Matthew Agnew
Achievements (1)
Stories (11/0)
- Runner-Up in Pitch Your Pilot Challenge
Power-lessRunner-Up in Pitch Your Pilot Challenge
After losing his powers during a battle to save the planet, recently de-powered superhero, The Smoke, must contend with his new life of abject mediocrity as a small town crossing guard. Intertwined with his daily struggles as a “norm,” are his relationships with his new blue collar coworkers, neighbors, his struggle to identify with his former super hero colleagues, and the never ending pursuit of his famed arch-nemesis Winters “Patient Zero” Buchannon. Power-less is a comical fish out of water story that satirizes and examines our culture's obsession with fame, personal identity, and the fight against the personified embodiment of corporate greed. Power-less is Schitt’s Creek, meets The Orville, meets Young Sheldon.
By Matthew Agnew9 months ago in Humor
The Third Salvation
Arn’s legs began to buckle as he angled down the shallow embankment towards his newly desired prize. The river, flowing with purpose as it formed white peaks amongst the unending current, snaked across the belly of the valley, zagging past mighty maples that clung to natural dirt walls that guided crystal clear snow melt towards the distant sea.
By Matthew Agnew2 years ago in Fiction
First at 35
In mid-April of 1985, my grandmother, still nauseous from the terror-inducing 40-minute drive across the Golden Gate Bridge, watched as her eldest daughter was about to lie to the father of her child. The lie, born in fear and love, did not come easy, yet in the moment, it was her truth. What she needed. What she thought I needed.
By Matthew Agnew2 years ago in Humans
Welcome to Winter
“Staring won’t make it melt faster Nick.” Sonya cheerfully called from our side porch. My body awoke from a streaming swirl of thoughts and sent a tremor of alertness up my spine. The sudden motion angered my plastic Adirondack chair past a moment of reconciliation, sending an alarming crack through the frigid, still air. The remains of my seat collapsed around me like cheap shrapnel as I was unceremoniously dethroned, meeting the packed snow beneath me with a dull thud.
By Matthew Agnew3 years ago in Fiction
A Void of Anticipated Silence
Innately, children have a poor sense of fashion. For years, Vern watched as student after student paraded around proudly in too small t-shirts spotted with the latest fad driven superhero team, sweatpants a shade of brown not completely known to Vern, and dark blue Bills jerseys whose fit better resembled a thigh high skirt than an actual, acceptably sized top.
By Matthew Agnew3 years ago in Fiction
A Few Favorite Things
Always the one to pepper macabre undertones on a joyous occasion, Christmas for Eleanor meant two things...presents and death. This was, as a matter of fact, Eleanor’s 13th “last” Christmas. Four holiday seasons prior, it would surely be the last time she would gather her extended, matriarcal driven family in one spot. Her eyes could no longer register the difference between sugar, salt, and flour, so baking was out of the question (a point driven home by a particularly salt-heavy apple pie that sat largely uneaten at the post-Thanksgiving dessert table). If she could no longer provide her family with pie, what would be the point of continuing on?
By Matthew Agnew3 years ago in Fiction
Ink and the Impulsive
I’m not a sign. Not a template crafted by dreamers. I evolve. I change. I learn. Shy to some, outward to most, I leap more often first, enjoying the quickly earned spoils or analyzing the broken path in the dimmed light of hindsight. Uncertainty and self-criticism were once pillars, bookending every interaction, every thought, every movement. Now, they remain but no longer bear the load. I choose friends. Growing closer and further apart as time flows. I evolve.
By Matthew Agnew3 years ago in Humans