Creative Writing Commons^™

Big Nothing: A Story About Bicycles And The Girls Who Ride Them In The Heart Of West Texas, Keziah Staska

Honors Program Theses and Projects

Their one-way road trip had started the day before when they left their home in San Bernardino for the final time. Paisley was afraid of moving away from the city she grew up in, but not for the same reasons many children her age would be. . So, her social life wasn’t her primary concern when it came time to abandon her home. Instead, she was afraid to leave San Bernardino because she had memorized all the perfect bike routes within a thirty-mile radius. On the other, the fear that their new home would have insufficient routes and roads compared …

Delivering Extinction, Tatum Cordy

Honors College Theses

Living during a human extinction is something no one is prepared for. No one thought humans would last this long. Even the sun dies eventually. A child’s drawing with a dripping smile. Sun rays heating soil into dust, melting metals, and large pine trees would light like matches. Smoke would rise into the air blocking out everything but the fires taking over the once livable landscape of Earth. Then, it would be over. The sun would explode. Simple and quick, painless for the few who wouldn’t try to resist their demise. Too bad humans were a few million years early. …

Skeletons In My Closet: A Collection Of Personal Essays And Short Fiction, Macey Howell

Honors Scholars Collaborative Projects

My thesis will be a collection of personal essays and short fiction centered on examining the ties between fashion and identity and told through a Gothic literary tradition. I seek to explore my identity by examining my personal style using the mode of the Gothic. Through this project, I will encapsulate my sense of style, and therefore my sense of self, in words and explore the nuances of my identity through creative nonfiction and fiction.

I have a distinct sense of style that is inseparable from my identity as a woman, as an artist, as a human drawn to beauty …

The Language Of Breathing, Brian Wallace Baker

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The Language of Breathing is an eclectic collection of 18 creative nonfiction essays that capture moments from the author’s life and attempt to give them meaning through narrative and metaphor. They deal with relationships, nature, faith, and often rely on background research to pair art, mythology, current events, and science with personal experience.

From The Shadows: Setting As An Expression Of Character Development In The Epic Fantasy Genre, Leah Henson

Senior Honors Theses

Epic fantasy is a genre defined by its setting. It offers writers the opportunity to be incredibly specific with the way setting contributes to the overall story, specifically as an aid character development. In order to successfully use setting to support character development, the writer must understand what preconceptions with which the reader enters the epic fantasy genre and what purpose setting plays in the overarching story world. The writer must determine what setting elements to include and, just as importantly, which to leave out. Finally, because setting is such an abstract component of writing, it is useful not only …

Banana Bread, Madeleine L. Quinn

Student Publications

This poem describes a young narrators exploration of her grandmother's battle with dementia. Her grandma's unwavering love still finds ways to shine through.

Rejuvenation: University Of Maine At Farmington Honors Journal Spring 2020, University Of Maine At Farmington

Honors Journal

For the second time we have come together as an honors program and de- cided to showcase students’ work. Our honors students drive and motivation here at Farmington goes beyond expectation. Time and time again students push limits and comfort zones to come up with amazing ideas, thoughts, and advice to their fellow students and themselves. In their works it is clear the power writing and art has in their expression. It is our special privilege to be able to showcase the bold, authetic works each of our contributors brought here for publication.

The University of Maine at Farmington Honors …

Closure, Madeleine L. Quinn

Student Publications

This poem explores the idea of closure through various lenses of the narrators life.

Introductory Workshops In Creative Writing: Writing Prompt Phase 2 - Relearning The Craft, Noelle M. Nagales

Open Educational Resources

For this assignment, you will be required to do two things. One: visit a specific place of your choice. It can be anywhere, on own your free time (either on the train, at a museum, a restaurant, at the movies with your friends, or even at your local cafe). There, you will jot down on a sheet of paper (NOT on your phone) a bullet point list of all the things you hear or see (conversations and observations). The point is to not have your phone in hand and to be completely observant of your surroundings. Two: then …

Introductory Workshops In Creative Writing: Writing Prompt Phase 1 - Understanding The Self, Noelle Marie Nagales

Open Educational Resources

What is this idea of “self?” How do we define it or more specifically how do we represent ourselves (as the writer) on page and to what extent can we make our own voice visible? Anyone can write a story, but where do you as the author exist within your own work?

For this assignment, you will be required to write a memoir (a personal narrative) or a short piece of fiction that depicts some aspect of yourself or an attribute of it, present within your own life. You can either focus on a specific moment of time, place, person, …

Consulting On Creative Writing In Undergraduate Writing Centers, Alaina Taylor

Honors Projects

This project is intended to serve as a guide for present and future writing consultants in navigating creative writing-based consultations. Preliminary research was conducted among existing employees of the Frederick Meijer Center for Writing and Michigan Authors in order to gauge which aspects of consulting on creative writing they felt the most uneasy facing. These were narrowed down to four main areas. By combining discussions held during the Creative Writing Committee team and secondary research, strategies were designed in order to help navigate these specific areas.

What If Society Changed?: A Collection Of Dystopian Stories, Mara Miller

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

My senior project will be to write a collection of stories in a variety of creative forms ranging from a single short story to a linked collection to a novella. All of the stories give a glimpse into a futuristic society based off of a contemporary issue. The project itself is two fold. It is an exercise in social criticism through story, as well as an exploration of types of stories.

Growth Theory, Samantha Leon

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

GROWTH THEORY reckons with a natural world in distress and imagines what attributes and learnings are needed for the individual to become a more beneficial part of the natural world. What does a person’s interaction with their surroundings say about them, and say about the surroundings? Violence, art, relationships, community are all examined along with the mediums through which we record our reality: speaking, writing, singing, taking photos. Despite covering a breadth of physical places and topics, a central tension that takes place between fear and curiosity colors the manuscript throughout. Poems are ordered by subject or temporal consideration, but …

Switch, Freesia Walsh Mckee

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

SWITCH is a collection of post-confessional feminist poems exploring what it means to be a Millennial, a witness, a woman, a daughter, a dissident, and a student and teacher at the same time. Bookended by two long poems, the poetic-narrative heart of this collection dives into experiences of queer self-actualization, violence, community, family, and love. Narratives about simultaneity, empathy, and politics drive home the message of these poems: the dailiness of our lives is both quotidian and profound.

SWITCH is inspired by writers like Ellen Bass, Audre Lorde, Allison Joseph, June Jordan, Judy Grahn, and Marge Piercy, who’ve used intimate, …

Final Report: Writing On Writing A Novel, Kristen Cote

SASAH 4th Year Capstone and Other Projects: Publications

In her report, Kristen Cote discusses the independent project she developed for her experiential-learning requirement in the School for Advanced Studies in the Arts & Humanities (SASAH). She details the genesis of and influences on her project, the development and organization, and the writing process.

Translator Of Soliloquies: Fugues In The Key Of Dissociation, Seo-Young J. Chu

Publications and Research

Chu, Seo-Young. “Translator of Soliloquies: Fugues in the Key of Dissociation” (chapbook). Black Warrior Review 46.2, Spring 2020.

Dark Magic Part 1, Rachel Quaid

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Dark Magic is a novel that mixes old folklore with fantasy and a splash of modern day. This first part of the novel readies the readers to enter the world of the old Irish Aos Sì. Ophelia is a witch, living in the land of the fae. She signs up to help with a research study to better her chances at succeeding as a healer. Rhea is a member of the Tuatha de Danann, the fae folk who rule the land from their courts of old. She is sent by her caretaker to observe this study. Everyone knows witches and …