By Ashley Bergeson Fall 2013 Kaplan Award Winner Once, it was summertime. Warm, yellow light streamed into the room where I was napping; the room at my grandmother’s house made up especially for me. As I laid back with my eyes open, staring up at the dust circles illuminated by the late afternoon sun, I … Read More
By Nicole Bergman Fall 2013 Kaplan Award Winner Yet again, I find myself sitting in a 1970s four door Mercedes without air conditioning. The interior is ancient and the seat upholstery is worn; the dashboard is covered with fast food wrappers and Styrofoam coffee cups. I am submerged in a heap of crap while obnoxious … Read More
By Janelle Retka Fall 2013 Kaplan Award Winner It was the third or fourth day spent pressed up against bleached white hospital walls. The waiting room of the ICU was filled with tension; the most I had experience in this hall since we arrived. The doctors would be meeting with Seth and his mom, Debbie, … Read More
By Rebecca Yeung Fall 2013 Kaplan Award Winner My new roommate this year grew up in the east side of the state, and this was her first year in Seattle. I decided to take her out and explore downtown Seattle. I am not a Seattle native, but have been living here for a few years. … Read More
By Nicole Bergman Fall 2013 Kaplan Award Winner Four college sophomores are seated in a white Subaru outback headed East. The right passenger seat is folded down to make room for the hockey bags stacked in the trunk, forcing Jack and Ethan to sit uncomfortably close to each other. Spencer reaches back and hands the … Read More
By Cooper Inveen Fall 2013 Kaplan Award Winner Let’s just say, you’ve never truly lived until you’ve watched a topless doppelganger of a childhood friend’s mother fight another woman to the death underneath a giant geodesic cage. Well okay, it wasn’t exactly a fight to the death; the fight was completely consensual and the only … Read More
By Joshua Glantz Fall 2012 Kaplan Award Winner My eyes finally open after what feels like hours, but likely was a matter of seconds stuck in that purgatory between REM and consciousness where you know you’re sleeping but you can’t wake up. The drag of the aluminum on the pavement is as painful as nails … Read More
By Trennesia Jackson Fall 2012 Kaplan Award Winner “Bzzzzzzzzzzzz” “Mommy the cookies! I think their done” As my mom opens the gargantuan black machine I once thought was a time machine, but now know it as the oven, and pulls out the sheet of golden brown chocolate chip cookies, my stomach begins to leap with … Read More
By Bo Johnson Fall 2012 Kaplan Award Winner With patience and hard work dreams do come true. This mantra still rang with truth and optimism when I was in eighth grade, thirteen, and in love. I had woken up from a marvelous dream, one of those dreams where waking stings like a pistol whip. In … Read More
By Zachary Kirshbaum Fall 2012 Kaplan Award Winner “We might,” my mother said with difficulty, half glancing at my father, who was sitting in his usual chair across the room. My brother looked over at me, perhaps expecting some reaction to base his own off of after hearing the near confirmation of my parents’ divorce. … Read More