Part of navigating life means coming to terms with the great challenges and pleasures that we will face in our relationships with others, with the wider world, and within ourselves.
In this new issue of Inventio, we bring together a collection of writing that present a spectrum of relationships. From friendships and families, to mania, the Greek word for obsessive love, to the relationship we have with our mental health and our self-perception, this issue encourages us to look more deeply into a variety of human connections. While some works take a more whimsical and lighthearted approach, other works delve into the darker places in our minds.
This issue features three fictional works and seven poems for a total of ten pieces. Three of the poems deliberate our place within the universe; two poems discuss the balance of treatment with mental health; one poem analyzes the relationship between a mother and daughter; and another looks at loneliness and finding friendship from an unexpected source.
Our three fiction pieces include tones of both sincerity and satire: one is a humorous take on the traditional family and their unique baby; another is a sweet piece that gives us a glimpse into a youthful friendship; and the third story is a first-person narration of a young man’s pursuit of the object of his desire.
The team at Inventio would like to thank our creative contributors—Ahmad Masood, Aminah Anjum, Ashley Smith, Alexandra Phekoo, Angela Y. Zhang, F.D. Jarvis, Fostina Samir, Sharanya Tissera, and Sorcha Rule—for sharing their works with us. We are so proud to share their work with you.
—Written by Shanel Chan
Edited by Madeline Sanguedolce, EiC
An anonymous narrator recounts his perspective on courting a campus crush…all the while oblivious to her feelings.
“Constellation Palpitation” captures a conversation between two friends, hiding out on a rooftop, and tracing the constellations in the night sky.
Erin needs to break the news to Keith about their peculiar baby Gracie.
“To bite the hand that feeds me” is a poem that questions one’s existence in the universe. The speaker is nihilistic in their pursuit of escape, questioning a higher being. Yet, the speaker holds hope for a revelation to come in this infinite universe.
“I AM HOME” is the story of a lonely kid who befriends a bear, and the adventures that ensue. This poem highlights the warmth and whimsy that comes with finding a kindred spirit in a desolate world.
“I WAS SENT TO EARTH” is a beautiful story of the speaker’s life on earth, and, seemingly, a promise to their loved one. From childhood to death, the speaker takes us on a bitter-sweet journey of a life lived in Canadian suburbs.
“The Bitter Dose” depicts the darker side of mental illness. The speaker lives with mental illness and has to balance their illness and treatment with the expectations of others. The poem highlights the isolating and grim nature of an invisible experience.
“Mosaic” is a powerful interpretation of life. The speaker uses contradictory language to convey the complexity of human emotions. Ultimately, Mosaic reminds us that every layer of this complexity is a part of the human experience.
The poem “B52’d” is about staying afloat in your mind. It follows the speaker who is managing their mental illness through taking medication and seeking clinical help, while trying to maintain a sense of normalcy.
“Mother and daughter are too alike” tells the story of a complex relationship between a mother and daughter and the latter’s experience of both admiration and hate. By analysing her mother’s choices, the speaker reflects on the distant yet personal nature of their relationship.
Writing is a road to discovery. We make and find meaning through writing, language, and symbols, and we use these to communicate what we’ve discovered: knowledge, worlds, people, ourselves. We write through various modes of expression in the hopes of leaving an imprint on the world for others to discover.
Inventio is a student-run online literary magazine that publishes these discoveries. Since its beginning in 2017, through York University’s Professional Writing Students’ Association, Inventio has been a platform for the unique talents of post-secondary students. Whether they are thoughtful compositions of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, or art, we share what you create.
We encourage creative expression in all forms, including experimental works that utilize, blend, and defy genre conventions. Much like its Latin root, Inventio serves as a canon for student invention that launches us into finding and establishing our own voices with the support of our writerly community.
We publish twice each academic year: April and December.
We would like to begin by acknowledging the Indigenous Peoples of all the lands that we are on today. While we meet today on a virtual platform, we would like to take a moment to acknowledge the importance of the lands, on which we each call home. We do this to reaffirm our commitment and responsibility in improving relationships between nations and to improve our own understanding of local Indigenous peoples and their cultures.
York University’s land acknowledgement may not represent the territory that you are currently on, and we would ask that if this is the case, you take responsibility to acknowledge the traditional territory that you are on and its current treaty holders.
York University acknowledges its presence on the traditional territory of many Indigenous Nations. The area known as Tkaronto has been care taken by the Anishinabek Nation, the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, the Huron-Wendat. It is now home to many First Nation, Inuit and Métis communities.
We acknowledge the current treaty holders, the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation. This territory is subject of the Dish With One Spoon Wampum Belt Covenant, an agreement to peaceably share and care for the Great Lakes region.
From coast to coast to coast, we acknowledge the ancestral and unceded territory of all the Inuit, Métis, and First Nations people that call this land home. Please join us in a moment of reflection to acknowledge the effect of residential schools and colonialism on Indigenous families and communities and to consider how it is our collective responsibility to recognize colonial and arrivant histories and present-day implications in order to honour, protect, and sustain this land.
In recognizing that these spaces occupy colonized First Nations territories and out of respect for the rights of the Indigenous people, please look for, in your own way, to engage in a spirit of reconciliation and collaboration.