What would you be willing to do to get back to your significant other after twenty years of separation? In Epic: The Musical, Odysseus, King of Ithaca, discovers exactly how far he is willing to go to return home to his wife. Epic is based […]
“If Santa isn’t real, what else have you lied to me about? The Easter Bunny? What about the Tooth Fairy?” These were the words that ten-year-old me screamed at my parents in the middle of the meat section of a H-E-B. For clarification, H-E-B is […]
Come Lord Jesus, be our gue- wait, no that’s meal time… Now I lay me down to- is that too childish? Should I be past impersonal memorized prayers? I mean, I feel like everyone just talks now. I should be praying like everyone else… Heyyyy […]
It’s no wonder Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department resonates with a writer like me. For years, faithful Swifties have been acknowledging Taylor Swift as a poet. Lyrics from her two pandemic albums, Folklore and Evermore, captivated not just her usual audience but many sworn-never-to-become-Swifties, […]
“When you are young they assume you know nothing.” – Taylor Swift I know that 20 isn’t old. I know that most people perceive me as a teenager. I know that I probably won’t be viewed as a real adult until I’m closer to 30. […]
How wonderful a state of consciousness is. An aspect of every living being – the proof of our humanity. Throughout history, it has been a pillar upon which we can strive. Work can only be properly done with proceeding slumber. There could be no change […]
Why is it that artists since the dawn of recorded civilization have constructed their works upon the archetype of the dreamer and the dream? Let us define “dream” not only as an ideal which rules our passions and pleasures—a synonym for “aspiration”—but as an epitome […]
Have you ever been asked what you like to do in your free time? Did you ever respond with reading and get snarky remarks such as “Oh I never read. I don’t remember the last time I read a book, maybe it was in high […]
Sigma Tau Delta’s Convention was an extraordinary experience! I had the pleasure of traveling to another state to listen to other students’ enlightening facts and opinions on well-known and not-so-well-known literature. Over the course of three educationally enlightening days, those students covered topics on their […]
Memorial Library recently hosted a book club session featuring The Book Thief. After attending and having an interesting conversation about the unique omniscient narrator in this story, I was reminded of a paper I wrote for College Writing I. In this piece, I was supposed […]
Mr. Richard Blanco is a former engineer turned poet and has found great success. He received both his undergraduate degree as well as his MFA in creative writing from Florida International University and has gone on to publish five successful collections of poetry including Looking […]
This is the time of year for reflection. The sun-soaked, breeze-cooled April evenings are punctured with carilloning birds and the scent of burgeoning lilacs. These expectant days, teetering on the verge of tulips and triumph, always seemed ideal for meditation on renewal and redemption. The […]
About the piece: I wrote this piece for my Advanced Writing class as a sophomore in college. I really loved the Warriors Cats books as a child, and still love them today, so I chose them as my topic. It was a really challenging piece […]
About the Piece: “Walls” was originally a poem called “A Hill in Vernon,” but I wanted to try and see if I could write it as prose, while still keeping the flow and lyricism. This piece is about my childhood home in Vernon Hills, a […]
Rating 4.75/5 If you’re looking for (and I’m sure you are) an American adventure novel that will keep your wheels turning months after reading it, look no further. Amor Towles becomes a third-time author with this brand new novel The Lincoln Highway. His first two […]
Enjoy this stunning performance of Brahms’s Requiem on YouTube. Rest. Isn’t that something we could all use more of? As college students, how often do we fall into the trap of being harried and stressed to the last degree; forgetting to engage joyfully in our […]
Ruth Kennedy is a Junior English major and theater minor. This essay, written for her Advanced Writing class this January 2022, features a reflection on a memory from her first year in college. The image cover of this article was taken by her on that […]
It goes without saying that A Christmas Carol is a beloved holiday classic. It’s set on repeat year after year in the form of movies, stage performances, and the like. However, I’ve come to realize that there are obscurities about the novel and author that […]
A year ago, I was going through an identity crisis. I was only a semester and a half away from graduation, and the pressure to have a plan for what comes next was getting to me. More than this simple question, I had to consider […]
On Monday, October 4th I was working in the Writing Center covering a shift for Maida Jaspersen while she attended the annual Red Eye Film Festival for which she collaborated on the creation of a film. Since I was working for her and was therefore […]
