Spectrum: Northeastern University's Literary Arts Magazine: 2017-2018 Calendar

Staff

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

Editor-in-Chief Elke Thoms Layout & Design Editor Natalya Jean Financial Manager Stephen Hurley Secretary Julia Renner Advertising Manager Remenna Xu

Students, faculty, and alumni of Northeastern University are invited to submit to Spectrum. Submitted work will be considered for our upcoming issues and calendars.

Submit to us at spectrum.magazine@gmail.com

Contact Office 234 Curry Student Center Email spectrum.magazine@gmail.com Mailbox 434 Curry Student Center

Cover art adapted from “Symmetry” by Leila Habib.

No part of this publication may be reproduced without the permission of Spectrum Literary Arts Magazine and/or respective authors. Spectrum Literary Arts Magazine reserves the right to edit submissions for layout, grammar, spelling, and punctuation unless otherwise indicated by the author. Any references to people living or dead are purely coincidental except in the case of public figures. The views and opinions represented in this media do not necessarily reflect those of Northeastern University or the staff of Spectrum Literary Arts Magazine.

Copyright© Spectrum Literary Arts Magazine and respective authors.

All rights reserved.

Poetry & Prose • Save your writing as a word document (.doc), text (.txt), or PDF file • Include only ONE piece per document • Name your submission file “Author – Title” • Include title of work at top of page • Indicate special layout/tabulation specification (if applicable) • Limit submissions to five double-spaced pages at 12pt font

Art & Photography • Save images in JPEG, PNG, RTF, or PDF format, 300 dpi resolution • Name your submission “Artist – Title” • Include name, contact info, and any editing restrictions

reloading Ben Landsberg

September 4 - Labor Day 6 - First day of Fall classes

Sunny California Melissa Fitzgerald My mind always saw it sunny; The hardest thing I’ve had to do in a long while saw it green and vibrant, was turn to the friend who was driving saw blondes with tan forearms and tell her “How lovely.” and everywhere string bikinis, toned quads and toenails polished and everything a breeze.

Imagine my surprise when I finally take the drive down Route 1 and see hills a large yellow and burnt looking brown, everything a bit foggy from centuries of pollution and people trying to get to places quicker than they ought to.

S M T W R F S 1 2 3

4

5 6

10 11 12 13

7

8 9

14

15

16

17

18

19 20 21 22 23

24

25

26

27 28

29

30

S

Symmetries triptych Brooke Dunahugh

October: 9 - Columbus Day / No classes / Spectrum’s Fall submission deadline

Entanglements Natalya Jean i took a look through my notebook yesterday. gray, spidery handwriting all that remains of us now. we are cobwebs and I think I might blow you away.

S M T W R F S 1

2

3

4

5

6 7

8 9

10 11 12

13 14

15 16

17 18 19 20

21

22 23

24

28

29 30

31

25 26 27

O

Hallway Miyuki Blois

November 11 - Veterans Day / No classes 22 - Thanksgiving recess begins / No classes 27 - Classes resume

Mid-Morning Crisis Sam Penney The curls of Fall pour in through the open window, The blinds make patterns out of moonlight on the wall, Heart holds hands with the pulse of nature as both beats slow, When I am warm and when I am soft, I am overwhelmed by all: How often do you think of me?

I’m haunted by how little thought I think you give.

How often do you think of me?

It is an answer I seek so I may freely live.

How little do you think of me?

I wish that you would think of me, Why do you not think to think of me?

The hum of the fan by my head Saves the conscious from needless dread As I drift into dream, Or so it would seem; How How How How

hideous am I thought to be? wrong am I thought to be? little am I thought to be? little do you think of me?

S M T W R F S 1

2 3 4

5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17

18

19

20 21 22 23 24 25

26

27

28

29 30

N

(you know nothing, jon) Remenna Xu

December 4 - Spectrum’s Fall issue release party 6 - Last day of Fall classes 7 - Reading day 8 - Final exams begin 15 - Final exams end 17 - First day of winter break

Winter Nicole Cerundolo Ivory piano keys drip from window sills, while breves and double sharps coat the patchwork streets—

It would take a truly skilled maestro to pluck a seasonal melody from empty sheets of snowfall and clouds full of caesura—

powdery drifts of piano, pianissimo, pianississimo deafening the staccato of tires over uneven terrain.

accenting the haunting beauty of its stillness, and penning colorful concertos into the silence of sunset.

S M T W R F S 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

8 9

10 11 12 13 14

15

16

17

18 19 20 21 22 23

24

25

31

26

27 28

29 30

Pace station Christina Philippides

January 8 - First day of Spring classes 15 - Martin Luther King, Jr. Day / No classes

artist Felicity Henson I observe your chaos.

Paint peels from walls, Stench of stale cigarettes suffocates me.

Is this it then?

Is this the outpouring of your soul?

Cluttered, neglected, desperate for beauty?

I can’t move without being stained.

By paint or beer or the water that leaks from your ceiling.

I can’t move without Brushing, Crushing, papers on the floor; paintings, drawings, forgotten, discarded in your hectic,

frantic, quest to create perfection.

Move on, move forward when ink on the page is not what it should be.

