Category: Uncategorized
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Call for Submissions
It’s that time again! El Portal is currently accepting submissions for its Fall 2017 issue. Fiction, nonfiction, flash fiction, poetry, photography, and art are all welcome internationally. Simultaneous submissions are welcome. Deadline 11:59pm, March 31st. For Terms of Submission: Click Here For Submission Guidelines: Click Here The Spring 2017 issue is well on its way. Additionally, we…
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This is West – “The Masterpiece”
I had never heard of this man, this bewildering artist simply called Mikey as his nametag declared. Nevertheless, his exhibit garnered more attention than any other piece at the gallery. His space, nay, his stage, had a perpetual line of visitors awaiting their chance to experience his artistry. The curators of the event must have…
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Call for Submissions
It’s that time again! El Portal is currently accepting submissions for its Fall 2017 issue. Fiction, nonfiction, flash fiction, poetry, photography, and art are all welcome internationally. Simultaneous submissions are welcome. Deadline 11:59pm, March 31st. For Terms of Submission: Click Here For Submission Guidelines: Click Here The Spring 2017 issue is well on its way. Additionally, we…
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This is West – The Adventures of Toast Girl
I found Jeanie playing hacky-sack with a circle of friends outside the theater building before school started and asked her to walk with me. “This is going to be strange, and kind of embarrassing, but I have to tell you something,” I said as we walked. “Claudia, you can tell me anything,” Jeanie said, concerned.…
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This is West – A Breath
Darren knew the moment he opened his eyes that it was too early to be awake. Pale light illuminated the dusty blinds, but did nothing to combat the morning darkness. The old radio beside the bed pronounced the time in blue: 5:47 a.m. For a moment he stared up at the ceiling and took in…
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Welcome Back!
Another winter break has passed and El Portal is finally back in business for the Spring 2017 semester. As of January 1, we are now accepting submissions for our Fall 2017 issue and are pleased to announce that our Spring 2017 issue is well on its way with an exciting new lineup of talented writers…
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This is West – Stubborn Old Man
“You like coffee?” Catherine asked Curtis as he placed her medication on the kitchen counter. The kettle on the stove-top steamed. “Yes, with cream and sugar,” Curtis said, moving to the dining room table. Catherine frowned and heaped spoonfuls of beans into the grinder. “Abigail, please tell me you still drink your coffee like a…
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This is West – Guest Writer Steve Bellin-Oka
Still Life with the Plague of Darkness — for my daughter I woke this morning before dawn to find the nation’s hearts had hardened. Something stretched out its hand—a darkness so thick it felt like gauze. It seemed it would last for days. Even the pavement cracks were wider:…
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Fall 2016 Launch Party
For our local readers, El Portal is very pleased to announce its Fall 2016 launch party will be happening at 4pm on Wednesday, November 9th in the Jack Williamson Liberal Arts Center lobby here at Eastern New Mexico University. Join us for a reading of student work and a presentation of student photography while helping us…
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Call for Submissions
It’s time! Today’s the submission deadline for the Spring 2017 issue of El Portal, so make sure you get your potential publications sent to us by midnight. The next submission period won’t begin until January, so this is your last chance for awhile! Fiction, nonfiction, flash fiction, poetry, photography, and art are all welcome internationally.…
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This is West – Fortunes
“You gotta be shitting me,” Gulliver said for maybe the third time since striking up a conversation with the Asian guy whose car broke down along the freeway near the store. “You traveled all this way, halfway around the world, just because of some fortune teller? That’s one of the craziest damn things I ever…
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El Portal – Fall 2016
Readers can now access the PDF version of El Portal’s Fall 2016 issue. Click on the image above to access the PDF file. If you have any questions about the Fall 2016 issue, please feel free to contact the editor at el.portal@enmu.edu. Full List of Contributors: An Interview with Joseph Somoza Juan Carlos Pérez-Duthie “Certain Things Are Likely” Gaylord…
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This is West – No Tresspassers
Cattle dotted the area like ink stains, the setting sun washing the desert landscape in the piercing glow of its final rays. The further Ian traveled onto the old man’s private property, the more reluctant he became. If he got caught it wouldn’t be the end of the world. The owner would probably just ask…
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This is West – Lawrence of New Mexico
In 1855, the US Army created the United States Camel Corps in hopes the foreign animals would serve the country’s expansion westward. By 1863, the project disbanded and the camels were released into the wild of the American Southwest. Lawrence, of New England, peddled his bicycle across the empty desert road. Patches of fine red…
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This is West – Sediment
The details of the land are boundless, rugged Layers that shimmer, hide. They call out to the depths beneath and above Creating beauty out of fire, snow. They crisscross forming layers of sediment, evoking caverns, mountain, streams Adding to the story of the land, the people. Yet still hiding secrets beneath the shimmering sediment Waiting…
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This is West – A Withered Reflection
The lingering heat ruined the rain. There was no torrential downpour sweeping in on a cool wind. It didn’t cleave the sunbaked summer in two. It didn’t arrive with low, auspicious thunder and purple bolts of lightning. Instead, it fell in unsatisfying specks for days, exacerbating the already oppressive humidity, clogging every throat and drawing…
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This is West – Calvin’s Salvage
The tow truck’s wheels wobbled through the rows of old cars and scrap. Calvin had considered getting one of the new hover models, but that was before the spaceport had come in. A year ago this lot covered nearly half-a-mile with rows stacked three cars high. Back then, Calvin’s Salvage was booming and his destiny…
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This is West – Inherent Process
It smelled of moisture when he awoke: a moisture he had not smelled since he moved to the dry, searing west. The lengthy downpour coated and seeped into every permeable surface, creating an aura fueled by the extracted dust seeping out of every dried up, seemingly hollow crevice—a stagnant, murky smell which co-mingled with the…
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This is West – A Stillness
It isn’t sunset; not yet. The sky colors with the haze of the in-between: clouds smeared across the horizon and ringed with gold by the late-afternoon sun. The blue begins to pale. Birds chatter in the tall elm trees and soar in circles around their nests. Bugs flock to stagnant pools of rainwater and flit…
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Welcome Back! (Now Accepting Submissions)
El Portal is officially back from its summer vacation! Be on the lookout for the return of This is West this Friday, August 5th. We’re also now accepting submissions for the Spring 2017 issue! Fiction, nonfiction, flash fiction, poetry, photography, and art are welcome internationally. Simultaneous submissions are welcome. Deadline October 31st. For Terms of…
El Portal Literary Journal 