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quarterlife:

the quarantine issue

editors-in-chief

heleana backus

anna johnston

penelope boone

art

editor: sylvie corwin

elie flanagan

hannah marker

public relations

editor: elie flanagan paige sorgen

iris thwaits

copy editors

heleana backus

anna johnston

layout

anna johnston (print)

penelope boone (print)

hannah marker (web)

web development

hannah marker

general selections

alanna moore

lance teschendorf

lee thomas

marleigh anderson

alexa lim

hunter hansen

mckee nguyen

chloe french

em perry

volume 14 issue 4 Summer 2020

quarterlife is a literary journal published four times a year that features poetry, short fiction, drama, creative nonfiction, analytic essays, alternative journalism, and any other sort of written work Whitman students might create, as well as sketches, drawings, cartoons, and prints. Each issue is composed around a given theme that acts as both a spark for individual creativity and a thematic axis for the issue.

​

quarterlife is an exercise in creative subjectivity, a celebration of the conceptual diversity of Whitman students when presented with a single theme. Each piece is ostensibly unconnected but ultimately relevant to the whole. Every work illuminates a different aspect of the theme. In this way, quarterlife magazine participates in the writing process. The magazine is not an indifferent vehicle by which writing is published, but rather is a dynamic medium with which writing is produced.

letter from the EDITORS

dear reader,

quarterlife is notoriously angsty. We frequently eliminate themes from our theme bucket in fear that we will receive nothing but break-up poetry. Naturally, quarterlife: the quarantine issue was a daunting prospect. But, apparently, all it took was a pandemic for Whitman students to send us all the joy, flowers, and togetherness they could muster. We aren’t complaining.

 

In the following pages, you’ll find the same spunk that spills from Whitman’s campus. From one family’s chronicled exploration of dragon onesies, to an ars poetica on egg yolks, to a photo of 90 ceramic flowers made during quarantine, this issue is brimming with personality. Yet submissions also stay cognizant of the chaos and emptiness of the past six months; one student responds to George Floyd’s death, another photographs herself in an empty dorm room, another makes an origami graduation cap for a skull.

 

Perhaps more than angst versus joy, what unites this issue is its intimacy. From March to July, students sent us their work and their place of quarantine, which you’ll find under each author’s name. We remain a part of the Whitman community, witnessing one another’s experiences from afar. We hope you like the joy, the angst, and the flowers.

 

Sincerely, Anna + Heleana

 

 

P.S. Multiple pieces in this issue were created by students who graduated in spring 2020. We’d like to thank them as well as the members of our staff who are no longer at Whitman: Hunter Hansen, McKee Nguyen, and Penelope Boone. We miss you and appreciate your work on quarterlife!

contents

Click titles to jump straight to each submission!

Click titles to jump straight to each submission!

nammy kasaraneni

rosa woolsey

elie flanagan

renny acheson

alex feller

jordan payne

hannah marker

mollyann burkey 

heleana backus

kate swisher

elie flanagan

karsten beling

renny acheson

elie flanagan

sylvie corwin

chloe french 

sofia solares

sofia solares

keeli mckern

julia taylor

sylvie corwin

nammy kasaraneni

jonathan falk

bonk

elise sanders

elie flanagan

fi black

hannah marker

elise saunders

renny archeson

ryn zucker

hannah marker

s/r

haley king

Contagion: A Response

Contagion: A Response

nammy kasaraneni

A lot of people are rewatching Contagion in light of what we’re living through, and, if you’ve seen the movie, you know that people only look out for themselves when the epidemic starts spreading; it’s sort of dystopic. I’m surprised, in comparison, by the incredible grace and kindness I have witnessed in the people around me during these uncertain times. The movie got one thing wrong.

1.

My best friend

living out of her parents’

vacation home taking

10-hour shifts at the grocer’s

carrying bags of produce

to car windows even though she doesn’t

need the money because someone

needs to risk it

& why not her.

2.

Neighbors

who send out messages

when Costco restocks

on toilet paper & the fear

that clawed my stomach

two weeks ago

when I asked my friend

in Seoul if her family

had found a place to stay

yet. & the fear

in her voice last night

when she heard me cough.

3.

The Earth’s lungs

expanding / as ours collapse.

Goats in the streets of Scotland,

a bear lumbering

through a California suburb, my

guilty gratitude

as we are reclaimed.

4.

And when they tell you

in those history books                         

how quickly a world can shift

and upturn, remember

that it was love we held onto

though we could not hold

each other.

quarantined in: San Jose, CA

Existing in the other half of the room, taken immediately after my roomate moved out

rosa woolsey

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Existing

in the other half of the

room,

taken immediately

after my roomate moved out

woolsey 2.jpg

quarantined in: Anderson Hall E-Sec

elie flanagan

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Ok, Having Thought It Over, He’s Like a Bad Person Right? Why Did I Draw This?

quarantined in: Walla Walla, WA

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Ok, Having Thought It Over, He’s Like a Bad Person Right? Why Did I Draw This?

