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
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
rosa woolsey
Existing
in the other half of the
room,
taken immediately
after my roomate moved out
quarantined in: Anderson Hall E-Sec
elie flanagan
Ok, Having Thought It Over, He’s Like a Bad Person Right? Why Did I Draw This?
quarantined in: Walla Walla, WA
Lightshow
paper collages
quarantined in: Minneapolis, MN
renny acheson
When There is Far Too Much Time: Game of Thrones Edition
alex feller
quarantined in: Santa Barbara, CA
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
quarantined in: Boise, ID
mollyann burkey
quarantined in: Redmond, WA
90 Ceramic Flowers
By Mom and Me
heleana backus
The Other Side of the Bed
quarantined in: Stanton Hall
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
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
Spring Snow
karsten beling
quarantined in: Park City, UT
Fear of Thunderstorms
multimedia collage on canvas
renny acheson
quarantined in:
Minneapolis, MN
Can YOU See What’s Wrong With This Picture?
elie flanagan
quarantined in: Walla Walla, WA
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
A Starter Pack
quarantined in: Portland, OR
sofia solares
sofia solares
quarantined in: Portland, OR
Interrupting Father
keeli mckern
Untitled
quarantined in: home in Walla Walla
Dinner is
Served
julia taylor
quarantined in:
Whitman dorm
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
jonathan falk
Jupiter Communes With the Ancestors
quarantined in: Walla Walla, WA
Bonk
bonk
quarantined in: Stanton Hall
In These Uncertain Times
a blackout poem taken from a Coca-Cola Covid commercial
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
elie flanagan
distance learning:
a study in thinly-veiled distress
quarantined in: Walla Walla, WA
fi black
Disintimacy
quarantined in: Walla Walla, WA
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?
quarantined in: Boise, ID
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.
renny acherson
Leaving the Nest
quarantined in: Minneapolis, MN
A Gender Exploration
quarantined in: San Rafael, CA
ryn zucker
Zoom Pizza
hannah marker
quarantined in:
Boise, ID
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
haley king
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.