Introduction: 

The Humanities demonstrate what is important to us as individuals and as a community. We believe that both creative and scholarly writing showcase a wide variety of issues and perspectives that can enable us to see through someone else’s eyes. When we communicate ideas through writing, we communicate not only with those who read it, but with ourselves as well. Writing teaches us compassion, empathy, and strength. It is for these reasons we say ‘writing matters,’ and we hope that as you read through this anthology of student achievement, you will agree.

We have organized the Creative Writing side of this anthology based on the themes in each work. The Scholarly Writing side is organized based on the subfields of English Studies. This means that some authors have multiple pieces in a row, and some do not. We asked each author to write a short bio for themselves, which we hope will bring a sense of personality to each piece.

The Humanities as a whole teach us the valuable skills of empathizing and connecting with others. By nurturing both these skills and our creative imagination, we also nurture an essential part of ourselves. Writing matters. It is the way we communicate, the way we learn, and the way we live. We hope Understory 2020 can display the blood, sweat, and tears that went into this anthology, but also the heart, soul, and love that essentially is the nature of these works.

Megan Medo and Charlene Ducut

Student Editors

From the Faculty Advisors and Project Liaisons:

We are pleased to be a part of bringing you the fourth edition—and largest to date!—of Understory: An Annual Anthology of Achievement, which includes work from across English Studies, including creative work, personal narratives based in scholarship, and undergraduate research in literature, rhetoric, and linguistics. This has only been possible through the continuing support of our colleagues in the Department of English and the commitment of our student editors and the members of their editorial team, and we wish to thank them for their assistance in making sure we have the opportunity to showcase the success of our students.

It is always important to highlight our students’ successes, but that is especially the case in times like these, when the value of the Humanities is openly doubted by some in the public sphere.  We are pleased to provide so many examples of the ways that our students are delving into the questions of what it is that makes us human.

Professors David Bowie and Ronald Spatz

To access the online version of Understory, scan this QR code.