Creative Writing Commons^™

Little Town Blues, Jeannette Brown

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

"Little Town Blues" is a novel about a woman burdened by a childhood accident and surviver's guilt. She sneaks into a vacation house on Friday nights to read a novel. Bored with her marriage and her work as a hairdresser, her behavior becomes increasingly riskier.

Potluck, Robert J. Zajkowski

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Rendezvous: Stories And A Novella, Heath Fisher

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

People are often a product of their environment, and each of the characters in this collection is an example of that shaping effect. These stories take you to the southern plains–land of red dirt, Bluestem, and prairie wind. Themes like hope, loss, and the exploration of frontier appear throughout the collection. In each story the setting becomes a character, forcing us to recognize the importance of place in our lives.

Caffeination And Loop: Approaches To Literary And Science Fiction, Griffin O'Hara

Undergraduate University Honors Capstones

Griffin O'Hara's critical introduction to two of his original stories discusses the author’s merger of two genres, popular science fiction and literary fiction. Previous experiments with this combination appear in the novels of David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest and Samuel Delany’s Dhalgren. O’Hara’s analysis of Foster’s and Delany’s influences on his stories delineates the strengths of both science fiction and literary fiction and explains how the merger results in expanded communication between author and reader. The two original stories resulting from his experimentation and illustrating these ideas are “Caffeination” and “Loop.” “Caffeination” is a work of fiction that follows the …

Cleaved Open, Amanda Kelley

Morehead State Theses and Dissertations

A project thesis submitted to the faculty of Morehead State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Bachelor of Fine Arts in the Department of English at Morehead State University by Amanda Kelley in December of 2012.

Quarry Light And Other Stories, Claudia Lois Smith

Dissertations

Quarry Light and Other Stories is a collection of short stories and one novella articulating themes of violence, trauma, and sexuality. The stories in Quarry Light and Other Stories are arranged according the theme, movement, and tonality. Although they can stand alone, the stories are meant to be read interdependently. The collection is accompanied by a critical introduction.

Kayleigh's Australian Adventure: A Story For Children, Diane A. Wetmore

Honors Theses

This is a children's book for upper elementary students (3rd/4th grade) as an introduction to Australian culture

Nowhereland, Matthew Bains

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

N/A

Best Laid Plans And Other Betrayals, Kimberly Clouse

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

American Cuerpos, Devan Schwartz

Dissertations and Theses

On election night 2008, a child is conceived by two Barack Obama campaign staffers--Daniel from Seattle, Anza from Honduras. American Cuerpos is a novel about the body and the body politic, about what it means to give birth through the eyes of both mother and father.

The Damage Done And Other Stories, Jamie Larson

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Are You Still Listening?, Alden Eagle

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Ugly Love, Kevin Kish

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

The Eye Of The Elephant, Lindsay H. Allen

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

You're Among Friends, Denise Dirks

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

The Weight Of Water And Other Stories, Lindsay Maples

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Fantasy Revisited: A Writer's Escape From The Bindings Of Reality, Victoria Page

Morehead State Theses and Dissertations

A project thesis submitted to the faculty of Morehead State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Fine Arts in the Department of English at Morehead State University by Victoria Page in May of 2012.

Life Across Friends, Brandon Ballard

Morehead State Theses and Dissertations

A project thesis submitted to the faculty of Morehead State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Fine Arts in the Department of English at Morehead State University by Brandon Ballardin May of 2012,

Marais Des Cygnes, John Michael Orr

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis documents the concept, process, installation, and specific pieces in my Master of Fine Arts thesis exhibition, Marais des Cygnes. The Marais des Cygnes is a river in southeast Kansas and western Missouri, near a Bleeding Kansas-era massacre site of the same name. The river is notorious for flash flooding, was named by French explorers and translates to Marsh of the Swans. The work is about a fictional wandering car thief and alcoholic named Vernon, the bad guy in my novel. Vernon is obsessed with the distant past, particularly the time before the Louisiana Purchase and the Louisiana of …

No One Really Knows You, Andrew Charles Rhodes

Master's Theses

This is a collection of five short stories that I have written during my time in the Center for Writers at the University of Southern Mississippi. The stories were written, revised, and workshopped in graduate classes over the last two years.