Rating: 4.5/5 If you need a book that will make you feel emotional, this is the book for you. Girl in Pieces deals with difficult topics such as depression, self-harm, addiction, and human trafficking. Although the topics are somewhat upsetting and might cause the reader […]
Author’s Commentary: In Spring 2021, I took Reading as Writers Across Media. One exercise we did was imitation writing, where we looked at books we had read throughout the semester and tried to imitate an author’s work. I was drawn to the unique segmented format […]
“‘Hateful day when I received life!’ I exclaimed in agony. ‘Accursed creator! Why did you form a monster so hideous that even you turned from me in disgust? God, in pity, made man beautiful and alluring, after his own image; but my form is a […]
Between bites of very-late-night tepid ramen, in an attempt to escape my never-ending internal to-do list, I’ve been reading a lot of Mary Oliver’s poetry. Her work is a comfort object akin to warm milk, and I prefer my belly to be full of it. […]
After Inkwell’s Release Party in September, Hannah Dosch was able to catch up with former Managing Editor, Sydney Kappel. 1) How has English shaped your view of the world? I think that English, if anything, is a good exercise in empathy. I think reading works […]
Thursday, September 16th, was truly a night to remember for Sigma Tau Delta. This national honor society is dedicated to students who are passionate about the English language, literature, and writing. We were itching to move beyond our four walls and find our first linguistical […]
Within the span of two weeks (or so), a talented group of Bethany students collaborate to create an original show: Theatre Physics. The short preparation time and experimental nature of the skits set the performance apart from most shows that Bethany’s theatre department puts on. […]
Sandra Oh, Nana Mensah, and Holland Taylor in The Chair. Eliza Morse/Netflix The Chair, Netflix’s new original TV drama-comedy, has been a topic of debate since its recent August release. The show centers around Dr. Ji-Yoon Kim (played by Sandra Oh) the newly established chair of the […]
When was the last time a craft book was on the New York Times Bestseller list? Not sure, apart from George Saunders’ A Swim in a Pond in the Rain (2021). The book takes several classic Russian short stories and considers them from a writer’s […]
This past spring, we sat down with Kaci Schneidawind to talk about her work featured in the spring 2020 issue of Inkwell. 1. Both of your published pieces in Inkwell are creative nonfiction essays. What draws you to writing in this genre? I had never […]
This piece was written about a game Gabe attended in 2019, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Naturally we feel rather nostalgic reading it today. *** MINNEAPOLIS–Ra-Ding! Ra-ding! My friend and I scan our tickets to enter Target Field’s right field plaza, security watching closely, greeters […]
This is a question I ask myself sometimes; What is my yield? If you are interested in writing, it is a helpful question. What do I have to say and what do I have to offer? I ask this often when I write, but it […]
When I was a little boy, my babysitter claimed that even when I was three, four years old I loved to just draw and would sit at the kitchen table and draw all the time. I didn’t think I did it more than other kids, but she said […]
Proksch’s Pretzels: An Oral History by Hannah Bockoven Professor Nicholas Proksch’s office is underneath the Chapel. He teaches Religion courses at Bethany Lutheran College and often walks to get to campus to get work done, even on Sunday afternoons, and preaches for Chapel. On a […]
Falling Off Angie Johnson Grandpa’s in bed. One leg lies soft across the sheets and three of his toes hang ash-black from his foot like lumps of coal and he dares me to touch one. I am eleven. Grandmother slaps away my outstretched hand and […]
No fairytale princess is as memorable as beautiful Snow White. Gail Carson Levine, however, does not portray blood-red lips and pale white skin as beautiful as the tales would let you believe. No, in her novel Fairest, Levine casts her Snow White figure, Maid Aza, […]
All I knew about Nick Kaminsky before I met him was that he was a history professor and author, so I imagined him as an older man with grey hair, glasses, wider build and a low voice, a very stale personality and quite possibly a […]
Unlike many students involved in plays and musicals, I began Oklahoma! as a complete theater novice. While others were brimming with excitement to audition for their desired parts, I was content to test out the waters of musical theater. Due to my friends’ enthusiasm for […]
When I was asked by The Well to reflect on my experiences as a published author, the timing of the request was quite interesting. The immediately preceding e-mail letter in my in-box was an editor’s acceptance letter and contract for a two-part article that I […]
Candace Black entered, relishing the opportunity to encourage others to write. She faced a room of eager students at Bethany Lutheran College on a Tuesday night. Wearing a sea blue shirt and dangling necklace, Candace discussed how her life experience has molded her most recent […]