Lightshow

paper collages

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aechson 3.JPG

quarantined in: Minneapolis, MN

renny acheson

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Lightshow

When There is Far Too Much Time: Game of Thrones Edition

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alex feller

quarantined in: Santa Barbara, CA

When There is Far Too Much Time: Game of Thrones Edition
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jordan payne

A Peaceful Morning in Place

Sitting outside in my backyard, I start my morning off reading in the shade. It is cool, yet I do not want to leave the comfort of the chair I sit in. The shadow of the tree I sit near ends just past my feet, so I stick my goose-bumpcovered legs out to warm my toes. As I continue to read, I can feel the heat of the sun work its way past my ankles and up my shins as if I were sitting in a slowly filling jacuzzi. The sun climbs with just enough pace that I can watch the light slowly flood towards my lap. I don’t know what time it is; it is just morning. The heat of the day is yet to come.

quarantined in: Menlo Park, CA

Sorting Books:

Quarantine

Edition

hannah marker

The Bad Beginning

The Slippery Slope

The Dead Zone

 

Time and Again

Nightmares & Dreamscapes

Collapse

This One Summer

 

Old Man's Cave

Watchmen

Hatchet

Brave New World

Into Thin Air

 

Nightshift

Citizen

Saints

Cradle

Community

Through the Woods

 

Insomnia

Quarantine

Hostage

Relish

Civilizing Rituals

 

Footfall

The Stand

The End

Catch-22

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quarantined in: Boise, ID

A Peaceful Morning in Place
Sorting Books: Quarantine Edition
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mollyann burkey

quarantined in: Redmond, WA

90 Ceramic Flowers

By Mom and Me

90 Ceramic Flowers By Mom and Me

heleana backus

The Other Side of the Bed

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quarantined in: Stanton Hall

The Other Side of the Bed

Ars Poetica:

Eggs with Orange Yolks

kate swisher

We break eggs

​

covered in chicken shit. They’re fresh

with thick, orange yolks.

The eggs aren’t yellow, like normal.

On normal days we didn’t cook these eggs.

We didn’t have time to collect things

from coops.

 

I take two eggs

 

out of a reused carton.

And curling my fingers around them,

I notice they’re still warm.

 

We break the eggs

 

with orange yolks.

We learn to take the morning slow.

You teach me how

to wash shit off shells. I don’t mind

scrubbing the vessels clean. We’re simply breaking

Routine.

 

We’re breaking eggs

 

with warm, running yolks.

Deep orange, not pale yellow.

quarantined in: Santa Cruz, CA

Ars Poetica: Eggs with Orange Yolks
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elie flanagan

quarantined in: Walla Walla, WA

YES it’s the Apocalypse but NO it’s not The Purge, You Can’t Just STEAL Things, Read The Room. Food <3

YES it’s the Apocalypse but NO it’s not The Purge, You Can’t Just STEAL Things, Read The Room. Food <3

Spring Snow

karsten beling

quarantined in: Park City, UT

Spring Snow

Fear of Thunderstorms

multimedia collage on canvas

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renny acheson

quarantined in:

Minneapolis, MN

Fear of Thunderstorms

Can YOU See What’s Wrong With This Picture?

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elie flanagan

quarantined in: Walla Walla, WA

Can YOU See What’s Wrong With This Picture?

There are five freckles on my stomach

One on each foot

The rest of me — limbs, face

Freckles come and go uncountable

With years and seasons and sun

 

I squint sometimes

Imagine those points of melanin

Expanding

Reaching out towards each other

Until they touch and blend

How would I look then?

How would others look at me then?

 

This skin

I rub it, mold it, fold it

Along my stomach

Feeling the fat shrug underneath

It holds me in

Takes the hits and the dirt

It’s rough along the elbows

Smooth along the shins

 

This skin

Imagine us all bone and sinew and blood

Hiding nothing

Would this be better?

All our colors the same

Red meat

Would we treat each other like meat then?

Let’s keep these beautiful skins

 

Yet when those freckles blend

A human is treated like meat again

Killable

 

In Power

Audre Lorde quotes a policeman

Who kills a child and defends himself

‘’’I didn’t notice the size nor nothing else

Only the color’’’

In power

My trust disintegrates

 

Stand in your skin and shut your eyes

Let skin encase sight

There, stare through your skin

Your pale skin, dark skin, freckled skin, creased skin

This is how we are

When we notice nothing else, only skin

 

Blind

Blind

We are blind

 

Someone told me my freckles

Were like stars

A star spangled body

Under a star mangled banner

 

People have said that

Stars are the souls of the dead

What if we all carry

On our skin, under our skin

A million souls

Will we name them?

