(Originally published June 28, 2007)

Asian male, early 30s, wearing pressed beige dress pants, black t-shirt, and spotless black sneakers, carrying a black computer bag with pink ribbon pinned to the pocket.

The Bonehunters, Steven Erikson (Bantam)

Page 285:

The animal looked as though pieced together from disparate, unidentifiable parts, only roughly approximately a dog’s shape. Humped, uneven shoulder muscles, a neck as thick round as a grown man’s thigh, misshapen, muscle-knitted haunches, a chest deep as a desert lion’s.

She kept her back to him, palming the crease scar. He stood behind her, one hand on her bare shoulder, the other on his waist, as if she was keeping him from crumpling.

Asian woman, mid 20s, wearing brown short-sleeved turtleneck, grey dress pants, and carrying a black “EP” backpack.

Applied Arts Magazine, May/June 2008

Page 42:

Reading from "Drawn to Afghanistan" by Richard Johnson

Once there, he had to win over the soldiers who were wary of the media.

She fires up her laptop and checks her news feed. Celebrity C-section. Auto plant closure. More diet claims. And two soldiers dead. She navigates the server to the press release while she flips to his picture in the catalogue, a candid snap of a tired young man home on leave, taken by his wife the moment after they’d decided he wouldn’t go back. Take the picture, honey. I want the kids to remember this.

Caucasian male, mid 30s, with long brown hair and graying goatee, wearing grey shirt, black jeans, black Converse, and carrying a black World Famous bag slung across his chest.

The Last King of Scotland, Giles Foden (Faber and Faber)

Page 194:

Him frowning, laughing, holding his clenched fist up to his mouth.

Him with a baby.

Him driving a jeep through jubilant crowds.

Him alone.

Him with me.

He watched his neighbour line up a stroke at the bacchi ball and wondered how much force it would take to shut this guy up, once and for all. He’d been in the same position forever, huddled over a bottle of Coors Light sweating between his knees. When he finally smacked the ball it was with such force that it took air landing in the decorative fishpond with a plop, a cue for the dog to take speed and another crack at the gold fish. Standing straight his neighbour took a long swig and Cheers-ed his host as his young wife replaced his empty with a tall, cool one.

South Asian woman, early 20s, with shoulder-length wavy black hair, wearing black t-shirt, grey tank top, and black jeans, a black and white bag tucked between her legs.

Maggie, a Girl of the Streets and other New York Writings, Stephen Crane (Modern Library)

Page 78:

She gazed thoughtfully about the room and noted the strength and position of her enemies. She was very alert. At last, she turned to the mantel. "Five o’clock," she murmured, scrutinizing, swaggering, nickel-plated clock.

She fans herself, pulling at the hem of her sweaty tank top, loosening the folds before she leans back into the void of her worn seat. She rolls her head and looks out the windows, shading her eyes from the sun and the trees outside that feel a breeze as they stand still, yet she’s stuck inside this racing bullet with the recycled air of a stranger’s breakfast burped up over his third cup of coffee.

(Originally published February 8, 2007)

Black woman, late 20s, with long dark hair, wearing a brown jacket, brown knitted cap, blue jeans and large black sunglasses. She carries an old leather book bag, something that looks like it once belonged to, and maybe still does, a grad student.

Bitchfest: Ten Years of Cultural Criticism from the Pages of Bitch Magazine, Lisa Jervis & Andi Zeisler (Ed.) (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux)

Page 41:

What would-be grammar police don’t acknowledge is that hedges say less about an individual woman’s lack of confidence than they do about society’s expectation that a woman not be assertive.

"To the graduating class of 1982, teachers, parents, President Henner, I say, Welcome!"

*New card*

"I am proud to stand here as your valedictorian. This has been an especially accomplished year for me. I represented our school at the Ontario Science Fair; I played Mrs. Sowerberry in this year’s theatrical production of Oliver!…"

*New card*

"…I am your free throw champion two years running; and my first poem was published in the local newspaper."

*New card*

"But, first and foremost, I am your classmate."

*New card*

"As we leave these halls, some of us will take a short journey down the street to the vocational high school, others across town to specialized programs in the arts. But we will always be…"

*New card*

"TOGETHER IN OUR HEARTS!!!"

(Wait for applause)