As the year rolls to an end, we couldn’t be more thrilled to have had such a great term for The Garden Statuary. Again and again we were delighted, awed and challenged by our peers’ submissions. Out of the 43 poetic, 20 prose, 12 multimedia and 52 academic pieces we received, it was no easy feat to choose our final selections; we thank everyone who submitted their work, and extend congratulations to all our contributors who have been published! Below you’ll find a little more about each of our lovely contributors, as well as a little gushing from us about what we loved most about their piece.
Hana Kovar is a fourth-year undergrad majoring in English Literature and Art History, with a special interest in postmodernism. She likes live music, watching movies at The Rio Theater, and spending a whole day at the beach with her friends.
Her academic essay ““Thus conscience does make cowards of us all”: Deleuze’s Societies of Control and the Desire for Autonomy in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead” has a clear, concise argument with a strong analysis and solid explanations of metatheatricality.
Audrey Kruger is a first-year aspiring History honours and Anthropology double major student. When she is not listening to Lana Del Rey and adding to her “life inspo” Pinterest board, Audrey enjoys gushing to her roommates about fun facts she learned in her archeology class. At the end of the day, Audrey winds down by moving the collection of unwashed dishes to her room to keep the rest of the apartment aesthetic.
Her academic essay “The importance of music in David Chariandy’s Brother to Black identity and notably, the vitality of ownership in determining music’s significance” contains a unique voice with a careful and thoughtful analysis. It’s no easy feat to write an essay that engages a non-academic reader, or one unfamiliar with the source material, and Audrey did this with skill.
Stella Xia is a first-year prospective Cognitive Systems major. She’s “graduated licensing” on Substack and is on a mission to accurately appraise the human condition and her place in it. She also likes going on runs!
Her “love poem” is a series of short poems that captivated us with its strong characterization and incredible density of specific, resonant moments in time. Not to mention, it was an absolute delight to listen to live at our launch party!
Annabel Smith is a first-year intended English Literature major. She specializes in Joni Mitchell’s discography and writing 2000-word papers in one sitting the night before they’re due.
The alternate POVs of her prose work, “Malcolm’s Things“, are deftly crafted, and the narrative flows with the ease of the nostalgic memory that this story evokes.
Hana Dekker is a third-year English Literature major with a minor in German. When not escaping into one of the three books she is reading at any given time, she can be found crocheting or at a cafe ordering a London Fog.
Her photograph “Three Sisters of Glencoe” is a breathtaking composition of the beautiful Scottish landscape.
Katy Lau is in her fifth year of majoring in English Literature and Language and minoring in Law and Society. Despite enjoying her years of masquerading as an AMNE student, she is looking forward to graduating and spending more time with her grouchy old cat. In her spare time, she is a video game completionist and enjoyer of mediocre web novels.
Her academic essay “Overreaching Animals: Hateful Hybridity in Spenser’s The Faerie Queene” greatly impressed us with its exploration into dragon hybrity and period-appropriate understandings of animality.
Annie Wang is a first-year Arts student hoping to major in English Literature and Creative Writing. She is an avid Mary Oliver, Pochacco, and tomato soup enthusiast, though not necessarily in that (or any) order. You’ll usually find her up late at night, hunched over her keyboard and tearing her hair out over her current WIP—but there’s nothing she’d rather be doing, after all.
Her prose work “Like All Storms Do” gave us a warm and fuzzy feeling inside with its open ending, atmospheric writing, and deft characterization.
Nicolás Serrano de la Paz or Nico is a third year, majoring in Computer Science but moving in different directions. Constantly looking for ways to combine art, community-building, and social + climate justice, they exert their energy in filmmaking, acting, writing, and (over)thinking. They are always grateful when an opportunity to slow down presents itself.
Their poetry “Sostén esto por mí (Hold this for me)” is a beautifully crafted, self-translated love poem. Thoughtful, warm, and intensely evocative of love’s tiniest intimacies, their poem is stunning in two different languages.