Encouraging, supporting, and enhancing the literary arts on campus and beyond.
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APRIL 2025
Vol. 40, No. 2
After debuting and selling out at AWP25, The MacGuffin’s vol. 40.2 is again available for purchase! Featuring the winners of Poet Hunt 29 and commentary by judge Michael Meyerhofer, we also look ahead to this year’s Poet Hunt 30 with a mini-feature of poems by judge Darrel Alejandro Holnes. We round this issue out with a quadruplet of short memoirs; fiction selections including Margaret Willey’s family drama—turbulent as the Lake it’s set on—and Angela Townsend’s “Present Lives,” whose Joyce invites you to tune in, turn on: referencing enhanced spirituality or Jennifer Rodrigues’s cover, “Switch Plate”—who’s to say?
The MacGuffin, established in 1984, is a national literary magazine created on campus. The journal is a 160-page, 6-inch by 9-inch perfect-bound collection of poetry, short fiction, creative non-fiction, and visual art, including black and white photos, prints and drawings. Our MacGuffin is published three times per year.
The mission of The MacGuffin is to encourage, support, and enhance the literary arts in the Schoolcraft College community, the region, the state, and the nation. By fulfilling its role as a national literary journal, The MacGuffin brings national and international prestige to Schoolcraft College. It is our main vehicle for our contribution to literary excellence.
What’s a MacGuffin?
The moving force (and sometimes the solution) of a work of mystery fiction is referred to as a MacGuffin, a concept that originated in Victorian England.
Alfred Hitchcock used the term and said, “No film is complete without a MacGuffin because that’s what everybody is after.” The MacGuffin might be the papers everyone is looking for or the ring that was stolen — in short, the MacGuffin is any device or gimmick that gets a plot rolling. The MacGuffin itself has little, if any, fundamental importance, and, according to Hitchcock, is nothing in and of itself.
The MacGuffin’s Purposes
The MacGuffin’s aims to…
- Provide opportunities for hands-on literary publication work experience.
- Sponsor annual literary events.
- Give a voice to deserving newer writers, by publishing their work alongside those of well-known writers.
- Provide a vehicle for writers to share their works with a diverse readership.
- Provide an opportunity for writers to experiment and innovate.
- Attempt to reach as big an audience as possible.
