Welcome to StoriesEtc, a place where University of Wisconsin students can share their original works of creative writing with the community, whether it be poetry, short stories or anything in between. As a section dealing with the arts, it feels only natural to create an opportunity for students to share their creative talents.

With that being said, let’s meet this week’s contributor, Wyatt Warnecke:

The Badger Herald: Tell us about yourself. What’s your major? Year in school?

I’m a sophomore majoring in English and communication arts. I hail from the city of West Bend, which is somewhere north of Milwaukee. There’s not much to do there. My hobbies include reading, drawing, watching movies, listening to music and making cheap video projects with friends.

BH: Define your writing, authorship and perspective.

“Work in progress” is how I’d define it. I’m still figuring things out, what works and what doesn’t. Some reoccurring elements in my writing are a sense of playfulness, skepticism and sarcasm. Sour, woe-is-me poetry bugs me, so that’s what I hope to avoid. I can still be a downer though, but that’s how poetry seems to go.

BH: When did you start writing creatively?

I’ve always been creating, but not necessarily through writing. I kept a daily comic strip in my planner that I’d pass around with classmates in elementary school. Honestly, I did the same thing in high school, too. I started writing seriously around the age of 16 in a creative writing class and it’s been a hobby since. Taking college courses have convinced me to pursue it further. 

Talk about your creative process. What inspires you, and how do you get from an idea to a finished product?

That’s a tough one. I keep a notebook for ideas or phrases that pop into my head while going about my day. Sometimes a piece can grow out of a notion like that, or sometimes I will try stringing together disparate ideas to see what happens. It’s an experiment. My inspiration comes from places or moods. I admire art that can transport an audience someplace else through tone and atmosphere. That’s a goal I hope to meet.

StoriesEtc: ‘Dog Skin Mittens’ tells chilling childhood story

Here is an example of Wyatt’s work, “Dead Skin Sonnet:”

Her skin, too tight a glove for bone-

poor fingers, stings like skeleton

keys, speaks for her as did Aaron

for Moses, begs from Pharaoh loans

to clothe her children who have grown

too tall for hand-me-downs. Buttons

and pennies pool from donation,

but table scraps cannot atone

for sinful poverty. She dreams

revenge. To clog solid the rich

with ramen, shoot Mercedes screams

through bones of passersby, all which

seek caressings from her soft cream

hands. Kindly put: to be a bitch.