“It was a dark and stormy night. The intrepid editor paced the halls of the Daily offices, unsure of whether or not the articles would fit. Would they be too long? Would they be too short? Wracked with fear, he moved on…”

Are you feeling creative, even though I’ve clearly failed? We know it’s hard to do at Northwestern, but sometimes you just have to let those artistic muscles fly and get creating stuff. It may have been a long time since you’ve read a work of fiction-not since To Kill A Mockingbird in the eighth grade, right?-but if you’re tired of reading boring articles (and we always are), lighten up your day with what we have to offer.

This week, in lieu of a cover story we’ve solicited original pieces of prose and poetry from Northwestern students. We’ve got work from Chris Adamson, Angela Mears, Maxwell Allison and Jack Neubauer, some of our campus’ best writers or at least the ones we like the most.

On the regular side of things, Christina Walker talks to Andrew McMahon of Jack’s Mannequin, Alyssa Meza jumps into a recent Ask Big Questions event and Jared Salisbury writes lovingly of his favorite elfin harpist, Joanna Newsom. There’s new stuff on our Web site and encourage you to join our Facebook fan page-we’ve almost got enough followers to fill up McCormick Auditorium! Stay lovely, y’all.