A joint publication between English majors and faculty, the journal embodies the interdisciplinary nature of the Department of English at Samford University. It provides a venue for all Samford students, faculty, and staff to publish their best critical and creative work.
Literature and film continually reimagine an ever-changing world, and through our research we discover our relationships to those art forms and the cultures they manifest. Publishing one issue each semester, Wide Angle serves as a conduit for the expression and critique of that imagination. A joint publication between English majors and faculty, the journal embodies the interdisciplinary nature of the Department of English at Samford University. It provides a venue for undergraduate research, an opportunity for English majors to gain experience in the business of editing and publishing, and a forum for all students, faculty, and staff to publish their best work. As a wide-angle lens captures a broad field of vision, this journal expands its focus to include critical and creative works, namely academic essays, book and film reviews, and commentaries, as well as original poetry, short fiction and non-fiction, short films, and screenplays.
Current Issue
Literature
Abigail Aho
“Drowning in the Sensuous Sea: Lesbian Identity in Kate Chopin’s Female Protagonists”
Claire Davis
“Paddock and Parcae: The Folk Traditions of Witches in Shakespeare’s Macbeth”
Carol Graffeo
“Walden Pond and the Ganges River: A Postcolonial Understanding of Thoreau’s Walden”
Celena Hathaway
“Understanding the Female Soldier’s Experience in Soldier Girls Through Feminist Institutionalism and Feminist Post-Structuralist Discourse Analysis”
Film
Will Carlisle
“Depression and Governance in Citizen Kane”
Colby Gilley
“The Third Man and Rashomon: The Triumph of the Individual in a Post-War World”
Katie-Bryn Hubbard
“Hollywood’s Pink Age: A Critical Review of J.E. Smyth’s Nobody’s Girl Friday”
Emma Pugh
“Art is Long and Life is Short: A reading of Score in Polanski’s The Pianist”
Julianne Smith
“Double Indemnity: The Femme Fatale and Gender in Postwar America”
Creative Writing - Poetry
Abigail Aho
“Daisy Buchanan”
“Fool’s Spring”
Bradyn Debysingh
“Ode for a Fed-Up Classicist”
Jillian A. Fantin
“Iphigenia”
“They're going to make you one of them."
Adeline Lee Frierson
“I Love You My Sister”
Abigail Hawkins
“To Tiny, Sticky-Fingered Hands”
Abby Olive
“The Crossover”
“From the Kitchen Window”
Griffin Schou
“Man in the Mountain”
Jordan Shoop
“Affected”
“Afterpiece”
Lacey Spear
“Trafficked.”
Joy Wilkoff
“Hot Mess”
Creative Writing - Short Fiction
Lucy Martin
“Frog Girl”
“Mary”
“Spotify”
Abby Olive
“The Climb Up”
Julie Steward
“The Man in 24D”
Creative Writing - Screenplay
Emily Youree
“The Fête”
From the Editors’ Desks - Special Series: The Digital Humanities
Brice Boyer
“Digital Humanities: Reviving Classical Storytelling as Seen in Life is Strange”
Parker Gilley
“‘Westward, Westward’: The Western Journey of Epic Literature”
Andre’A Roper
“Displacement of Black Identity Caused by the Dissolution of Home in Beloved”
Ethan Sanders
“A Brief History of Film Narrative and Technology: From Advent to Sound”
Emily Thorington
“Turbulent Emotions, Turbulent Places: Charting Correlations between Cathy and Landscapes in Wuthering Heights”
Contributors
Abigail Aho
Abigail Aho is a senior University Fellow double-majoring in Secondary Education and English. When not teaching, reading, or writing, she enjoys participating in color guard and baking.
Brice Boyer
Brice Boyer is a junior University Fellow and a Psychology and English double-major with a concentration in Creative Writing. When he is not serving as Creative Writing Editor on Wide Angle, Brice enjoys reading, writing, playing piano, and spending time with his friends. He looks forward to this year’s issue of Wide Angle and the end of the coronavirus era.
Will Carlisle
Will Carlisle is currently pursuing a bachelor’s degree in English and Creative Writing at Samford University. A native of Birmingham, Will spends much of his time writing, as well as composing and producing music alongside other artists and friends.
Claire Davis
Claire Davis is a Samford alumna studying English literature for her MA/PhD at the University of Arizona. Her focus is currently classical reception within medieval texts, though she also enjoys studying film, Modern poetry, and the hummingbird nesting outside her window.
Bradyn Debysingh
Bradyn Debysingh is a junior University Fellow from Oregon studying Musical Theatre and Classics at Samford. When not tap dancing or speaking Latin, he enjoys walking with friends, traveling in books or planes, and consuming vast quantities of tea. Soli Deo Gloria.
Jillian Fantin
Jillian Fantin is a senior English and Political Science double-major. She will be pursuing an MFA in Creative Writing with a focus in Poetry at the University of Notre Dame in the fall. She loves Haruki Murakami, fashion history, antique photographs, and always blaming everything on Aphrodite.
