There was no order. Invitations—spoons—were left in Susanne Miller’s office for any curious party. The menu consisted of Quiche, Chicken Wings and Peeps. The more than 20 students who showed up weren’t sure what was in store for the night—sometimes even the event organizers weren’t sure. In other words, the March 31 celebration of Coffee Spoons in O’Shaughnessy Performance Space was quintessential Creative Writing Department. Coffee Spoons, the little loved online literary magazine, was started as a direct response to Glyph. One of its founders, Brandon Brown, views it as a place where all students, regardless of majors, can get their work out there for the world to see. But, in the magazine’s short existence, very few have paid attention. “It’s been hard this semester,” he said, citing the hectic schedule of the typical SFUAD student and a lack of a solid marketing plan. Regardless, Brown, Melinda Freudenberger, Marina Woollven, Amaya Garza and Serafima Fedorova, the Coffee Spoons staff, continue working. Each staff member wears many hats; between proofing, publishing, web design, event planning and peer editing, everyone does everything. “A lot of frazzled meetings,” Freudenberger admits. The Coffee Spoons event was meant to get more people talking about the magazine, but for Brown, it was mostly about bringing people together. “The whole deal is to get people in a room talking,” he said. “Maybe I’m a sap, but that’s how I feel.” Freudenberger agreed. “There is a sense of secrecy in the writing department,” she said. “Which is unnecessary. Other majors don’t have that fear.” No one at the event had that fear. Attendees were given a physical handmade copy of The Coffee Spoon, a collection of the first two issues from the website, and many gave readings. Writing majors Andrew Koss and Charles Simon, with...

SFUAD Creative Writing major Marina Woollven recently won third place in Playboy Magazine’s annual fiction writing contest. Jackalope presents Woollven’s award-winning story. “How long has it been?” Anna asked. “Since you last saw George?” They were at the pool because they had no place else to be on a Saturday. Anna worked on the weekdays to fill her time but for Marcy, the housewife, every day was a Saturday. Long and empty, begging for the time to be filled. She was glad that for today, she could fill that time by sinking and gliding into deep cool water, instead of vacuuming the same carpet and dusting the same shelves for the fifth time in a week, or sitting on the couch and watching sitcom reruns until she could recite the lines. “Seven months,” Marcy said, slow and firm. She hadn’t trusted herself to say it. Out in the air, did it sound bitter? If it did, Anna didn’t notice, or pretended to not care. “That’s a long time, hun.” It was, wasn’t it? Seven months since George went to ‘find himself,’ as if having a midlife crisis when he had barely finished College. Maybe that was harsh, but he married her and three months later, left her beautiful face with a beautiful house and no one to appreciate either. He wanted to go to Alabama, of all places. Not Ireland. Not England. Not even New York. Fucking Alabama. “Just the boys. Old times. You understand, right?” he had said. She was young. Only twenty-two. She didn’t want to fight when George had given her everything… even everything came from his inheritance instead of his career, like other men. Still, she was grateful. “It’s fine,” she’d told him. The lonely bride even believed it for...

Marina Woollven, a Creative Writing junior from Texas, recently won third place in Playboy Magazine’s annual College Fiction Contest. Playboy has long had a prestigious reputation for publishing short stories by some of the most notable authors of our time, and it is an honor to have Woollven’s work recognized out of the thousands of submissions for the contest. Jackalope Magazine sat down with Marina to discuss her winning story, “Atlas,” and her life as a writer.   Jackalope Magazine: Please tell us a little bit about yourself. Marina Woollven: I’m from San Antonio, Texas. My interests are TV, lots of TV! I’m a huge TV junkie! I like TV series much more than movies but I do love movies. I dabble in photography. Sometimes I draw. I collect dolls, so that’s a thing!   JM: Why did you want to become a writer? MW: I’ve always been fascinated and addicted to storytelling. I just felt that I had things to say. I love to read, and I wanted to put something out there. I’m very grateful I chose this path.   JM: Could you tell us about the story that you won third place with in the Playboy College Writing Competition? MW: It’s called “Atlas”, and essentially it’s a sci-fi piece set in the future and it focuses on this very young housewife named Marcy, and she’s recently married but her husband has just decided to go on a trip for six months. So, she’s getting lonely, and she ends up purchasing a very human-like robot that she calls Atlas, and the story is kind of focusing on the relationship, but really, it’s about the human desire to not feel alone and the different ways in which we fulfill that.   JM: How did it feel when...