The Sacred Role Of Animal Beings In Iroquois Lore, Melissa J. Martinelli

English Theses

The act of storytelling provides a connection between the spiritual and physical spheres, and the Haudenosaunee people (more commonly recognized as Iroquois) utilize the oral narrative to convey the most sacred truths of their culture. In focusing primarily upon animals and animal beings, one can recognize the deep reverence traditional tribal members feel toward animals as certain legends seek to unite individuals with the spirits, personalities, and bodies of such creatures in narrative form. Too often animals are overlooked as “lesser” beings, yet in legends of the Iroquois they possess potent orenda (great power) that can help one achieve success …

Tiny Animals Made To Do Unnatural Things, Ashley Mary Siebels

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The stories in this collection revolve around a central theme which is expressed by my titleTiny Animals Made To Do Unnatural Things. All my characters feel guilt about decisions and experiences that haunt their past. In the present, they have come to a crossroads and are trying to decipher between what they were made to do as in vocation and evolution and what they are being made to do by the authorial pressures that loom over them (e.g. bosses, parents, loan officers, prison guards.)

In this way, my thesis pivots on the word made. Made (or to make) has many …

Secrets In A Box, Charlotte Joann Cain

Morehead State Theses and Dissertations

A project thesis submitted to the faculty of Morehead State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Fine Arts in the Department of English at Morehead State University by Charlotte Joann Cain in May of 2012.

Out Of The Body, Benjamin Louis Duvall

Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

This thesis contains four original pieces of short fiction and one short essay on the craft of writing fiction. The short stories range in topics from a young man who doesn’t want to work in his father’s business to a writer who comes face to face – and often shares bodies – with his own characters. Two of the stories are literary fiction, one is metafiction, and one is science-fiction. All four stories are written in the first-person point of view. The craft essay examines the prevalence and implications of the self-aware first-person narrator in fiction. This particular narrative style …

The Wanderers And Other Stories, Courteney Danielle Watson

Dissertations

The Wanderers and Other Stories is a collection of short stories that explores themes of travel and isolation within interior and exterior spaces. The object of this collection is to define the point of disruption between persona and the “other” self and to evaluate the limitations of communication and language. Many of these stories reflect on the literal and metaphorical distance between people and attempt to hone in on the point of contact—and often rupture—that characterizes the fraught nature of human relationships. The collection is accompanied by a critical introduction.

Penance: A Novel, Rachel Anne Weiser

Honors Capstone Projects - All

Penance is a fictional novel written both as an Honors Capstone project and as a work that will be further revised and eventually submitted for professional publication.

The novel is set in modern day, in the fictional southern city of Avington. Avington, like the rest of the world, is home to a group of terrifying creatures called the nephilim, a name derived from Hebrew, meaning “the fallen.” The nephilim are humans who once died and were reborn as undead creatures; because of their insatiable thirst for human life energy, they are considered demons with the faces of men. Despite the …

The Gatekeepers Of The Black Press, Sadé Khadijah Muhammad

Honors Capstone Projects - All

Abstract Not Available

Walking With The Wampus, Abigail Grace Griffith

Masters Theses

In Walking with the Wampus, Abigail (Abby) Griffith offers a collection of short stories that toe the slippery stream that runs between the shores of the fantastic and the mundane. Challenging preconceptions of what might be traditionally defined as “literary fiction,” Griffith’s stories are three parts surrealism to two parts metafiction. Fairy tales that come equipped with teeth and a twist, this collection introduces readers to a ragtag variety of characters, including: a girl who turns everything she touches to ice and the Devil who loves her, a kid cursed with a mother who just might be a goldfish, a …

On Our Way Out: And Other Stories, Benjamin Champlin Wright Morris

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

On Our Way Out and other stories is a collection of short fiction banded together with themes of the darkened strange, the missing and the moving, and a sense of place. The characters in these stories try to claw their way to newfound identities, whether it's through a financial transaction, saving a life, or putting a body in the ground. An action with a result is what's needed in these characters' lives. Though, often, the results are not intended. Despite the oddity inherent in these stories and characters, there is something familiar about their plight as ordinary people, something in …

Talk Me Down: A Selection Of Short Stories, Katie Elyce Freeman

Masters Theses

In Talk Me Down, Katie Elyce Freeman offers a selection of short stories that follows young characters in their pursuit for self-satisfaction. At times her characters are uncertain of their talents, at times wracked with guilt over immature mistakes; but their highly detailed, sensory worlds often deliver a needed coincidence, a sliver of light to lead their way.