Creative Writing Commons^™

Bough And Hollow, Jeffrey Dylan Nutter

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis uses poetry to explore the complex relationships surrounding the speaker and the father. Furthermore, the poems contained here work to address the major themes of language, family, and home in an attempt at unraveling the self and discovering identity. Another important touchstone for this thesis is the thread of abuse throughout the father’s life. Together the various threads and themes of this thesis are working toward a collective understanding of how the past and present manifest in the body and voice of the speaker.

The Youngest, Trezlen Drake

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is a collection of poems that considers life in a southern Black family, memory, nostalgia, dysfunction, race and gender, and generational trauma. These poems are influenced by poetry, fiction, music, popular culture, and scholarship, each providing a different perspective on life and language to talk about that which can sometimes be unspeakable.

A recurring character in this collection is the girlchild, reminiscent of Marge Piercy’s character in “Barbie Doll.” The girlchild here is the figure of the woman or girl who experiences trauma, and what some consider to be unspeakable.

These poems are also an exploration and disruption …

Might Could, Cody Donovan Hosek

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis uses poetry to draw attention to the means in which we communicate ourselves and our experience, namely in the aftermath of loss—loss of loved ones, of a sense of home, loss of trust in the veracity of one’s own senses. While exploring these affective spaces, attention was drawn especially to the eye and the translation implicit in the mind’s work of perception. The writing process involved returning to the sites of home—the Outer Banks, the Blue Ridge mountains, Oconee county, the southern stretch of Appalachia—and it is in this dynamic geography that the images, more often natural than …

The Introvert's Guide To The Galaxy: A Reflective Guide Of Solo Travel And Study Abroad, Hope Patterson

Senior Theses

Oringinally meant to be a much longer volume, The Introvert’s Guide to the Galaxy is a creative anthology of works that explores one person’s Study Abroad and solo travel experiences. The main goal is to open a space to talk about unique experiences that cannot be anticipated, but should be learned from later. Topics include culture shock, sexism, alcohol culture, family, freelance tutoring, and risky outdoor activites.

Travel with our trusty guide as she fills you in on the things to know while traveling abroad, including finding perfect outdoor sleeping conditions because you missed all the taxis, dealing with the …

Wave Of Arrival, Cathleen Bonner

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis uses poetry to explore the influences of space and geographical location on subjective perception and vision. More specifically, it aims to use landscape to observe the visible and invisible qualities of a geographical space, and investigate the ways in which perception of those spatial boundaries can be used to create self-portraits. It also aims to revise traditional, romanticized versions of the American West as manifested in poetry and photography in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. To do so, it focuses its attention on the man-altered landscape, rather than the pure, wild landscape as a space barricaded …

Volumes, Matthew Brooks Stark

Theses and Dissertations

Volumes is a book-length work of poetry in three parts. Volumes investigates the process of art, wherein the creative act constructs both the created object and its creator the artist. I use the term "creation" rather loosely: I propose such an act to be present within one's self-recognition, imaginative contextualization of oneself within a setting, or performance of a role. Volumes, through Ars Poeticas, struggles with ideas of self-awareness, wherein the artist achieves a unique determinacy before and after a creative act because the artist is necessarily changed by the act of creation. The project struggles against the opaqueness of …

And Still It Moves, Elizabeth Breen

Theses and Dissertations

This manuscript represents thirty-two poems written over three years. Major themes include: split selves, family, death, astronomy and fear of flying. I hope to showcase a diverse range of poetic forms while maintaining a consistent but fluid voice. The collection takes its name from unconfirmed anecdote about Galileo Galilei: when asked by the Italian Inquisition to recant his claim that the earth moved around the sun he did--and in doing so saved his own life. However, legend has it as he left he said under his breath eppur si muove or "still it moves." Regardless of what we say about …