The Honors College

In the fall of 2020, students in Katie Quirk’s first-year Honors preceptorials read stories from The New York Times “Decameron Project,” a collection of COVID-related short fiction. Together they studied these authors’ craft choices—their narrative methods for showing rather than telling the reader information, for example–and then applied some of what they learned to writing their own pandemic-related, nonfiction stories. When these essays were due, all students had moved off campus to remote locations after Thanksgiving break, so they shared online recordings of themselves reading their work. These recordings proved a delightful way to reconnect, to hear one another’s voices, and to reflect on the many ways in which our lives have been impacted by the pandemic. The stories below are a sampling. They are tales of warped time, musical metaphors, insomnia, and story hour with small children on Zoom. We hope you enjoy listening. 

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