Arts and Media
Ryland Bell
Trans Desolate
About the piece: This art piece was supposed to be inspired by song lyrics, poems, etc. However, I focused on myself and what I wanted to tell through my art piece. I transitioned from female to male about 7 years ago now and this is how I portrayed my feelings about top surgery and what I and so many other trans-identified people struggle with. Getting that version of yourself out of your head is hard. I personally haven’t been financially able to get this surgery done, but I know how distressing it is to transform/transition and still not feel adequate enough. That’s the feeling that I wanted to portray in this piece and to get across to my audience.
About the author: I’m originally from Bourbonnais, IL, but have since migrated to Decatur, IL where I live with my wife and our 6 kids. By kids I mean our 4 cats (Amore, Mia, Oliver, and Leo), A bunny (Max), and a bearded Dragon (Tarak). I’m a second-year, first-semester graduate student in the Creative Technologies program, with an emphasis on visual art. My usual work is photography, as you can see from some of my other work that will be published in here as well. However, when I got this assignment where we could do anything, emotionally I was going through a lot, and I think it just poured out of me because this is how I was feeling at the time. When I create something, it’s always just pure emotion. If something catches my eye and makes me feel something I take a picture and usually those are the photos I get into galleries or exhibits. This one was no different. I drew what I felt, and it was the fastest project I’ve ever gotten done for a class. I recently got a new job as a GA for the Office of Student Research and Graduate School here at ISU and I had to hang up posters for the Image of Research and I happened upon a flyer for Euphemism. I decided why not, the worst that could happen is that they would say no, but I actually got all of what I submitted into this issue and I’m just beyond grateful for this opportunity to be published.
Favorite part of the piece : I just love the fact that you can see the distress and people can empathize with that. We need more empathy in the world and if someone can feel how so many people feel on a daily basis, especially from a marginalized group, (in these times) it leaves room for compassion and understanding. To me, that’s all anybody wants and I’m glad that I can portray that through my art.
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Fiction
Andrea Barbosa
The Secrets Within the Blue Ridge Mountain
About the piece: The Blue ridge mountains are a real and located within the Appalachian mountains. I was inspired to write this story when I saw a lady on Tiktok talking about the different folktales that really come from the mountains. The three rules that have to be followed within this story are real rules that the people who live around the Appalachian Trail have to live by.
About the author: I am a junior, a creative writing major and I am from Naperville IL. I like to write because I feel it as the best way to express myself. I love to create whole new worlds and really try to make them come to life, I feel like there are so many stories I can share! I was inspired to write to Euphemism my first year at ISU when I saw an email come out for the program. I worked on a few things, I was able to get one poem piece in and it was one of the happiest moments in my writing career. It inspired me to write more and to try to get my work out there. My dream is to become an author and it is a goal in my life to try to have at least one best selling book.
Favorite part of the piece: “And when the leaves danced in the wind, the forest called out with its own siren, similar to the ones that the mermaids used when they would appear in our dreams”
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Nonfiction
Melanie Hamon
About the piece: I just completed my minor in cello performance, so along with practicing about 12 hours a week, I learned the Courante for Bach’s Cello Suite III in C Major. Somewhere along the way, someone told me that “courante” is supposed to refer to a rabbit, or sound like a rabbit running between the strings. Or maybe I made that up. Anyways, with the “light” nature of the song and the huge string crossings, I ended up feeling very frustrated with the piece and I felt like I was chasing the rabbit rather than emulating it. Putting those frustrations into words helped inspire me to write this piece.
About the author: I am a Creative Writing student at Miami University in Ohio, and I’ve wanted to be a novelist for as long as I can remember. Now, I’m just focused on discovering and refining my voice. I was inspired to submit to Euphemism because I resonated with its personal tone and its flexibility in form and style, and I can’t help but give huge amounts of respect to our arts organizations that survived the pandemic and are ready to show they aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. I hope to continue these missions by working for a nonprofit in the next few years.
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Poetry
James Friedman
Every Ghost has a Love Story
About the piece: I love writing more than any other hobby, yet I’m out of luck to say I have any sort of process. I’ve joked around with my family before and said none of my ideas are my own, and that I get all my writing from alien broadcasts transmitted to my brain from outer space. I find writing willfully to be tremendously difficult, and mostly write when something strikes me. For “Every Ghost Has a Love Story” I drew inspiration from my struggle to comprehend the passage of time and dealing with the loss of my grandfather this past August. The idea for the title comes from the phrase “Every love story is a ghost story.”
About the author: I was born in Indianapolis, but have spent all my life in Illinois. Most of my life has been spent in small towns, although I’ve always had a connection to Normal through my father who spent the first 20 years of my life there. My favorite hobbies are running, reading, and writing. For me, writing is about connection, and I tend to gain inspiration from experience. I like to listen to people’s conversations, go for runs through nature and city scenery, and take drives through the country side in order to appreciate life’s details, and to reflect. I find that by connecting with my surroundings, I am usually better equipped to express my ideas and connect with other people. With my passion for writing and literature, I plan to write novels and to work as an English teacher. My favorite authors are Ernest Hemingway, David Foster Wallace, and Italo Calvino. My favorite book is A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness.
Favorite part of the piece: I struggle with perfectionism in my writing, which means I don’t tend to write as much as I’d like. As a result of only writing what I do like, I am very fond of most of the poems whose existence I’ve found justification for. In that sense, every poem I’ve written is my favorite. They’re all my favorite part.