College Student Writing 2011

Vol. 3, No. 6

In this issue readers will find four personal essays on growing up Mennonite by Goshen College students and a selection of poems from a first year student at Notre Dame University. Also included is a review of the critically-acclaimed drama “The Lamentable Tragedie of Scott Walker,” written by Doug Reed (Goshen College alum 1990), currently in its second run in Madison, Wisconsin.

In this issue:

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From the Guest Editor

by Sara Wakefield

The idea for a journal issue devoted to writing by Mennonite college students grew out of Ann Hostetler’s Mennonite Literature class at Goshen College in the spring of 2011. During the course Ann challenged her students to gather a selection of writing in multiple genres from students studying at Mennonite colleges or otherwise associated with the Mennonite Church. Among a variety of submissions, the present group of vivid comic essays stood out to the student editors as a group. At the end of the semester we chose to feature this quartet of essays on Mennonite childhood along with Vienna Wagner’s …
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Even Gandhi Threw Rocks

by Phil Weaver-Stoesz

When you’re growing up, the thing about water guns is that everyone has one. Then there’s that one kid who has way too many water guns, and all the latest models – your parents get nervous when he comes over. And there’s the kid whose parents wouldn’t let him have water guns. That was me. I was raised in a pacifist, Mennonite home. I had to borrow from the kid who had too many, which often meant I ended up with the broken little pistol that wouldn’t fire anyway. Needless to say, I got martyred a lot those days.

The …
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The Bunny Murder

by Kate Stoltzfus

I can clearly remember the moment I turned into a murderer.

I was eleven years old and the bunny was named Mouse, after her size. She was no more than a week old when we found her, with eyes yet to see the world. She fit in the palm of my hand.

We had the family dog, Taffy, to thank for our woodland pet. She would've eaten Mouse had we not intervened. I'd been walking Taffy in our backyard on a spring day too cold for the ten-plus minutes it took her to pee. Our backyard was a full apple …
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Junk Food Conversion

by Sarah Rich

I grew up in one of those college-professor neighborhoods where all of the professors' kids run around half-clothed, pretending to be the Boxcar children, while their parents get together to grill bratwursts and talk about quantum mechanics. My friend Emma, whose dad taught philosophy, lived across the Manchester college soccer field from me. My dad taught math. In the summer, my brother Joey and I would run across the field barefoot to play with Emma almost every day.

When I was eight or nine, Emma's dad built a clubhouse inside the hydrangea bush at the edge of her lawn. It …
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Sixteen Pacifist Goblins

by Annie Martens

“Eliiijah,” I whined, “Can I play?”

“You don’t know how to play.”

“Yes I do!” I exclaimed, then qualified, “Well, I can learn, at least.”

“Fiiiine," he sighed, making it obvious that I was disturbing his idyllic solo game.

He opened the battered grey box, and began explaining the pieces, “Okay, Dungeons and Dragons is a roleplaying game, so the first thing you have to do is make your character. Roll this die for your ability scores.”

I started rolling on the baby-pink tile of our living room floor while my brother added up the rolls for me—apparently he thought …
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Two Poems

by Vienna Wagner

The poem, "Esther," published here, won a special merit award in The Kenyon Review's Patricia Grodd poetry contest.
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Review of The Lamentable Tragedie of Scott Walker by Doug Reed

by James C. Juhnke

Based on attendance at the drama September 2 and an interview with the playwright September 4, 2011.