Arts and Humanities Commons^™

With The Light Caught Between, Albert M. Jacoby

All NMU Master's Theses

Although Henry and Claire Lumens are twins, their high school lives couldn’t be more opposite. Henry enjoys sketching, looking at handsome boys, and reading about fantastical places, but his shy and pensive nature means he battles demons of his own every day in the gym locker room. Claire, however, loves the world she lives in, which is easy because she’s bossy, clever, and stunning. On their seventeenth birthday, their grandmother gives them a gift that will take them to a fantastical world. Despite their ignorance of the world’s existence, their grandmother insists it’s their birthplace, and the only way they …

No Absolutes: A Fantasy Collection, Tiffany M. Hughes

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Genre fiction, particularly fantasy and science fiction writing, has a mixed reception in academia across the world. The notion that make-believe characters and worlds could not be intellectually fulfilling is an old stereotype that reduces some of the most profound fiction of our era down to children’s tales. This fantasy collection serves as an example of how genre fiction can contain impactful stories that challenge our understanding of traditional values. As the title suggests, life, from relationships to self-identity, offers no absolutes for the future. Humanity faces uncertainty of the past, present, and future every day. These stories reflect the …

Hallowed Be Thy Fall, Kristina Smeriglio

Department of Writing and Communication Theses

All Priella wanted was to find love. She roamed the fields of the Garden of Earthly Delights, day by day, in the hopes of finally attaining it. But, it wasn't that simple. In the midst of an existential crisis, unable to understand her difficulty in relating to others and achieving happiness, Priella meets the Archangel Michael who offers her a chance at salvation. Venturing into the unknown, Priella is forced to face the distorted ways of thinking that kept her hostage.

The Only Dreamer, Katelyn H. Long

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

For my Senior Honors Project, I submitted an excerpt from a novel length story about a family line with the inheritable ability to take objects out of people’s dreams. In this young adult fantasy, Melody is a nineteen year old girl who struggles with the fact that her twin sister has inherited the ability while she has not. The excerpt introduces Melody’s family and shows the tension that exists between them while hinting to the reader that there is something more sinister that drives Melody away from her home.

The novel explores morality and its gray areas, the difficulty that …