2019 OMOT Literary Works

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/2152.5/6693

This collection contains literary works submitted for the 2019 On My Own Time Employee (OMOT) Art Show. OMOT is open to all UT Southwestern employees and students. Literary categories include:

Fictional Short Story
10-Word Story
Creative Non-Fiction
Open Verse Poetry

Authors of winning Literary Art submissions will be invited to read their works aloud during Literary Night at the AT&T Performing Arts Center in October. Winning entries will also be published in a Business Council for the Arts Program.

Questions? Contact omot@utsouthwestern.edu for more details.

News

The following submissions received awards during the literary judging process:

2nd Place, 10-Word Story: Whew by Heather Svokos
1st Place, Open Verse Poetry: Four-Letter Words by Jennifer Wang

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Now showing 1 - 13 of 13

Mis-
(2019) Mukherjee-Roy, Neije
PLEASE TELL US A LITTLE ABOUT WHAT INSPIRED THIS WORK: I handle a lot of mouse breeding at work, and that's where I realized what miscarriage could be like for mothers. One day a mouse was having dystocia and a pup was halfway out and losing circulation so I massaged her belly to help slowly push it out. But the baby was pale and close to being dead but since this was the first time I came across this I cleaned and warmed it till it started breathing. I put it back in the cage and it lived to adulthood. Even though I wasn't the mother I was desperate to save that pup, so I can only imagine nurturing a child inside you only to lose it by miscarriage. Mis- is for missing the unborn child and Mis from miscarriage.
Silver prayer
(2019) Svokos, Heather
PLEASE TELL US A LITTLE ABOUT WHAT INSPIRED THIS WORK: One Christmas, my dear friend, former professor and mentor got me a silver necklace. On one of the charms is a bit of smoky quartz, intended to calm and help manifest dreams. I wear it because it's a lovely necklace, but I've recently started to will it to perform as a talisman in her fight against cancer, hoping that the universe will listen.
Forbidden Fruit
(2019) Mukherjee-Roy, Neije
PLEASE TELL US A LITTLE ABOUT WHAT INSPIRED THIS WORK: The literal story about picking a peach stems from a recent event when I slipped while climbing a peach tree to pick a particularly ripe peach I wanted. I came off the tree to tend to my bleeding leg and continued through the orchard, it was only when I got home that I realized I never went back to actually pick that peach because I got side tracked from the injury. The sinking feeling of wasted effort reminded me of the dissatisfaction that came with courting someone only to be rejected and reprimanded severely. Didn't matter how much effort you put into it, you're the one who ends up hurt. So I personified the whole poem to reflect this failed courting sentiment.
Four-Letter Words
(2019) Wang, Jennifer
PLEASE TELL US A LITTLE ABOUT WHAT INSPIRED THIS WORK: Before #MeToo , there was a debate about whether comics have the right to tell rape jokes. Around the same time, I was becoming a more vocal feminist, standing up for my friends who were a survivor and talking about my own experiences with crossed boundaries that left a bit of trauma. At some point, I felt my voice was being drowned out in the censorship debate so I wrote this poem to make my thoughts heard.
The Gardener
(2019) Holland, Adriana
PLEASE TELL US A LITTLE ABOUT WHAT INSPIRED THIS WORK: My grandfather passed away a few years back and this is my memorial to honor him. He was a man of few words, but I learned a lot from the little.
The Last Dream
(2019) Henson, Jeresia
god might have sensorineural hearing loss
(2019) Pendry, Robert
lost and found
(2019) Pendry, Robert
Indigo
(2019) Wang, Jennifer
PLEASE TELL US A LITTLE ABOUT WHAT INSPIRED THIS WORK: A friend issued a creative challenge in which she assigned all of the participants a color and they had to create something based on it. I got "indigo", which stumped me initially because it's not a color I think of frequently. Then I saw the parallels with my identity as someone who passes for cisgender and heterosexual (but is actually genderqueer and grey-asexual) and the erasure that some of the lesser-known orientations in the queer community often experience.
Whew
(2019) Svokos, Heather
PLEASE TELL US A LITTLE ABOUT WHAT INSPIRED THIS WORK: Curiosity and youthful indiscretion. Let's just say I knew where my dad hid his gun, which we had in the house for protection only. I found it, and wondered: What would happen if I just pulled the trigger -- aiming at nothing. I was young, but old enough to know better. As the story says, it wasn't loaded. I was ridiculously lucky.
When the Dam Breaks
(2019) Patel, Reina
PLEASE TELL US A LITTLE ABOUT WHAT INSPIRED THIS WORK: As a pediatrician who works in the hospital setting, I see many sick children who get better and get to go home. These are the good days. But when a child dies at work, their memory carves out a little place in my heart forever. This memory led to the writing of this poem.
She... and He...
(2019) Ivey, Krysten
PLEASE TELL US A LITTLE ABOUT WHAT INSPIRED THIS WORK: In today's society, people are afraid to share their deepest regrets or pain that they may face in day to day life. Here in this open verse anyone can put their life and/or feelings to match the rhythm and tone shared within the struggle to find hope, discover yourself, find who loves you and step out in faith. * Please note, I write under a pen name... Krysten Ivey. As such, I would like to have this under that name please * Thank you.
In Memory Of
(2019) Patel, Reina
PLEASE TELL US A LITTLE ABOUT WHAT INSPIRED THIS WORK: The promise of an exciting vacation in Mexico ended in a shocking and tragic loss of a dear friend. The heightened emotions I felt during this heart wrenching time led to the writing of this 10-word story.

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