Agave Review

The seventh print issue of Agave Review, the Claremont Colleges' literary magazine, is live online! 💊 It features work by Rossana Leal, Mikaela Kimpton, Josie Marriner, Aleah Hayes, SMT, Libby Harris, Aiden Trulove, Thaleia Fourli, Lillian Aff, Cecelia Blum, Patrick Lewis, Juliette Jeffers, Reia Li, Saru Potturi, Derek Talbott, Mustajab Farrukh, Carolyn Coyne, Isabel Li, Kendall Packman, Cynthia Li, fia meng, Louis Burns, Valerie Braylovskiy, Frey Lemonholm, Simone Flournoy, Jessica Wang, Jessica Yim, Ashley Cheng, Sasha Leonard, Elsa Runquist, and Jeremy Martin.

Read it here: https://issuu.com/5cagavereview/docs/sp22_online_1_ 🎃

See more work at agave-review.com.

Heat rush to the face. A pinkening of the cheeks. The feeling tingling at the back of your head. This fall, Agave Review invites you to submit literature or artwork that engages with the experience of FLUSH–whether it be through that familiar sense of self-consciousness, the growth of a new season, or even the sound of your morning routine.

We invite you to submit work exploring this theme, but we are also accepting general submissions!

Submissions for our Fall 2022 issue are due November 17th! ❤️❣️♥️

Graphic by Vanessa Ho

🌿DEADLINE EXTENDED🌿

We’ve extended our staff application deadline to midnight PT on September 30th!

As a reminder, we are taking applicants for the positions of Editor, Layout Designer, Graphics Designer, Treasurer, Social Media Editor, Web Editor, Interviews Editor, and Newsletter Editor.

Apply through the link in our bio!

Are you a lover of all things literary? Alternatively, do you identify more as an art enthusiast? Or perhaps do you constantly find yourself obsessing over Agave Review’s lovely Website and Social Media?

No matter your interests, there is a place for you on the Agave Review staff. This fall, we are taking applicants for the positions of Editor, Layout Designer, Graphics Designer, Treasurer, Social Media Editor, Web Editor, Interviews Editor, and Newsletter Editor.

Apply now through the QR Code or the link in our bio! Applications close midnight PT on Wednesday, September 28th.

“Retrans My Body” by Andie Sheridan (PO ’21). Spring 2021 issue.

Andie Sheridan (Pomona '21) is a Chinese-American genderqueer poet exploring trans rebirth as well as transracial adoption in creating new worlds, new bodies, new words.

See more work at agave-review.com.

“panes” by Hayley Pierpont (SC ’22). Spring 2020 issue.

See more work at agave-review.com.

An excerpt of “Food Chain” by Krystal Yang (PO ’23). Fall 2021 issue.

See more work at agave-review.com.

“Regenerate, Renew” by Jessica Yim (SC ’25) 🥛 Spring 2022 pieces are going up now!

Acrylic paint.

Artist Statement: Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable.

Jessica (SC '25) is from Sacramento, California. She enjoys painting, digital art, sculpture, and exploring the feeling of discomfort

See more work at agave-review.com.

“mousetraps” by Jessica Wang (PZ ’22) 🔨 Spring 2022 pieces are going up now!

Jessica Wang is a Pitzer College senior majoring in English and Theatre. She is struggling.

Artwork by Golda Grais

See more work at agave-review.com.

In honor of April being National Poetry Month, we previously asked you all to submit some of your favorite lines of poetry! As the month drew to a close yesterday, we've decided to share some of our favorite submissions in a post. 🦋🍀✨

with Leah Rivera (PO ’23), Managing Editor 🐛

🌟 Pick: The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi
🗺 Discovered Through: “I came across an interview with Akwaeke Emezi my senior year of high school and was captivated by the way they talked about literature. ‘The Death of Vivek Oji’ has been on my reading list since then, and I just got my hands on a copy over winter break.”
💌 What’s to Love: “The depth of emotion that Emezi manages to pack into so few pages is astounding. The prose are full of love, care, and community. And even though the climatic event is revealed in the title, before you’ve even started the book, the narrative manages to keep you on the edge of your seat until the end.”
💭 Standout Portion: “Some people can’t see softness without wanting to hurt it” or “He was so beautiful that he made the air around him dull”

We are excited to announce that Agave Review now has a Spotify! Up first, our staff has compiled a playlist of our favorite songs from this April. Listen to the playlist with the link in our bio!! 🎶

Playlist Cover by Golda Grais.

An excerpt of “The Pond” by Owen Hoffsten (PO ’22). Spring 2021 issue.

Owen Hoffsten (Pomona '22) is new to writing.

See more work at agave-review.com.

“The Eyes Which See Reality” by Jessica Yim (SC ’25) 📌 Spring 2022 pieces are going up now!

Acrylic and digital painting.

Artist Statement: Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable.

Jessica (SC '25) is from Sacramento, California. She enjoys painting, digital art, sculpture, and exploring the feeling of discomfort.

See more work at agave-review.com.