Adeline Lee Frierson
Adeline Lee Frierson is a sophomore from Athens, Georgia, studying English. She hopes to pursue the publication field and become an editor.
Colby Gilley
Colby Gilley will graduate from Samford University this spring with a Classics major and a Philosophy minor. He will then be forced to determine how best to use them.
Parker Gilley
Parker Gilley is a junior University Fellow from Molino, FL, studying Philosophy, Classics, and English (not necessarily in any order). His favorite word is “mellifluous,” though he has never managed to use it organically in a spoken sentence. When he is not reading the Divine Comedy, watching Ratatouille, or listening to Chet Baker, he is conspiring ways to convince Wendell Berry to bless him with a double portion of the literary agrarian spirit.
Carol Graffeo
Carol Graffeo is a senior English and Religious Studies double-major from Huntsville, Alabama. She enjoys transcendentalist literature, teatime conversations, and all things Notre Dame, where she will attend law school in the fall.
Celena Hathaway
Celena Hathaway is a native of Lubbock, Texas, and moved to Birmingham in the summer of 2017 after serving eight years in the U.S. Navy, which was the inspiration for her essay. She will graduate in May 2020 with a B.S.E. in Secondary Education and a B.A. in English.
Abigail Hawkins
Abigail Hawkins is a senior double-majoring in Secondary Education and English. She plans to teach English at a secondary school in Birmingham and loves the outdoors, campfires, and leading worship at Antioch Community Church.
Katie-Bryn Hubbard
Katie-Bryn Hubbard got her English degree (with a Film Studies concentration, of course) from Samford in 2018. Now she works as a video editor for Meredith and spends most of her free time re-watching her favorite Coen brothers’ movies.
Lucy Martin
Lucy Martin is a junior from Alpharetta, Georgia, studying Marketing and Writing. She is highly inspired by Jon Brion’s work in Lady Bird and hopes to continue writing with or without a prompt.
Abby Olive
Abby Olive is a senior from Charlotte, NC. In the fall, she will pursue her M.A. in English at UNCC and has accepted a position as a graduate assistant. If not in the annex, you can find her searching for a sunny spot, giving a campus tour, or cheering for her seventh- and eighth-grade friends on the sidelines of a Homewood middle school sporting event.
Emma Pugh
Emma Pugh is a senior from Birmingham, AL, studying English and Political Science. She is particularly interested in how the two disciplines intersect. In her free time, she enjoys long walks and good coffee.
Andre'A Roper
Andre'A Roper is a junior Micah Fellow from Charleston, SC, studying English with a Writing minor and Creative Writing Concentration. She aspires to be an editor, professor, or U.S. diplomat who uses literature to advocate for marginalized, overlooked, and misrepresented communities. In addition to serving on Wide Angle, she interns with the Birmingham Education Foundation as a Communications Fellow.
Ethan Sanders
Ethan Sanders is a senior University Fellow studying English with a concentration in Film Studies and a minor in Film Production. In his free time, he enjoys watching films and reading fiction.
Griffin Schou
Griffin Schou is a Journalism and Mass Communications major at Samford University. He is from Birmingham, Alabama, and his career goal is to become a best-selling author.
Jordan Shoop
Jordan Shoop is a junior majoring in English with a Creative Writing concentration and a Writing minor. When not writing poetry, he is usually consuming cups of coffee and intensely analyzing poetry by Adrienne Rich, Frank O’Hara, Margaret Atwood, and Audre Lorde.
Julianne Smith
Julianne Smith is a senior from Anniston, AL, studying Journalism & Mass Communication with a concentration in Public Relations and a minor in Film Production. She is passionate about film and photography and hopes to combine these interests with her studies in communication.
Lacey Spear
Lacey Spear is a sophomore from Lowndesboro, AL, studying English, Creative Writing, and Spanish. She also plays on the Samford softball team. Lacey plans to pursue a career as a Spanish literature professor.
Dr. Julie Steward
Dr. Julie Steward is Professor of English and Director of Creative Writing at Samford University. This story was inspired by a prompt her students used in a fiction writing class.
Emily Thorington
Emily Thorington is the Managing Editor of Wide Angle and a senior double-majoring in English and History. Along with working on the journal and her senior theses, she enjoys spring in Birmingham, Sigma Tau Delta’s Teatime on Thursday, and laughing with fellow English majors. Her favorite trees on campus include the one west of the library where the sidewalk forks to Ben Brown, and the new tree on the Quad in front of Russell Hall that she helped plant as part of the Samford SHADE initiative.
Emily Youree
Emily Youree is a 2019 Samford alumna currently studying Middle English literature in the PhD program at UNC Chapel Hill. When not sequestered in the library with Chaucer, she enjoys visiting new coffee shops and herb gardening.
