Harper Lewis
Bio
I'm a subversive weirdo nerd witch who loves rocks. Intrusive rhyme bothers me. Some of my fiction may have provoked divorce proceedings in another state.š
My words are mine. Suggest ai use and get eviscerated.
MA English literature, CofC
Achievements (12)
Stories (217)
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Once More
When I taught freshman English (composition, 101, 1101) at Augusta Tech, E. B. Whiteās āOnce More to the Lakeā was the essay I used as an example of narrative descriptive writing. I love the essay, and I enjoyed teaching it. And then my father died.
By Harper Lewis13 days ago in Writers
Customer Service . Content Warning.
Ever wake up to a bunch of illegitimate fees? Bank, phone company, car rental, airline, credit card, utility company, etc.? It happens to everyone. And when it does, we call customer service, possibly further infuriated by annoying robot systems designed to keep you from speaking to a real person and impossibly long wait times once youāre allowed to enter the queue of angry customers demanding service. Itās exasperating.
By Harper Lewis13 days ago in Critique
The Dear John Letter of Alfred J. Prufrock
Dear Mr. Prufrock, Iām adhering to your rule about not addressing you familiarly in company (when are we ever alone?), but I cannot go on like this, with a hundred revisions before toast and tea. It is not your bald spot that chafes me so much as your prefacing every argument with quotes from Dante, in Italian, ensuring that I do not know what you mean at all.
By Harper Lewis13 days ago in Poets
Martyrdom Rejection
Have you ever been psychologically abused? Distorted truths and half-lies weaponized around one devastating truth, then built out with lies? Conditional traps presented as negotiation with a bait and switch, accuse and blame where youāre indicted regardless of your answer, perpetually framed as lying so someone can control a narrative and present herself as a faultless victim who has suffered all because of you, regardless of her own choices? What if itās intentional and cruel, designed to hit you where youāre already hurt? Maybe the next blow will be fatal.
By Harper Lewis14 days ago in Writers
The Fourth Wall
I blame modernism and postmodernism for the plague of literary rooms that are essentially open plazas or terraces. For me, thereās a problem with assuming that the room can survive without the fourth wall. Writers like Shakespeare, Bronte, Vonnegut, and Salinger successfully break the fourth wall, which means it exists. You canāt break a wall that isnāt there.
By Harper Lewis14 days ago in Writers
Drink Around the Poesy (come along, sing bawdy songs) Take Off Your Prose challenge results . Content Warning.
This is my second rogue challenge thus far (more to come), and Iām delightfully surprised by the participation this suspicious platform newbie received.
By Harper Lewis15 days ago in Writers
Oh, Romeo
Dear Romeo, This is a bit awkward, but Iāve had misgivings ever since you asked me to call you āButt Love.ā I understand that boys like to experiment with their friends, but this is a balcony too far. After all, I am a Capulet. Whatās in a name matters more when the name isnāt Montague.
By Harper Lewis16 days ago in Fiction
Medea Gets Fleeced
Dear Medea, First, thank you for the sheepāI wouldnāt be where I am today without them. However, you betrayed your father and brother so I might have them, and, well, having forsaken them, you sort of screwed me out of your dowry. Also, how can I have faith in your loyalty? What if Odysseus sailed past and you fell in love with him, betraying me? I donāt have room for that kind of doubt in my life.
By Harper Lewis16 days ago in Fiction