Thank you for coming out to our Found Poetry Workshop at Walker Flea Market! We wanted to share some of the work that emerged from the workshop (as well as a photo of one of our Editors working the event!) 🪩🫧💜

with Becky Zhang (PO ’22.5), Editor-in-Chief 🐙

🌟 Pick: “True” by Solange
🗺 Discovered Through: “I first encountered Solange’s 2012 EP “True” in the KSPC digital library a couple springs ago.”
💌 What’s to Love: “Dev Hynes co-produced it under Terrible Records following Solange’s decision to leave Interscope and pursue an independent label instead. The songs stand out against her more recent work, though they’re equally good: they’re livelier, more rockish, and better to dance to, deftly layering timbres and vocals equal parts heavenly, funky, and soulful. Solange confesses heartbreak, disillusionment, and regret with both wisdom and naivete, and with a clarity that only looking backwards can grant. She narrates love’s pangs and revelations not as isolated events but quotidian, and hence almost even more painful, inflections.”
💭 Standout Portion: “Come for the catchy, everyday sadness of 'Losing You,' stay for absolutely everything else.”

Today, 4-6pm @ Walker Flea Market in collaboration with EcoReps! If you’ve ever struggled with starting your own poem, or have been in a creative rut and need to relax before finals, this workshop is for you!! See you there 🍃

*DATE CHANGE* to 4/24 6-7 at the Hive!

Join Agave Review in a Portraiture Workshop led by three of our editors! At this time, 🌟12 spots🌟 are left—sign up using the QR code or the link in our bio.

“Self Portrait” by Sophie Fron (SC ’22). Spring 2020 issue.

See more work at agave-review.com.

“Daily Contortions” by Juliette Jeffers (PZ ’22) 🐁 Spring 2022 pieces are going up now!

Juliette is a student at Pitzer College and is majoring in Creative Writing.

See more work at agave-review.com.

Carolyn Tung (CMC ’24) interviewed writer, playwright, and critic Sheila Heti on psychics and her newest novel, PURE COLOUR, for our spring issue.

"She was like, 'It's three jewels, three parts, and each part is very different from each other part, and it gets consecutively stranger. That's what they’re supposed to be and that's okay.'"

Image Source: The Guardian

Read the rest of the interview here: https://agave-review.com/sheila-heti

with Kate Jones (PO ’24), Editor 🧃

🌟 Pick: “You & A Bike & A Road” by Eleanor Davis
🗺 Discovered Through: “I first encountered Davis in 2021 after being recommended her (absolutely brilliant) graphic novel “The Hard Tomorrow” by a local bookstore; I checked out “You & A Bike & A Road” from the Honnold Mudd library earlier this semester!”
💌 What’s to Love: “It’s a sketchbook documentation of Davis’ brutal solo bike trip from Arizona to Georgia, a trip she takes as part of an ongoing battle with depression. The result is meditative and magical: Davis shares her loneliness and love, victory and defeat, in equal measure. In simple pencil drawings of the strangers she meets on the road, or the flowers she sees while crossing state lines, the book is a testament to human connection, kindness, and the power of paying close attention.”
💭 Standout Portion: “There’s a moment towards the middle of the book, where you turn the page to find that Davis has crested a hill. It’s a double-page spread of her staring out at empty scrubland and open horizon; the only text on the page is an elongated speech bubble — “ha ha ha ha ha” — with her panting breath. It’s a visual feat that’s equal parts stunning and lonely; reaching it feels like biking up that hill yourself.”

“UNTITLED” by Meghan Rose (SC ’21). Spring 2020 issue.

See more work at agave-review.com.

“another” by Isabel Li (SC ’25) 👤 Spring 2022 pieces are going up now!

Isabel (SC ‘25) is a writer, artist, and musician studying at Scripps. When she’s not actively brainstorming ideas for her next poem, you can find her sculpting, worldbuilding, or indulging in romantic-era string quartets.

See more work at agave-review.com.

with Emma Grigorian (PO ’24), Editor 🦔

🌟 Pick: “Beach Read” by Emily Henry
🗺 Discovered Through: “I got it from my friend Kate (who is also an editor at Agave!) for Christmas and I read it in one sitting.”
💌 What’s to Love: “I’m an unashamed lover of romance novels, so I was really excited to read this book in the first place; once I started, I was so wonderfully surprised by all the layers in this book—Henry’s writing about grief and learning to become a whole person again after losing someone you love is beautiful, and adds so much depth to the story. I highly recommend!”
💭 Standout Portion: “I wasn't sure what, if anything, I believed about the afterlife, but I thought about time and imagined flattening it out so that every moment in this space became one. I could almost hear his voice. I could almost feel him touching my shoulder.”

“beleaguered by sickness” by Ipifus Ipifio (PO ’22). Spring 2021 issue.

Ipifus (Pomona '22) is polarity, caught between opposing forces. All perceived through Ipifus is dual—one and one, thus two.

See more work at agave-review.com.

“Woman on Toilet” by Elsa Runquist (SC ’22) 🧻 Spring 2022 pieces are going up now!

Oil paint on canvas.

Elsa is a Biology major and Art minor (Scripps '22).

See more work at agave-review.com.

Our first interview of this Spring, “Collisions at the Crossroads: How Place and Mobility Make Race,” an interview with Dr. Genevieve Carpio (PO ’05) by Sunny Jeong-Eimer (PO ’25), is on our website now!

https://www.agave-review.com/dr-genevieve-carpio.html

Image source: UCLA Academia

“Prowl” by Patrick Lewis (PO ’23) 🌲Spring 2022 pieces are going up now!

Patrick is a third-year math major at Pomona who should really be doing homework instead of writing poems, but can't help himself sometimes!

See more work at agave-review.com.