On to the next on to the next and on to the next; these too, will end up on the floor, never what they should be.

Never what was in your head.

I wonder if you eat or can only create?

Unable to consume in your haste to produce?

Is this it then?

Is this the manifestation of your soul?

Is this you then?

Or have you simply been lost in the chaos?

S M T W R F S 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

8 9 10 11 12 13

14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21

22

23

24 25

28

29

30

31

26 27

J

Symmetry Leila Habib

February 19 - Presidents’ Day / No classes / Spectrum’s Spring submission deadline

The moral is Melissa Fitzgerald She was always a bit too early; he always a bit late, and neither ever felt in the right place.

They would have been rather good together I should think, if either knew.

He was always a little too warm, and she cold, and both were just sweating trying to stay cool.

She liked the sweet things, and he salty, and both were rather hungry often, in different sorts of ways.

He talked in paragraphs; she in ellipsis, and much was said both ways and very little too.

S M T W R F S 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 11

9 10

12 13 14 15 16

18 19 20

21 22 23

25 26

28

27

17 24

F

This Winter J. F. Connolly

March:

for Sandy His wife has a hole in her heart.

He listens for the snap of a twig, his mind trained

3 - First day of spring break

for the lessons of silence,

12 - Classes resume

that dark world of shape and shadow, the articulation of the alphabet of rain.

His wife has a hole in her heart.

Her life is the reading of systolic numbers and he wants a stay against

time—

against the arteries gone wrong.

Graceful Decomposition Paige Howell He remembers the mouths of those just dead.

He longs to hear them sing the song of a breathing that keeps beating on and on— and it is breaking apart this hole in her heart.

The topography of her veins is a map without rhyme or reason.

His wife has a hole in her heart.

The hole in each day is the flow of blood, a pressure that becomes a poem that keeps changing its lines.

His wife has a hole in her heart.

S M T W R F S 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 11

9 10

12 13 14 15 16

17

18 19 20

21 22 23

24

25 26

28 29

31

27

30

M

A pril: 9 - Spectrum’s Spring issue release party 16 - Patriots’ Day / No classes 18 - Last day of Spring classes 19 - Reading day 20 - Final exams begin 27 - Final exams end

Strange roads Elijah McTigue Yeah So, Louis Lobron There I was in the coffee shop Where the cool people were Their toes quivering on the crack in the hardwood Between irony and sincerity, as not to fall Onto the wrong side of being And there I was With my fruit-inscribed box And my cylinder of foam Flailing my arms

S M T W R F S 1 2 3 4 5

6 7

8 9 10 11 12

13 14

15 16 17 18 19 20

21

22 23

28

29 30

24

25 26 27

A

May 4 - Commencement 7 - First day of Summer 1, NUterm, and Full Summer classes 28 - Memorial Day / No classes

Tripod Victoria Barranco climate Change Lauren Geary

S M T W R F S

It was a cold summer— Water froze on my lips while Frost settled on my heart.

Autumn was moderate— He turned my heart frost to slush And reminded me how to live.

As autumn became winter He illuminated the world— My lips were on fire, My heart beat hot and fast— The world was alive And so was I. And so am I.

6

1 2 3 4 5

7 8

9

10

11

12

13 14 15 16 17

18

19

20

21

22

23 24 25 26

27

28

29

30 31

M

Pass Jessie Mitten

June: 21 - Last day of Summer 1 and NUterm classes 25 - Summer 1 and NUterm final exams begin 26 - Summer 1 and NUterm final exams end

In The Low Tide Richard Faletto She lies with me bright like white sandy shores waves pulling me into my skin— against hers and I’m soaked in her warmth we entwine in the light of the late morning sky.

love wet on our stomachs, blurry divide. gentle and simple and true like the tides.

S M T W R F S 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

8 9

10 11 12 13 14

15

16

17

18 19 20 21 22 23

24

25

26

27 28

29

30

J

July: 2 - First day of Summer 2 classes 4 - Independence Day / No classes

A Day In Kavala Christina Philippides

Hell Aidan Meyer-Golden

S M T W R F S

The windshield is fogged and I can’t see on the highway, a sea of pollutants rising humbly upward.

The birds are getting sick, soft-shelled, drunk and fat in nests of junk mail.

A raven, outsider, cries to them that the world is dying.

Open the window and I will drown.

1 2 3 4 5

6 7

8 9 10 11 12

13 14

15 16 17 18 19 20

21

22

23

24

28

29

30

31

25 26 27

J

Barn with Fence Sam Penney

August: 9 - Last day of Full Summer classes 13 - Full Summer final exams begin 16 - Full Summer final exams end / Last day of Summer 2 classes 20 - Summer 2 final exams begin 21 - Summer 2 final exams end 22 - Summer vacation begins

August Elke Thoms Since I was a kid, the camps would end and the weeks would stretch before school in September And even now, sound asleep for 11 months, this past lover picks up the phone when I need him most and kisses with both hands touching my face without me having to ask I’ve never done a damn thing that was honest in August

S M T W R F S

1

2 3 4

5 6 7 8 9

10 11

12 13 14 15 16 17

18

19

20

21 22 23 24

25

26

27

28

29 30

31

A