Encouraging, supporting, and enhancing the literary arts on campus and beyond.
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Current Issue
august 2025
Vol. 40, No. 3
Sculptor Pascal Piermé is featured in an expanded (and expandable!) art feature to cap off our fortieth volume in print. Returning contributor Max Blue offers a review of an obscure film by French auteur Jacques, and Ron McFarland revisits what is undoubtedly Vivaldi’s most famous work. Go for a ride with Angela Townsend’s “Out to Dinner,” but do pull off for a pit stop to get the car’s-eye view in Colby Vargas’s “Beast Runs Multidisciplinarian Laura Vogt bridges poetry and prose in a two-part mini feature, and Kuo Zhang bridges cultures in a bilingual household to close the issue.
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.