Sarah Joy Wilkoff
Sarah Joy Wilkoff recently finished pursuing a BA in English with a Creative Writing concentration as well as a minor in German, and hopes to find a job as soon as companies start hiring again after COVID-19 subsides. She enjoys embroidery, painting, and (much like the main characters in Oscar Wilde’s The Importance is Being Earnest) is often busy bunburying.
Guidelines
Submissions will be accepted from all Samford students, faculty, and staff. Publication of any and all submissions is up to the discretion of the Wide Angle editorial staff. Upon acceptance of submission, the contributor will be required to sign a copyright waiver prior to publication. All written submissions must follow current MLA style guidelines and be free of any grammatical errors. All submissions must be anonymous.
Critical Essays
Ranging from 2,500-9,000 words, essays can be written within any critical framework as long as they are grounded in a literary or cinematic subject. The manuscript must be accompanied by an abstract.
Reviews and Commentaries
- Reviews of recently released novels, short stories, poetry collections, scholarly works, and anthologies. Reviews should be around 1,000 words.
- Commentaries on recent literature- related events (poetry readings, poetry competitions, plays, author readings, conferences, lectures) or other topics in print culture. Commentaries should be around 1000 words.
- Reviews of recently released films, DVDs/BluRays, and scholarly works pertaining to cinema. Reviews should be around 1,000 words.
- Commentaries on such subjects as: local film-related events/topics (Sidewalk and Snapshot film festivals, repertory and independent screenings at The Alabama Theater and The Edge, etc), national/international film-related events (the Academy Awards, Sundance and Cannes film festivals, conferences, etc.) or other topics in film culture. Commentaries should be around 1,000 words.
Short Film
- Short films must be original and should not exceed 10 minutes in length.
- Short films should be submitted as .mov or as another format compressed into a .zip file.
Poetry
- Submissions may consist of one to three poems.
- All poems must be contained in one Word document. Each poem must be formatted on its own page with a title for each poem. Include explanatory or contextualizing comments if necessary.
Prose
- Prose may be short fiction or creative non-fiction.
- Submissions should not exceed thirty pages.
Screenplays
Submissions should be no shorter than ten pages and no longer than ninety pages.
Staff
Emily Thorington, Managing Editor
Emily is the Managing Editor of Wide Angle and a senior double-majoring in English and History. Along with working on the journal and her senior theses, she enjoys spring in Birmingham, Sigma Tau Delta’s Teatime on Thursday, and laughing with fellow English majors. Her favorite trees on campus include the one west of the library where the sidewalk forks to Ben Brown, and the new tree on the Quad in front of Russell Hall that she helped plant as part of the Samford SHADE initiative.
Andre’A Roper, Assistant Managing Editor
Andre'A is a junior Micah Fellow from Charleston, SC, studying English with a Writing minor and Creative Writing Concentration. She aspires to be an editor, professor, or U.S. diplomat who uses literature to advocate for marginalized, overlooked, and misrepresented communities. In addition to serving on Wide Angle, she interns with the Birmingham Education Foundation as a Communications Fellow.
Parker Gilley, Literature Editor
Parker is a junior University Fellow from Molino, FL, studying Philosophy, Classics, and English (not necessarily in any order). His favorite word is “mellifluous,” though he has never managed to use it organically in a spoken sentence. When he is not reading the Divine Comedy, watching Ratatouille, or listening to Chet Baker, he is conspiring ways to convince Wendell Berry to bless him with a double portion of the literary agrarian spirit.
Ethan Sanders, Film Editor
Ethan is a senior University Fellow studying English with a concentration in Film Studies and a minor in Film Production. In his free time, he enjoys watching films and reading fiction.
Brice Boyer, Creative Writing Editor
Brice is a junior University Fellow and a Psychology and English double-major with a concentration in Creative Writing. When he is not serving as Creative Writing Editor on Wide Angle, Brice enjoys reading, writing, playing piano, and spending time with his friends. He looks forward to this year’s issue of Wide Angle and the end of the coronavirus era.
Dr. Geoff Wright - General Editor
Dr. Wright serves as faculty sponsor for Wide Angle. He specializes in American literature and film since 1900. He coordinates the Film Studies concentration in the English major and is faculty sponsor for the SU Film Club.
Mosaic
Past Issues
Cover Art Gallery
Volume 9
Heart with Strings of Steel
Artist: Abby Olive
Abby Olive is a senior from Charlotte, NC. In the fall, she will pursue her M.A. in English at UNCC and has accepted a position as a graduate assistant.
Volume 8, Issue 2
Elgol
Artist: Hannah Warrick, Managing Editor, Wide Angle
Hannah Warrick is a senior University Fellow studying English and Fine Arts at Samford University.
Volume 8, Issue 1
The Postman
Artist: Joe Cory, Associate Professor of Art, Samford University
Joe Cory is a visual artist and an Associate Professor in the Department of Art and Design. He also serves as the Director of the School of the Arts new Catalyst Program, and as a Faculty Fellow in Samford's Center for the Worship and the Arts.
