UBC's Undergraduate English Journal
Brian and Priya were the last to step off the bus, both on shaky legs from sitting so long. They had left early in the morning so the sun was high in the sky by now, beating down on them both. Brian fanned himself with his faded baseball cap.
“This is the camp?” he asked, slinging his bag over his shoulder […]
I’ve never been in love, yet you seem so familiar
I’m scared I’ve said too much, I’ve never opened up
I know it’s weird, cause we just met, but there’s something about you
I’d like to hold your hand and kiss your cheek beneath a summer moon
Zayn Malik tells Harry, “Look, she’s the only thing
that got me through the touring years, and now
I have to be with her.” Zayn Malik calls me a tempting
animal. Zayn Malik knows he had the best voice […]
There I am, ripped overalls and parted bangs, digging under the hazel tree out back.
I’m planting teeth. Two baby teeth came out in an apple that morning, milk white in the browning fruit. My tongue fits perfectly into the soft space the teeth vacated and it tastes like that chainlink fence we pressed our tongues to last winter […]
Wizened red cedar siding fades
into neighbourhood at the end of my laneway
as subtle as a home after a house-wrecking party.
I walk through decades of tiny moments with
my eye only on his basement window […]
My aunt sits by the river and feeds honey and flowers to the spirits. She makes a painting of a water goddess and tells me, Aspire to holy compassion. She gives me a sequined flag, a feather boa, and some dark red beads. When I am fifteen she says, You are very very old and, Wait for love, it is coming and you’ll recognize it […]
I’ve written about “my people” before
and then I’ve heard them call back “your people?”
Who now gave you our voices? You lived in a home
made of foreign paper with foreign walls […]
I was supposed to stand still
You were supposed to leave me alone.
I didn’t even breathe as you crawled over my feet and knees
I kept my eyes wide open […]
Functioning as microcosms of society’s social inequalities, schools often mirror social norms and ideologies, providing a significant context in which children begin to form and understand gender identities. The complex cultural arena of this “hidden curriculum” is portrayed in Alex Mino’s George, wherein the protagonist struggles to find a means to express her identity as a transgender girl […]
pick up
your roots run while there’s
still time they’re coming
hungry armed with axes […]
About Our Contributors Cameron Bullen is a Biology student in his fourth year at UBC. His recent decision to add a minor in English Literature represents his desire to combine his passion for nature and his love of books. When not struggling to learn a new academic formatting style, he can probably be found somewhere outside. Emma Coffin
“Touch #1” and “Vanitas 4/10” Visual Art by Sophia Murray (click to enlarge images) Vanitas is a 17th century Dutch genre of still life painting that served as a memento mori. I wanted to build on and offer my own interpretation of this traditional genre through a series of prints. I explored the idea of mark-making
Sound Years Fiction by Charmaine Anne Li Josquin fell awake when the music ended. The needle lifted and he lifted his eyes. He glanced out the window: nothing. Yawning, Josquin proceeded to perform his checks: navigation, oxygen levels, fuel, artificial air pressure and gravity. He looked at what little data the MatScan had picked up in
Please Don’t Tell My Mother I Wrote This Poem Poem by Keagan Perlette My mother’s father fathered six but fathering wasn’t his strong suit so when my mother had three she loved us double to make up for the six loves that my mother’s father lost, and for the time my mother’s sister shat under my
