Synaptic

By Betsy Loomans '01 & Gwen Vahl '00

Welcome to the 2000 Writing Anthology!

By Jenny Stahr '02

Her name was Olive, and she lived in be 103. She was great-great-great-grandma, and I got to known her.

By Renee Brincks '99

Michael Predmore calls Antonio Machado “a towering figure in the literature and culture of twentieth-century Spain” (5). Others have praised his “power and genius and the “pure spirit with which his poems are written (Cobb 173).

By Ursula Biener

“Once you’ve seen the US you’re prepared to die” my friend wrote to me in one of his emails.

By Kari Griggs '99

Sweat dribbled down my neck as I struggled to move my body into the positions ordered by our dance instructor.

By Jennifer Kreinbring '02

Cupid’s arrow has been thrust into my heart and desire for the Wife of Bath now consumes every inch of my body.

By Kannamma Shanmugasundaram '99

Then most non-Asians hear of arranged marriages, they think of instances where individuals are sworn over to each other, never meeting until the day of the wedding.

By Dan Haag '00

Over the past few years in Iowa, farming has become more than just a family owned and run business; it has become a corporate affair.

By Jennifer Kreinbring '02

Sarah and I crouched inside the old wash house, pretending that our sole purpose was patting the kittens that wandered across the cracked cement.

By Dave Mather '01

I wanted to hit him, but I’m a pacifist. I think. Still, I wanted to walk up with clenched fists, and hit him with all that I had.

By Jocelyn McCracken '00

In the opening page of her novel. Jane Smiley quotes Mendel Le Sueur: “The body repeats the landscape. They are the source of each other and create each other.”

By Sara Marie Richardson '02

When I was in first grade I told the entire lunchroom about the trip my family took to England over the weekend. My classmates’ eyes grew wide with admiration as I pulled five souvenir coins from the pocket of my purple corduroy skirt.

By Jessica Leibold '01

It was around 11 a.m. on a cloudy Sunday when the town square caught my eye. I had been driving for hours and decided to stop for lunch in the town of Osceola, I A.

By Bryan T. Klassen '99

For centuries, the tragedy of  Munster has been the sore-spot of Anabaptism.  Discrimination against the usually peaceful Anabaptists had long been justified by identifying the movement with the type of political upheaval associated with the Munster affair.

By Betsy Tremmel '00

“I miss Africa. Mom.” the teary voice eight-year-old Will Harris came as a  surprise to parents Michael Harris and Kim Koza.

By Lorena Fernandez-Quinones

Tossing and turning in my bed I try to concentrate again on the image of the moon tonight.