Aurora: Home

Our 2025 issue is here!

A Note from the Editors

Dear Readers,

These past years have marked a change in our literary magazine’s history. In response to the evolving needs of our readers, the Aurora has entered the digital landscape. On the Davis & Elkins College Library’s website, you will find the new site for our beloved literary magazine. Here, you can browse our archives from past Aurora editions, view the current Aurora edition, find information on our magazine’s history and staff, and more.

Through many challenges—the pandemic, the loss of beloved professor and advisor Bill King, and challenges at home and in our country at large—the spirit of Aurora has persevered through the students of D&E who come together to support, uplift, and encourage creativity and literary conversation. We would like to thank you for your support. It is you, the reader, who drives this magazine. When you turn these pages, you will not simply find individual contributions to the Aurora. Rather, you will be captivated by a narrative that blends the voices, experiences, and emotions of every artist within these pages. 

When you set an issue of Aurora down, we hope you will feel empowered and inspired, which truly reflects the Aurora's mission.

Sincerely,

The Editors

The 2025 issue of Aurora is here!
Thank you to all the D&E students, faculty, and staff who submitted, and to the Aurora Club Editors who designed a stellar magazine! 
Missed our launch party? You can pick up a copy in Albert Hall—just visit the third floor little free library, or see Professor Tammarine.
Keep an eye out for our next meeting in September, when we'll start planning for the 2026 issue.
 

Mark your calendars for these exciting literary events:

October 23, 2025 at 7PM: Aurora BKWW Open Mic

As part of Bill King Writers Week, Aurora will host an open mic in the Ice House. Come ready to read your creative work (poems, short stories, essays, and songs all welcome!), share your favorite poems by Dr. Bill King, or just to listen to some good words.

October 22, 2025 at 7PM: Visiting Writer Reading: Sherrie Flick

Sherrie Flick, is the author of the novel Reconsidering Happiness and two short story collections: Whiskey, Etc. and Thank Your Lucky Stars. As this year's Bill King Writers Week Visiting Writer, in collaboration with West Virginia Wesleyan College, she will give a reading and Q&A in the Senate Commons. Please join us!

April 29, 2025 at 4:30PM: Aurora Launch Party 
Come celebrate the new issue with us! At this spring's end-of-year English Picnic, we'll have snacks, games, and copies of the new Aurora issue. We'll also announce the winners of the Aurora fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and visual art prizes, followed by a reading from our winners.

March 24, 2025 at 12PM: Aurora Showcase Open Mic 
As part of the D&E English Showcase, Aurora will host an open mic in the Senate Commons. Come ready to share your work (or your favorite work by someone else), as well as snacks and good conversation. 

October 23, 2024 at 7PM: Aurora BKWW Open Mic 
As part of Bill King Writer's Week, Aurora will host an open mic in the Ice House. Come ready to read your favorite poems by Bill King, your own creative work, or just to listen to some good words.

Stitched Together by a Common Thread: Reflections After the 2019 Issue of Aurora

Every year, students email us their photography, art, poetry, and creative writing, influenced by their experiences, their thoughts, and their feelings. Everyone's experience is unique, as is everyone's perspective, so it is truly stunning when we, as editors, find patterns in the submissions we receive. In the 2019 Aurora, many patterns are illuminated, and below, we have outlined the common threads lacing this year's magazine together. 

Women in Appalachia       

Many of our poetry submissions feature women--strong women, oppressed women, broken women--but casting its shadowy figure over these female characters is the great Appalachian Mountains. In the following poems, our authors express the effects of Appalachian life on our people, especially females. 

"If These Mountains Could Speak" by Megan Carder 

"Untruth" by Cassidy Connor 

"Growing Women in Appalachia" by Samantha Kirk 

"Legacy Lost" by Cassidy Connor 

And below are submissions that feature women in various lights:

"How Daddy Got me to Help Out" by Samantha Kirk 

"Of Their Bone" by Jamey Perrine 

"How to be the Perfect Daughter" by Alexis Smith 

"Who Stole Your Voice?" by Megan Carder

Aaliyah by Jakeya Perrin 

"Writing Letters at Bible School" by Cassidy Connor 

MMA by Jakeya Perrin

"Herself" by Ester Bolmenaes 

"Some Lessons in 'Plus'" by Jamey Perrine 

"Journals of an Angry Woman" by Ester Bolmenaes 

"Persephone and her Flower" by Bayli Rhodes

"Song of the Goddesses" by Bayli Rhodes 

Allegheny Mountain View by Julianna Singleton 

Political and Social Issues 

While it is true that we each experience the world differently, the issues we face as a country--due to race, gender, and other factors--affect everyone. This year's magazine highlights some of the most pressing matters that have bludgeoned our country in the past and, even now, bleed into today's society. 

"Paying off Cancer" by Alexis Smith 

"What Do You Remember?" by Bill King 

"Spirits" by Lauren Tydings 

"What Makes Us?" by Joshua Thompson 

"Blue" by Ester Bolmenaes

"How to be the Perfect Daughter" by Alexis Smith 

"I Was Born a Unicorn" by Everton Carvalho  

Expressing the effects of our experiences through art is not only cathartic for ourselves, but is healing for those with whom we share our art.  By submitting to the Aurora, you can help weave the thread that stitches the D&E community together. Check out the 2019 Aurora either by visiting our "Archives" tab or by finding a copy in the campus library or English lounge.