Books To Procrastinate With: Easy Reads From the Editors

As September approaches its end, the semester is in full swing. With midterms around the corner, it is peak procrastination time at Rice University. Rather than encouraging you to do your work, The Wild Grain wants to help you procrastinate in the best way: with a fresh book. Here are the best books to procrastinate with, from the editors!  The Idiot – Elif Batuman Calling The Idiot an easy read…

Prose of the Month: How to Grapple with the Fact That You Will Never Be Extraordinary by Caitlyn Ladd

How to Grapple with the Fact That You Will Never Be Extraordinary First, you must know that one day you will be asked a question you cannot answer. It does not matter how prepared you may be, or how many times you rehearse your reply to the unknown query: it is not a response to be spoken aloud. The next few steps will be critical to your understanding of what…

Day in the Life of an English Major: Julia Li, EUA Co-President

“A Day in the Life of an English Major” is pretty much what it says in the title: a look at how a Rice English major spends their time each day. However, we’re doing things a little differently now so instead of asking our amazing English majors to track their day with paragraphs and pictures, we’ve asked them to do a vlog! Do they really spend six hours a day…

English Department (and adjacent) February Events and Opportunities

Sometimes it’s hard to keep track of all the events and opportunities coming up. That’s why we’ve consolidated some of the most exciting events of February that you should attend! Attend the Clint Smith & Patricia Smith Reading on February 12th! Houston’s own inprint is hosting a reading featuring Clint Smith, discussing his poetry collection Above Ground, and Patricia Smith, discussing her poetry collection Unshuttered, at Zilkha Hall in the Hobby…

Alumni Interview: Playwright Grad Student Caleb Dukes shares their experience in the MFA program

Caleb Dukes (‘22) is a playwright who writes grand tales about small people, examining the powerful stories that live inside even the most unsuspecting characters. They discovered this passion whilst grieving the loss of their great-grandmother, which inspired Virginia, a Texas Educational Theatre Association award-winning play chronicling her life as a mother, friend, teacher, and activist. Through this experience, they were able to turn pain into art, which is all…

Outside Reading: Book Recommendations from the EUA Board

The Wild Grain welcomes you back to our publication! This month we’re starting off with favorite book recommendations from none other than our own English Undergraduate Association’s (EUA) executive board! Julia Li, Co-President: Bliss Montage by Ling Ma I recommend that everyone reads my favorite book, Bliss Montage by Ling Ma! When I read this short story collection, I found it to be incredibly unique with notes of magical surrealism flowing through…

Feature: Broad by Hector Cervantes

I was passing the time with an old friend of mine some time ago. We were drinking coffee, sitting lazily on her bed. I don’t remember what inane things led to this topic of conversation, but we started talking about physicality and our bodies, what we liked about them and what we didn’t. This was around the time I had begun questioning my gender identity, something I was open about…

Feature: The Art of Being ‘Not Boring’: A Conversation with Paige Quiñones by Aaron Nguyen and Dalia Gulca

When we first reached out to Paige Quiñones to interview her about love poetry, her initial reaction was to say, “I don’t write about love.” Compared to more traditional love poets, Paige’s poetry definitely breaks the mold of what we normally think love poetry is. Instead of praising warmth and desire, her poems address a different side of love, exploring its deep anxieties. She draws on influences from confessional poets,…