Author: El Portal
-
Harbor Station
February Web Feature by Blake Kilgore I’d been at Harbor Station for three months when I took my first injection of U4. Our family was poor, nearly starving. So when the recruiters came, I knew somebody had to go, and told Mama I’d be the one. She was afraid, though, knew all the rumors about…
-
Burning Building
January Web Feature by Hailey Gore Hailey Gore received her bachelor’s degrees in Psychology and criminal justice from ENMU. She is now a graduate student obtaining her master’s degree in counseling. After Easter, Hailey hopes to obtain a doctoral degree in psychology and a law degree. Hailey has no formal training in poetic writing, but…
-
Shattered Stars
December Web Feature by Cody Wilhelm Cody Wilhelm is an English Major attending ENMU. Cody enjoys writing poems in his free time; his pieces attempt to capture universal human experiences and express intense emotional reactions to various interpersonal relationships. Cody is from Lubbock, Texas. Shattered Stars by Cody Wilhelm You are a galaxy. An infinite…
-
Rain in the Heart
November Web Feature by Richard Wirick Richard Wirick is the author of four books that have been translated into more than ten languages. One Hundred Siberian Postcards (2006), short memoir-fiction pieces, was a London Times notable Book for 2007 and nominated for a PEN/Bingham Award for best first work by an American writer. It was followed by another…
-
Joanna Fields: The Culling (Excerpt)
October Web Feature by Wolfren Davis Wolfren Davis, graduate of ENMU, was raised in beautiful Colorado amongst the colorful leaves of the abundant aspen trees. Despite all the fresh air and endless skyway, she spent all her time tucked into a dark corner with a good book. Her library teacher was heard saying she was…
-
ROSIE
September Web Feature by Frank Haberle Frank Haberle’s novel-in-stories, Shufflers, about minimum wage transients during the Reagan era, is now available from Flexible Press (https://www.flexiblepub.com/shufflers). His short stories have been featured in many journals including Rosie, featured here, in El Portal in 2015. Frank’s stories won awards from Pen Parentis (2011), Beautiful Loser Magazine (2017) the…
-
After Whiskey & Waiting For Their Arms to Get Tired (Double Feature)
August Web Feature by Jennifer Battisti After Whiskey by Jennifer Battisti After whiskey you tell me you’d like to be a part of my body and I wonder if my skin has been a hostel for you all this time. That maybe you were an element worked out of me, the sliver of graphite under…
-
-
Dead
April Web Feature by Carson Pytell Dead My heart breaks for you, who was so young when my name was often heard just outside the library doors, whose smile was a spotlight and voice a cotton load lifted but for that and some weekend laughter I was sometimes close enough to hear, the voice I’d…
-
Boundary Bound
March Web Feature – Ronald L. Grimes Boundary Bound Once, when I thought my days were numbered, I had a peculiar desire. Before I die, I want to walk around New Mexico exactly on the boundary. Circumambulating my home state would be an inane ritual. Maybe I would put on whiteface and wear a clown…
-
Warning
February Web Feature Warning –Emily Priddy “You know George is always messing with that engine,” Skinny said, taking a sip from a chipped white mug emblazoned with a green 4-H logo. “Cain’t leave well enou –” He froze mid-sentence. Hank looked at him. “You sure that’s just coffee in that mug, Skinny? Can’t leave well…
-
Fall 2020 ENMU Prize Winners
C O N G R A T S We would like to extend a very warm congratulations to our Fall 2020 ENMU winners!
-
-
Supreme Decisions
Supreme Decisions –Jim Piatt Promises, discarded, broken, lie beside other dusty laws of the past, trampled under the grime of ideology: Hopes, shattered lives thrown into the pit of Indifference born of greed…ignorance, untried principles: Compassion wilting in the darkness of shattered dreams, kindness melted into the fiscal indifference of our time, all under the…
-
THE TRUMPETER
July Web Feature THE TRUMPETER –John Grey No one noticed his brown eyes, receding hairline, or the goatee poking out of his chin. He was only ever the trumpet he played. On stage, that was understandable. His mouth was wide open and brass. His fingers, valve slides and buttons. But, even on the street, he…
-
Raging River & Rocks
June Web Features Photo: Raging River & Rocks – Michael Gardner Michael Gardner is a transfer student at ENMU, majoring in DFM and double minoring in Business and Theatre. He is originally from New England and hopes to work in the film industry directing, producing and screenwriting. He enjoys photography, reading, writing, traveling, visiting national…
-
The Ping Not Taken
May Web Feature The Ping Not Taken – Storey Clayton In 1998, the year I graduated high school, Gwyneth Paltrow starred in a movie called “Sliding Doors.” The basic premise of the film was to illustrate the momentous differences in one’s life that can hinge on a comparatively small matter of timing: e.g., making…
-
poems by Bridget Richardson
Cupide and his lyste of arwes or The path to my degree My first love forgot to love me back so I buried him and found another. My second love imagined he were a Russian spy – he faked his death. In good fashion, I pretended to mourn and moved on before he could resurface.…
El Portal Literary Journal 