Evan Agostini/Associated Press; Melissa Moseley/Universal Pictures; Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images

Perhaps the only place we expected to see Colum McCann side by side with Wes Anderson and Owen Wilson is at a Barnes & Noble where someone misfiled a paperback copy of “Let the Great World Spin” between DVDs of “Bottle Rocket” and “The Royal Tenenbaums.”

In fact, Mr. McCann, the National Book Award-winning novelist; Mr. Anderson, the filmmaker; and Mr. Wilson, the actor and Mr. Anderson’s frequent collaborator, were all students at Texas and contributors to its literary magazine Analecta. (We’re pretty sure this is Greek for “A place to try out new ideas before you get famous and then everybody scrutinizes you.”)

One early piece of fiction by Mr. Anderson surfaced on Wednesday at The Huffington Post, but this was apparently just the tip of the iceberg. Undergraduate editors at Analecta shared with ArtsBeat four short fictional works by Mr. McCann, Mr. Anderson and Mr. Wilson, all of which can be found as .pdf files at the links below:

“Let” by Wes Anderson from Analecta XVI

“Fat Money Summer” by Owen Wilson from Analecta XVI

“Dried Apples” by Colum McCann from Analecta XVII

“Charles Falling” by Wes Anderson from Analecta XVII

Consider your own literary output in your undergraduate years before you judge these embryonic efforts, which, if nothing else, should finally put to rest their authors’ reputations as collegiate party animals.