Will we let them shine?

Freckled Thoughts

sylvie corwin

quarantined in:

Dolores, CO

Untitled

chloe french

quarantined in: Boise, ID

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Freckled Thoughts
Untitled

A Starter Pack

quarantined in: Portland, OR

sofia solares

sofia solares

quarantined in: Portland, OR

Interrupting Father

solares 1.jpg
sofia 1.jpg
A Starter Pack
Interrupting Father
mckern 1.jpg

keeli mckern

Untitled

quarantined in: home in Walla Walla

Untitled
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Dinner is

Served

julia taylor

quarantined in:

Whitman dorm

Dinner is Served

quarantined in: Dolores, CO, with three horses and two mice

A Southwest Summer

sylvie corwin

I won’t lie. While everyone

in the grocery store stockpiled

on rice and beans and got ready

for the virus, I

stood by the windows

& tried to control my breathing.

Sometimes, I am still the little girl

Daddy threw down the stairs,

the face in the window of the psych ward

you made eye contact with

that autumn on your walk

to the afternoon bus and could not

forget. Some mornings I throw up

from brushing my teeth, acid & bile.

No matter. Most days,

I can’t stop smiling

at the tops of trees,

& am so tenderly alive

you wouldn’t dare

take your eyes off of me.

Fragile

nammy kasaraneni

quarantined in: San Jose, CA

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A Southwest Summer
Fragile

jonathan falk

Jupiter Communes With the Ancestors

quarantined in: Walla Walla, WA

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Bonk

bonk

bonk 1.jpg

quarantined in: Stanton Hall

Jupiter Communes With the Ancestors
Bonk

In These Uncertain Times

a blackout poem taken from a Coca-Cola Covid commercial

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Every act of selfishness

Closes more classrooms.

There are boundaries torn down

For the sound of sonatas from

scare mongering. Care

For every border that shuts the horizons of hope.

Decline payments.

For the distance we rediscover

A vaccine

For optimism is more contagious.

For everything that divides the human spirit–

Brothers and sisters.

Families and children.

The heroes of humanity.

Thank you for filling the glass for Coca-Cola.

elise sanders

quarantined in: Seattle, WA

In These Uncertain Times

elie flanagan

distance learning:

a study in thinly-veiled distress

elie 1.jpg

quarantined in: Walla Walla, WA

distance learning: a study in thinly-veiled distress
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fi black

Disintimacy

quarantined in: Walla Walla, WA

Disintimacy

hannah marker

And They Saw

17 Turtles,

1 Frog,

and Countless Fouls That Day.

When Did They Last Have The Time to Count So Merrily?

marker 2.jpg

quarantined in: Boise, ID

And They Saw 17 Turtles, 1 Frog, and Countless Fouls That Day. When Did They Last Have The Time to Count So Merrily?

elise sanders

Filia Saturnis

quarantined in: Walla Walla, WA

You hear the hum of harmonical rights,

Then you see His shadow, singing the swears You took in

desperation to lower

Some sarcophagus

 

Pregnant with the soul you miscarried to Zealous terms.

Always a foot behind

Your hungry dreams, seemingly far beyond

Your grasping, mortal reach.

 

But when you’ve covered your body in dirt

And left your corpse to rot far from my sight;

Remember Kronos’ thirst for sanguine drink

Will never be quenched.

 

Keep your own Venus in your wine-dark eye.

Let her music flow through your veins and out

Your radiant heart. Don’t fret, she’s not far:

Her twin is the soul.

Filia Saturnis
acherson 2.JPG

renny acherson

Leaving the Nest

quarantined in: Minneapolis, MN

Leaving the Nest

A Gender Exploration

quarantined in: San Rafael, CA

ryn zucker

A Gender Exploration
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Zoom Pizza

hannah marker

quarantined in:

Boise, ID

Zoom Pizza

Dawn

s/r

Timeless, she rises

Bringing day,

By making the sky blush.

As the sky brightens

And night leaves

A deep sea is revealed

As the sky covers her starry

freckles

And Dawn makes her blush.

quarantined in:

Lyman Hall

Dawn

haley king

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School’s Out Forever

quarantined in: Walla Walla, WA

Thanks

quarterlife would like to thank the Associated Students of Whitman College (ASWC) for their financial support, without which the production of this magazine would not be possible. Our utmost gratitude goes to John Sasser at Integrity Designs, and our advisor, Dorothy Mukasa, and to our faculty advisor, Gaurav Majumdar.

School’s Out Forever

Staff Art Credits

cover art—hannah marker

theme spread—elie flanagan

"in these uncertain times"—sylvie corwin

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