In the evening hours outside of the Art Gallery, students, faculty, friends and families gathered to listen and read along with the Tellus winners as they read out their works on Thursday evening, May 14.

Tellus is Cuesta College’s Literary and Fine Arts Journal, now in its 32nd year of publication. The journal accepts submissions from students for creative writing, fiction, poetry, and nonfiction, as well as select artistic works, and acknowledges and exhibits them at the Harold J. Miossi Gallery.

The winners and runners-up from each category read their works aloud, as attending guests and listeners read along with the new issue. “I feel slightly nervous,” but this isn’t my first rodeo,” Student Steph Marroquin said. Marroquin was also a Tellus award recipient the previous year and presented three works in different categories this year.

The repeating winners were of no surprise to English professor Matthew Fleming, who explained some of the reasons why a few writers were placed on the podium multiple times. “Winning at Tellus is not just about good writing,” he said. “All of these people are, of course, great writers, but it is also about the courage to submit their works, and continuing to write, continuing to submit, that is what makes them get here.”

English professor Roland Finger says it takes jurors about a week to reach a decision. “What is kind of nice is that we rarely see any dispute over who should be nominated, that is to say, the best naturally rise to the top, and we all agree on these most of the time,” he said. 

The 2026 Tellus received more than 90 submissions across the board, which Dean of Instruction for English, Fine Arts, Performing Arts, Language and Communications, Aubrey Kuan Roderick, highlighted in her opening speech. “The amount of these submissions speaks to the amount of creative writing in our community,” she said.“Keep writing!”

As the writers read their pieces to the audience, a full spectrum of stories was presented, from heartfelt and poignant to macabre and Lovecraftian, all drawing enthusiastic applause after each reading until the end. Fleming hinted that the Creative Writing Club and creative writing classes for the fall semester are still open for those interested to pursue this artistic outlet for themselves. 

“This is one of the oldest ways of communication,” English Professor Thomas Patchell said. “These thoughts and feelings, we still can share them, despite all modern technology, with our eyes, our ears, our minds, and our hearts, most of all.”

Editor’s Note: Casey Lieberman and Steph Marroquin are staff members of The Cuestonian. This story was edited independently.