(Re)Imagining the New Sierra Leone: Migration & the Complications of Return

Written by Anna Stowe, Hope College Creative Writing Major, and Student Managing Editor for the English Department Dr. Ernest Cole, John Dirk Werkman Professor of English, has taught at Hope College since 2008. His research focuses predominantly on post-apartheid South Africa as well as the intersection between the body and identity. His newest book, Migration …

Through the Veil: The Devil, Short Stories, and Writing as Activism

Written by Anna Stowe, Hope College Creative Writing Major, and Student Managing Editor for the English Department On April 1, the Schaap Auditorium filled with students, professors, and community members. Soft conversations drifted throughout the space, periodically broken by bursts of laughter, forming an eager audience for Ananda Lima and Roger Reeves. The auditorium lights …

 Facing the Self (and Beyond): An Interview with Dr. Susanna Childress

Written by Anna Stowe, Hope College Creative Writing Major, and Student Managing Editor for the English Department Dr. Susanna Childress, DuMez Associate Professor of English, has taught at Hope College since 2006. Since 2014, she has served as an advisor of Opus, the campus literary and arts magazine, and in 2017, she became the director …

Art as an Act of Protest: Visiting Writers Claudia Acevedo-Quiñones and DK Nnuro

Written by Candace Williams, Hope ’28 On the evening of February 17th, as snow blanketed campus, people filed into Schapp Auditorium. The rustling of coats and the stamping of boots obscured low conversations as the audience waited for the two Visiting Writers, both first-time visitors to Michigan. Claudia Acevedo-Quiñones was the first reader of the …

A Celebration of Investigative Poetry: Professor Gregory Rappleye’s Barley Child

Written by Anna Stowe, Hope College Creative Writing Major, and Student Managing Editor for the English Department Professor Gregory Rappleye, an adjunct professor in Hope College’s English Department, is soon to publish his fifth book of poetry, Barley Child, a testament to the history of Irish Americans fighting for place and identity. A mix of …

You’ve Got To Get Creative With Your Degree: Alumni Spotlight with Hannah Ford Warner (‘15)

Interviewed by Anna Stowe, Hope College Creative Writing Major, and Student Managing Editor for the English Department What do you do now? And we’d love to hear a bit about how you got there as well. After graduating from Hope in 2015, I got my MFA in creative writing (Fiction) from the University of South …

Winners Announced for the Hope College Academy of American Poets Prize

Congratulations to this year’s winners of the Hope College Academy of American Poets (AAP) Prize! First place was awarded to AnnaLeah Lacoss, and honorable mention to Candace Williams and Elsa Kim. This year 51worthy poems were submitted for the 2025 Hope College Academy of American Poets University and College Prize. Thank you to all who shared their creative …

Inspiration Is Everywhere: A Dog in the Sun and A Land Wrapped in Water

Written by Anna Stowe, Hope College Creative Writing Major and Student Managing Editor for the English Department It’s 7 pm on November 13. Dusk has etched its colors across the sky, grayish-purply blues gathering in the shadows. The first stars glisten in the sky, soon to be obscured by dense cloud cover and drumming rain. …