The Best Fiction and Poetry from CSUN: 1962-1988 The Best Fiction and Poetry from California State University, Northridge: 1962-1988 Edited by Warren Wedin CONTENTS 20 September 1995 Historical Introduction The Best(1988) Warren Wedin Sierra Tower Photo and the Kennedy Assassination The Best(1995) Warren Wedin FICTION Thursday's Child Eclipse(1962) Price Hicks The Dollar Bill Eclipse(1964) Michael Burrs Planes, Ships, and People Eclipse(1966) Hugo Luis Stanchi Mady Lou A Bao A Qu(1973) Carol Stager The Victim Angel's Flight(1978) Donna Beckman The Day We Glued the Birdbath Angel's Flight(1980) Carol Stager Digging to China Angel's Flight(1982) David Lipton The End of the Pier Angel's Flight(1982) Amy Reynolds One Evening in Winter Northridge Review(1983) Scott Memmer Trust Northridge Review(1983) Mona Houghton On Leave Northridge Review(1985) Wes Hempel The Burning Monk Northridge Review(1986) Mark Mann http://www.csun.edu/~hceng029/thebest/bestcontents.html[7/12/2012 1:24:02 PM] The Best Fiction and Poetry from CSUN: 1962-1988 Flying Northridge Review(1987) Judy Duke You Are Here Northridge Review(1987) Amy Gonzales Paris in '73 Northridge Review(1988) Grant Cogswell Trapped in the Heart Northridge Review(1988) Mona Houghton POETRY White Man's Magic Eclipse(1962) Larry Travis Supplication Eclipse(1963) June Demetry Vaudeville Eclipse(1963) S. T. Clendenning The Length of Insight Eclipse(1965) Paul Thomas Autumn Farewell (Athens, Oct. 1963) Eclipse(1965) Lewis Kruglick With Tea and Lemons Eclipse(1966) Helen Sorrells Invitation Engraved on Sunlight Eclipse(1966) Helen Sorrells It Is Reason Enough Eclipse(1966) Lewis Kruglick Winter Solstice at St. Paul de Vence Eclipse(1966) Lewis Kruglick "At 5:30 P.M. Will Be a Re-Enactment" Eclipse(1966) Robin Johnson Lea's Poet Eclipse(1967) Gayle Gray Candy Man Eclipse(1967) Annette Kanter Home Eclipse(1968) David W. Jackson Colors Eclipse(1968) G. Guss Unfinished Plays Artifax(1971) Rose Shade For the Year Artifax(1971) Keith Brown A Rite of Spring Artifax(1971) Rose Shade Puritan Woman Artifax(1971) Rose Shade Depressions of a Two-World Lady Artifax(1971) Carole Beck Sunspot Artifax(1971) http://www.csun.edu/~hceng029/thebest/bestcontents.html[7/12/2012 1:24:02 PM] The Best Fiction and Poetry from CSUN: 1962-1988 Martin Levy The Injured Slopes Artifax(1971) Sheldon White Canyon Fever Artifax(1972) Carole Beck Early Winter Artifax(1972) Chris Cannady Fisherman's Wharf Artifax(1972) Chris Cannady Images All Of It(1972) Robb Dow Game with Variations All Of It(1972) Nancy Shiffrin Too Many Dancers Artifax(1973) Sheldon White The Animal Artifax(1973) Margaret Bratcher My Father A Bao A Qu(1973) Diane Hannum After the Sparrow Fell Angel's Flight(1976) Rachel Sherwood Hardening Angel's Flight(1976) Martin Levy I Loved Him One Night Angel's Flight(1976) Royce Kaplan Hacker's Complaint to Blind Hugh of Onan Angel's Flight(1977) Terry Phillips His Vision Angel's Flight(1978) Richard Rosing Birds, Frogs, Hogs, You, Me Angel's Flight(1978) Carol Stager Wedding Night Angel's Flight(1978) David Trinidad Premonition Angel's Flight(1978) Rachel Sherwood Without Title (II) from Li Shang-Yin Angel's Flight(1979) Gary Routh Waiting Angel's Flight(1979) Sharon Smith Mysteries of Afternoon and Evening Angel's Flight(1979) Rachel Sherwood Baci Baci Baci Angel's Flight(1979) Rachel Sherwood Scholar Angel's Flight(1979) David Trinidad Soliloquy Angel's Flight(1979) Linda Haffey The Woman About to Be Sawed in Half Angel's Flight(1980) Greg Boyd Leaning into Curves Angel's Flight(1980) Keith Brown Laughter of a Drunk Angel's Flight(1980) http://www.csun.edu/~hceng029/thebest/bestcontents.html[7/12/2012 1:24:02 PM] The Best Fiction and Poetry from CSUN: 1962-1988 Martin Levy Protégée Angel's Flight(1980) Frances Wolf Walton's Thumb Angel's Flight(1980) Terence Martin The World in the Evening Angel's Flight(1980) Rachel Sherwood 3 A.M. Angel's Flight(1980) Donna Beckman 6 A.M. Angel's Flight(1981) Donna Beckman The Drowning Angel's Flight(1981) Jodi Johnson The History of Cocoa Angel's Flight(1982) Charles Hood The Missing Person Angel's Flight(1982) Amy Reynolds The Visit Angel's Flight(1982) Margaret Lavin Pier Angel's Flight(1982) Bridget O'Mara A Mother's Death Northridge Review(1983) Jodi Johnson Grandma Turns 93 Northridge Review(1983) Mike Lawson A Plantation Legend Northridge Review(1983) Ricardo Means-Ybarra Rafael Northridge Review(1983) Ricardo Means-Ybarra A Boy Whose Hands Were a Language Northridge Review(1983) Nicholas Campbell White Cat Hit by a Car Northridge Review(1983) Jodi Johnson Still December Maryland Northridge Review(1984) Ron Pronk Hiking in the Grand Canyon Northridge Review(1984) Jodi Johnson #1 Northridge Review(1984) Ricardo Means-Ybarra Class Notes:Intro to Physical Anthropology Northridge Review(1984) Cathy Comenas Follansbee Northridge Review(1984) Nicholas Campbell The Masked Ball Northridge Review(1984) Greg Boyd Grandma's Purse Northridge Review(1985) Doug Lawrence Janene Sixteen Northridge Review(1985) Cathy Comenas Divorce Northridge