Foreword

In his novel On The Road Jack Kerouac wrote, “The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes ‘Awww!’”

In this quote, Jack Kerouac captures that wild, elusive, and restless spirit of life that carries the fire to the kindling waiting faithfully in our souls—perhaps the very same fire that Prometheus is said to have gifted mankind in myth. In these works we share, that fire is burning, and by sharing them, we at Untold hope to spread the fire to you. And we, in turn, hope that you will burn bright fiercely, spreading it to those around you, and so on, until this whole world is mad and burning with that same passion and thirst for life that carried Sal Paradise across the country twice and back again. Just don’t drink, bum, and divorce your way into an early grave like Jack did. Or do. Whatever burns your boat.

This year has been hard, but despite many setbacks, we at Untold have continued to have the honor and privilege of hosting the work of UVU’s honors students. This would not have been possible without the steady guidance of our faculty advisor, Brendan McCarthy, and the contributions of our staff, both past and present. Thank you to Jeremy, Genevieve, and Ben for dragging this thing kicking and screaming over the finish line with me, and though they weren’t able to finish out the journey with us, I also thank Daphne and Madeline for their help in getting us started.

But most of all, thank you to our contributors. Without you, there would be no journal.

Keep on burning.

Spencer Madsen

Editor-in-Chief