Madeline Hepburn is Missing: A Short Story by Ze’ev Shaheen

“Madeline Hepburn is Missing watches a man dissolve into his insanity and tangling
himself in his own web of lies. It’s a story with a lot of clues and details that let the reader piece together what really happened,” says Ze’ev Shaheen ’25 about his creative short story, completed during Summer Fellows 2024. The short story originally started as a class assignment. The prompt was to write a 600-word story that gets interrupted or diverted in some way. Shaheen “immediately thought of trying to tell a story but being interrupted by a loud noise. That eventually turned into a polygraph test.”

The piece begins: “I want to make it clear that I’m here of my own volition. I volunteered to provide the – be it very limited – amount of information that I know. Purely out of the want, or rather the need to be a good samaritan.”

“The whole story is a monologue, so I had to develop a character who liked to hear
himself talk. Martin has such a superiority complex that I could just write rants about things like coffee as a way of conveying his personality,” states Shaheen.

During Summer Fellows 2024, Shaheen worked with Professor Shane Kowalski,
Assistant Professor of English and Creative Writing. Shaheen explains that working with
Kowalski one-on-one is a different experience than in the classroom. Shaheen says, “He has a deep appreciation for stories in the classroom. But when we’re both able to focus on one story it’s easier to get into the meat of what makes the story breathe.” Every week Kowalski would send Shaheen a “Weekly Weird” update. Shaheen says that these “included movie clips, short stories, news articles, and songs that he thought would help my writing process. I still listen to one of the songs he sent me whenever I’m in a writing slump.” Kowalski says, “Working with Ze’ev on his fiction was the highlight of my summer. I’m grateful to have been able to see up close the journey Madeline Hepburn took – from a very short lark of a scene to a full-blooded narrative with novelistic potential. If there were a million Ze’evs out there I would have an easy job.”

While desiring to share that his creative process was idealistic, that it was comprised of
him sitting at a desk and letting the words flow naturally, Shaheen says, “What actually
happened was I would slump on my couch and stare at the blank document until suddenly I hit the word count. A surprising amount of my work was actually watching movies or reading books, trying to get an understanding of why I liked those stories.”

A big difficulty that Shaheen faced while writing Madeline Hepburn is Missing was
believing in its potential. “All artists are concerned about how good their art actually is, and I am no exception,” Shaheen says. Almost every day after writing, Shaheen would sit with a lot of doubts about his writing’s quality. He says, “I don’t have a cure for it, but I do know that sometimes you just have to take a risk. Submit it even if you think it’s bad. At the end of the day if you put in the effort, chances are someone will see the potential that you couldn’t.”

“Being able to get away from reality through fiction is my biggest drive,” states Shaheen. Sci-fi/Fantasy and Horror are big inspirations for him, as he says, “I am in love with the idea of how in the face of otherworldly threats we are the most human.” In this aspect, Mike Flanagan comes to Shaheen’s mind, as he says, “Flanagan’s horror TV shows to me are more about confronting your humanity than the ghosts that torment the characters.”

Right now, Shaheen is applying to graduate schools for creative writing. Shaheen wants
to continue learning about stories and how to tell them. “As of what the far future holds, I just want to keep stories in my life, even if I don’t write them for a living,” he says.

“I have two pieces of advice for writers. Be passionate and be weird. You have to love
what you do when it comes to writing. Art is such a personal and human experience and if you let yourself forget what makes you human and passionate then your writing will suffer. Don’t be afraid to write wild stories, there is an audience for your crazy ideas,” Shaheen says. It’s safe to say that, while Madeline Hepburn may be missing, what is certainly not missing is Shaheen’s creativity and talent.

Ze’ev Shaheen’s short story Madeline Hepburn is Missing is available to read on the
Ursinus Digital Commons page in the “English Summer Fellows” section.

- This article is also published in Issue 2 of The Grizzly.