Review(1985) Marlene Pearson Beautiful Men I've Known Northridge Review(1985) http://www.csun.edu/~hceng029/thebest/bestcontents.html[7/12/2012 1:24:02 PM] The Best Fiction and Poetry from CSUN: 1962-1988 Laura Webster I Am Asking You to Trust My Memory-Wheel Northridge Review(1985) Jordan Jones El Monte, California Northridge Review(1985) Wes Hempel Strike III Northridge Review(1986) Brian Skinner With My Family on Memorial Day Northridge Review(1986) Wes Hempel In Bed Northridge Review(1986) Jodi Johnson After the Divorce Northridge Review(1986) Ricardo Means-Ybarra Eulogy for a Space Shuttle Northridge Review(1986) Virginia Webster Orange Bags on the Freeway Northridge Review(1986) Marlene Pearson Woods from the Trees Northridge Review(1987) Nicholas Campbell A Winter Scarecrow Northridge Review(1987) Nicholas Campbell At the Nursery Northridge Review(1987) Margaret Ritchie Pears Northridge Review(1987) Suzanne Ghiglia Clan Northridge Review(1987) Mary Harris Meat Northridge Review(1988) Patti Scheibel Mari's Backyard Northridge Review(1988) Cathy Comenas Summer School Northridge Review(1988) Nicholas Campbell Love Poem Northridge Review(1988) Jennifer Wolfe Submersion Northridge Review(1988) Patti Scheibel The White Temple Northridge Review(1988) Jennifer Wolfe Passing Away Northridge Review(1988) Herman Fong Miles Away, to My Friend Northridge Review(1988) Herman Fong Back to the beginning of Contents forThe Best Fiction and Poetry from CSUN. Back to the English Department homepage. Back to the CSUN home page. Send questions or comments to: http://www.csun.edu/~hceng029/thebest/bestcontents.html[7/12/2012 1:24:02 PM] Historical Introduction Historical Introduction This book is dedicated to all writers who seek to transmute the daily bread of their experience into the radiant body of art. All the following stories and poems were written by students at San Fernando Valley State College and California State University, Northridge, and all were published in various literary magazines edited and produced by students on this campus. The works appearing in this special collection, drawn from thirty-six separate publications, were selected for their excellence by an editorial board of creative writing teachers in the CSUN English Department. This anthology, covering the period from 1962 to 1988, presents a literary portrait of people who live, study, and work in Southern California, an unfolding emotional panorama of their attitudes and concerns. Though the works appear in chronological order, they have been arranged to suggest certain dramatic sequences or clusters of ideas and images about our experiences during the past twenty-six years with family, friends, and lovers in the San Fernando Valley and its environs. Arranged in this fashion--with each individual work expressing a dramatic or ironic reaction to the preceding work--these poems and stories tell a larger story about how it feels to live and hurt and love in our complex urban and suburban world, about how it was then, about how it is now. If some of these works look nostalgically to other times or places, they nonetheless speak with a voice that we come to recognize as our own, a literary voice that echoes our own past and present. The first literary magazine appeared on this campus during the spring of 1962, four years after the official opening of the campus in the fall of 1958. Dr. Wallace Graves, the faculty advisor to the magazine, told me that at the time it was college policy for the names of all official publications to reflect the school's "sun" motif: the newspaper was called The Daily Sundial , and the yearbook was called Sunburst . In order to conform to this "sun campus" policy, the new literary magazine was called Eclipse. It ran for seven issues, one each spring through 1968. From the fall of 1968 through the fall of 1970, sunny Valley State--along with much of the country--experienced racial, political, and social turmoil. There were no literary magazines during this period of intense emotional disruption when creative energies were more likely to find expression in political action. In 1971, as the situation on campus drifted back toward the status quo, two students in the English Department started Artifax, a new literary magazine constructed from the pieces of the defunct Eclipse. These editors produced four issues of Artifax (May 1971, October 1971, March 1972, and March 1973). In July of 1972 San Fernando Valley State College, also reconstructed, officially became California State University, Northridge. During this transitional period, students of the English Council, with partial support from Associated Students, produced two short-lived literary magazines, the aesthetically eclectic All Of It (Summer-Fall 1972) and A Bao A Qu (Fall 1973), named after a mythical Malayan being "sensitive to the many shades of the human soul." These separate efforts led to the founding in 1975 of Angel's Flight , a literary magazine fully supported by Associated Students and produced and edited by students in the English Department.