From the Editor’s Desk –

The editors and judges of The Walrus are pleased to offer you Volume 9. The Walrus is an allusion to Lewis Carroll’s narrative poem “The Walrus and the Carpenter” which appeared in Carroll’s book Through the Looking Glass.  And like the offshore bed of oysters that the Walrus and the Carpenter encounter while walking along the beach, I hope you all enjoy the artistic accomplishments presented in this publication. The Walrus is a journal of the works by the students in the Communications and Humanities Division of the Woodbridge Campus, Northern Virginia Community College, 2011-2012.  The numerous literary and visual pieces that comprise this issue demonstrate the talent and innovation of the Woodbridge campus.  Additionally, these works received awards during this year’s 2012 Festival of the Arts contest.

The Walrus Literary Committee and Editorial Staff include NOVA faculty members Andrew Young, Kelly Cochran, and Robert Bausch and NOVA student Kelsey Payne who designed the layout for this year’s edition. The judges for the awards in the literary categories were English faculty Denny Bausch, Theana Kastens, Brenda Meisel, Jessica Fure, Carol Froisy, Bryan Brown, Chris Stallings, and Ken Darensbourg. These individuals had the difficult task of selecting what submissions should be honored.

The Walrus is grateful to the many students who submitted their writing and art for consideration this year.  The committee and judges wish they could have included more submissions; however, many pieces had to go unpublished. We hope that no one is discouraged by this and that students whose work was not selected for this issue will submit again next year.

I hope you will enjoy these compelling works of the imagination.

Andrew C. Young

“The time has come,” the Walrus said,
“To talk of many things:
Of shoes–and ships–and sealing-wax–
Of cabbages–and kings–
And why the sea is boiling hot–
And whether pigs have wings.”

–          Lewis Carroll, “The Walrus and The Carpenter” Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There, 1872