What inspired you to write “Inseparable”? My inspiration for Inseparable is the loss of my mother and father so close together just prior to Covid. They stay on my mind constantly, and I’m sure they […]
Category: 2022 Edition
Inseparable
by Elias Bailey Above you, father, a video montage is displaying the most joyful and carefree moments of your life before we met. Wonderful images of you as a little boy playing with your siblings, […]
Some Questions for Edernis Adames
What inspired you to write “Breaking the Mold”? Breaking the Mold was actually an assignment for English 101. We were asked to write a narrative about the turning points in our academic careers. I chose […]
Breaking the Mold
by Edernis Adames The lopsided desk wobbled as I took a seat. My legs barely fit under it. I moved my arm to reveal the etchings that covered the wooden top of the desk, one […]
Some Questions for Viviana Peña
What inspired you to write “The Birth”? I was inspired to write “The Birth” by an experience I had during labor. I realized while writing this story how deep the wounds were from my experience, […]
The Birth
by Viviana Peña It was time for Francesca to push, she felt exhausted from being poked and prodded. The repeated questions from the nurse about how she was feeling made her anxious. She wished she […]
Some Questions for Arben Alovic
What inspired you to “Cherry Blossoms”? Call me a sucker for a love poem? In all reality, I’m really not a love poet. I can’t say I ever have been, but I wanted to capture […]
Some Questions for Alicia Evans
What inspired you to write “Love in Quarantine”? During COVID I thought about what happens now to the couples that were living as roommates. Now they are forced to spend time together, to speak to […]
Some Questions for Angelica I. Ayala
What inspired you to write “Sunlight”? My mental health journey inspired me to create this poem. With my partner by my side, it has definitely given me the motivation to step into sunlight instead of […]
Some Questions for Clare Kenefick
What inspired you to write “Polarized Politics”? I have been writing more poems again in the past year or so and I am the only one who usually gets to see them. One of my […]
Some Questions for Kiara Byrd
What inspired you to write “Blank”? I wrote this piece for my ENG271 course this semester, my Professor Carrie Conners thought that the poetry my class wrote at that point was really good and that […]
Some Questions for Marlin Muñoz
What inspired you to write “Song for My Beloved”? What inspired me to write the poem that was submitted in The Lit in Spring 2022 was the original poem of Diane Di Prima “Song for […]
Some Questions for Michael Ferrin
What inspired you to write “Paradise”? I had spent some time thinking about my relationship with my father, I guess more specifically, the relationship my siblings and I have with my father. It is a […]
Some Questions for Özgür Peksen-Saccone
What inspired you to write “One Suitcase, Two Languages”? For ENG 101 I was a student of Prof. Tara Coleman. She introduced me to the writer Amy Tan. We read one of her stories, “Mother […]
Some Questions for Samantha Morgan
What inspired you to write “My First Funeral is Yours”? It was maybe my second or third Creative Writing class, which I’m currently taking at LaGuardia, when my professor asked that we “Write what we […]
Editors’ Introduction
As we worked on the Spring 2022 Issue for The Lit, the world outside kept inundating us. At the start of the semester, we were still living under COVID, and at some point we had […]
2022 Masthead Viviana Peña Viviana served as co-editor in chief for The Lit. She is a single mother of two born and raised in New York City. She’s a full-time Creative Writing […]
El Loco
by Ethan Velez No one could tell you where El Loco came from. El Loco didn’t know himself and he never spoke a word. Some said he was not human, that his voice was stolen. […]
Love in Quarantine
by Alicia Evans Charles is already on the front lawn when Michelle arrives. He hands her the noise maker that they use during their New Year’s celebration. At exactly seven o’clock they join their neighbors […]
Letting Go
by Stephanie Barrera Moran Stephanie Barrera Moran is a Liberal Arts: Social Science and Humanities major at LaGuardia Community College. Her self portrait includes linocut printmaking and the use of acrylic paint. She’s using flowers […]
Statue of Transition
by Maria Clara Perez Maria Clara Perez is Fine Arts student at LaGuardia Community College from Venezuela, who moved 3 years ago and is still experiencing the unlimited beauty of New York while expressing her […]
Art Work
by blessing kalu wilson blessing kalu wilson is an art student of LaGuardia Community College. This is their first published art work.
Self Portrait
by Lhakpa Doma Some Questions for Lhakpa Doma What inspired you to create “Self Portrait”? This is a self portrait which represents my religion, my ambition, and my personal nature. In the picture the flower […]
Deprecandi
by Jeffrey Quinde Some Questions For Jeffrey Quinde What inspired you to create “Deprecandi”? One of my biggest flaws as a person is to sabotage myself with any opportunity given to me. I want to […]
BLACK LIVES MATTER PROTEST, JUNE 2, 2020. (BROOKLYN, NEW YORK)
by Andrea Murguia Dajbura Some Questions for Andrea Murguia Dajbura What inspired you to create “Black Lives Matter Protest, June 2, 2020, Brooklyn, NY”? I wouldn’t say that I created it. I just took a […]
Paradise
by Michael Ferrin I call “shotgun” as soon as I step into the early evening. The others groan, but they know the rules: everyone has to be outside, you have to see the car, no […]
One Suitcase, Two Languages
by Özgür Peksen-Saccone The sounds of my footsteps were mixing with my luggage wheel’s sound in the airport. The first colors of the day were playing with my shadow in the long corridors I had […]
My First Funeral is Yours
by Samantha Morgan I can’t take my eyes off your body. I don’t mean to stare, but you look so… dead. And you are, but I’m still learning this. This is all very new to […]
Cherry Blossoms
by Arben Alovic sweet soft spring breezes blow i’m lost in your waving hair as the trees awaken in colors of pink, white, green the beginning of my love i lay on this blanket beside […]
Blank
by Kiara Byrd —after Audre Lorde’s “Coping” I have been drowning for days nothingness fills my brain a small sphere of knowledge entered the void. A small hummingbird in my window is singing […]
Song For My Beloved
by Marlin Muñoz —after Diane Di Prima My love when you make your way to me if you’re lucky you’ll find a book filled with unread pages not quite one […]
Everywhere
by YUI And I hear your name, Whispered, In the wind, Gently makes its way, Through these spring trees; I’m sure I’ll never forget you. And I feel you, In the heat of this sun, […]
Sunlight
by Angelica I. Ayala Months of cold hail and wind, slicing. My world was an icy cave with no light or warmth where hope gathered in droplets only to freeze. A trembling man enters like […]
Polarized Politics
by Clare Kenefick Those in black cloaks make silly jokes Of the possible pains of poverty, Sky tribes use sky miles for far as the eye can see Right or wrong their own rights never […]
Mind & Soul
by Morgan Beck the mind and soul twists and contorts, into shapes not even god could newly dictate. such an abomination, the choked wheeze beckons for salvation and pleas turned demands are unheard. tight-lipped with […]
Interview with Victoria Buitron
VICTORIA BUITRON is a writer and translator whose work delves into the intersections of identity and place, family history, and the moments her hippocampus refuses to forget. A BODY ACROSS TWO HEMISPHERES, which narrates her […]
Interview with Christopher Gonzalez
CHRISTOPHER GONZALEZ is a queer Puerto Rican writer living in New York. His collection, I’M NOT HUNGRY BUT I COULD EAT, follows the lives of messy and hunger-fueled bisexual Puerto Rican men who strive to […]
Interview with Ricardo Alberto Maldonado
RICARDO ALBERTO MALDONADO was born and raised in Puerto Rico. He is the co-editor of Puerto Rico en mi corazón and the recipient of fellowships from Cantomundo, the New York Foundation for the Arts, and […]
