Lucas De Freitas, Our Heart’s Silent Rapture
Spring 2025
Poetry
Harley Mercadal, “Saints in the River, Mourning”
Prose
Katie Olexy, “I Came Out of the Womb Singing”
Art
Aliyah Shuman, Ode to 2619
Photography
LaAsia Harris, Desolate Jay
Audio
Alex Tumbleson, “Philadelphia”
“Saints in the River, Mourning” by Harley Mercadal
Kingsport smells of capitalism—the paper mill, Eastman, craft breweries, and Pal’s hotdogs—so the goose-shit smell complements my dread when we cross the swinging bridgeNellie Pratt left to empty a particularly small, red box.
Brianne palms our father’s ashes into the Holston River;similarly, my grief and relief mix into clouded brown waters.I want to submerge my face, open my eyes, see if there aresaints in this river—maybe ghosts—or simple morbidity.
Do I have any last words? No; nothing appropriate, anyway.My sister soaks in her mourning like her roll-cuffed jeans, andI, dry-eyed at the water’s edge, wonder if river-fish eat bones.We watch our father wash away, and alone, I don’t look back.
