Earlier this fall, the innovative student group Stethoscope Press called for project proposals from students interested in developing their own book. If selected, the student would receive the opportunity to work one-on-one with one of Stethoscope’s four editors (Leia Jane Zidel ’12, William Miller ’12, Corey Dethier ’12, and Piers Gelly ’13) to develop his book throughout the course of the 2011-2012 school year, engaging in every step of the process from writing to cover design.

Those in the English Department submitted proposals with bated breath. Freshman in Intro creative writing classes crossed their fingers and hoped for the best. Your roommate said, “What the Hell?” and drunkenly submitted his sad poetry at three in the morning.

Submissions flowed in from all corners of campus, but in the end only four students would be selected to participate in the process. After much deliberation, Stethoscope selected the immensely talented Jason Katzenstein ’13, Alec Harris ’14, Glen Stowell ’13 and Daniel Goldman ’12. Each has his own unique vision for the book he will craft this year and, personally, I can’t wait to read them.

Name: Jason Katzenstein
Year: 2013
Major: English
Writing Classes Taken At Wesleyan:
Distinguished Writers, New Voices
Writing for Television
Ways of Reading: Works of Fiction
Techniques of Fiction
His Book: “I’m writing and illustrating a graphic novel consisting of a series of vignettes. Some will recur and others will be self-contained, most will be fictional but there will also be autobiographical and essay sections.”

Name: Alec Harris
Year: 2014
Major: English & Econ (perspective)
Writing Classes Taken at Wesleyan: “The only writing class I’ve taken is Techniques of Poetry. However, I am currently enrolled in U.S. Contemporary Poetry which has introduced me to new poets who have influenced my writing greatly.”
His Book: “The project I am working on is a collection of poems that focuses on the relationship between perception and the mind—how the mind deals with the undeniable solitude of perception while simultaneously having undeniable faith in the collective experience, in what is collectively perceived. Perception in this case does not solely entail our senses, what we feel and see, but instead encompasses our senses and how we use them to interpret what is around us: how we navigate through life in search of connection and understanding. My hope is to explore the poles of action and inaction, self-erasure and self-exposure, silence and sound, all in an effort to better understand the tension between the mind as a confine and the mind as a liberation.”

Name: Daniel Goldman
Year: 2012
Major: Math & Philosophy
Writing Classes Taken At Wesleyan:
Techniques of Non-Fiction
Intermediate Non-Fiction
His Book: “The completed project will end up being a couple of vaguely-thematically-connected short stories. The title story will be considerably longer than the others—it features a narrator with an unusual secret, a woman with a traumatic past, and a homeless man without half of his teeth…it’s kind of important that the reader doesn’t know any plot details prior to reading it. I can give you the title: ‘The Reconsiderations.’”
Name: Glenn Stowell
Year: 2013
Major: Economics
Writing Classes Taken At Wesleyan:
Techniques of Poetry
Intermediate Poetry Workshop
His Book: “The book is a unified collection of poems that utilizes familiar fiction scaffoldings–a consistent cast of characters, setting, the like–in stitching broader metaphorical connections across the work. The scenes follow a young couple spread thin by the husband’s work, the persistent winter, and their first seconds of second thoughts. It’s a pastoral-type narrative that wanders into less stagnant waters because of the form the poems inhabit.”