Creative Writing Commons^™

The Breath We Walk On, Sean Matthew Tribe

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

"The Breath We Walk On" is a collection of poems written during my time at UNLV, instructed by the poetic works of George Oppen, DH Lawrence, William Blake, Alice Notley, Walt Whitman, Allen Ginsberg and John Donne, as well as, The Greek Anthology, The Bible, and The Gnostic Gospels. The major ideas forming this collection detail issues of self in relation to the world. The poems that were most instructive from these books explore this idea in the best of their works. Other questions addressed are how can human beings live in a way that inflicts minimal harm to the …

Answer Me That, Catherine Davis

Dissertations

This is a collection of five works of short fiction and one creative non-fiction essay.

Neon Allegiance, Jason Paul Olsen

Dissertations

This collection of thirty-one poems is built around my personal search for place, the idea of "home," and how it is relationship more than mere geography that defines the places one encounters in a life. In these poems, that idea of "home" ties back to intimate relationships with family and friends, but also with relationships involving culture—both historical and popular—as a whole.

The collection itself is a pastiche of strategies and stylizations, united by a defined and consistent voice. The geographic locations vary—from Las Vegas (where the largest number of poems and energy are focused) to stops in points across …

Night Field Anecdote, William Garrett Wright

Dissertations

Night Field Anecdote is an original collection of forty-one poems accompanied by a critical introduction.

That Almond Smell: Seven Short Stories, John J. Mccormack

Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

No abstract

The Animal Coming Together, Rodney Gomez

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

This project is an ekphrastic collection of poems. The term 'ekphrasis' is usually used to refer to texts that respond to or are influenced by particular works of visual art, but it can sometimes be used to refer to texts that respond to non-visual art as well, such as musical compositions. I take the more inclusive approach to ekphrasis: most of the poems in this collection are based on paintings, but several are based on photos, films, sculpture, multimedia works, musical compositions, and art generally. Most of the poems are based on Chican@ and Latin American art. The collection is …

Till, Jonathan Peter Moore

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

till is a collection of poetry exclusively composed while the poet was a graduate student in the Creative Writing International Master of Fine Arts program at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. The manuscript includes ekphrastic reflections on William Eggleston's Guide and confronts regionalism, religion and past/present subjectivity.

Issaquah In January, Daniel Walter Morris

Dissertations

ISSAQUAH IN JANUARY is an original collection of fifty-one poems accompanied by a preface.

The Sociology Of Scenes, The Sacramento Poetry Scene, Dana Nell Maher

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

For this ethnography, I use my feminist perspective, grounded theory, participant observation, and autoethnographic techniques to explore an urban poetry scene. I suggest that scene studies are a viable alternative to community studies and that we move our articulation of social experience to reflect it as it occurs, on a multitude of continuums. My goal with this project is to develop, use, and discuss the utility of a definition of scene that is intended to be useful to scene studies researchers. To this end, I both evaluate an outdated definition of scene (Irwin 1973 & 1977), and define the three …

Blocked: Short Story Manuscript, Christopher Hazle-Cary

Honors Capstone Projects - All

Blocked is a manuscript of short stories designed to explore conceptions of selfhood as represented in the fictional story. In the manuscript, I investigate issues of performance and authority as they relate to how characters define themselves in relation to the other—both the other characters in the story as well as the socio-cultural structures they have come to inhabit.

The loss of authority is a theme that I explore throughout my work. I am interested in authority as another aspect of performance—another role that people play, a mask (or face) that they take on. It also relates directly to the …

For The Stadium Vendor, Richard Andrew Boada

Dissertations

FOR THE STADIUM VENDOR is an original collection of fifty poems accompanied by a preface.

Companionship Through Standard Question And Answer Routines, Ryan Saxon Davidson

Dissertations

Companionship through Standard Question and Answer Routines is a collection of short stories and short shorts dealing with the nature of human relationships and the ways in which people get to know each other.

The Projectionist, Travis Keith Kurowski

Dissertations

The Projectionist is a collection of short stories composed during my studies at The University of Southern Mississippi Center for Writers between the years 2006 and 2009. n

Room, Vallie Lynn Watson

Dissertations

Room is a short novel written at The University of Southern Mississippi. It is accompanied by a critical preface.

The Naming Of Strays, Erin Elizabeth Smith

Dissertations

The Naming of Strays is a collection of poems that deal with issues of place, gender power, sexual fidelity, and transience. While the majority of the poems are written in free verse, the dissertation also features a handful of formal poems including sonnets, sestinas, and prose poetry. n

Petticoat Government: Poems And Essays, Tiffany Ann Noonan

Dissertations

Petticoat Government is a collection of poems and essays that draw upon the varied lexicons of science, mythology, sports, literature, travel, art, fashion, and popular culture in an attempt to understand what deliminates womanhood. Using a mix of traditional and contemporary forms, these texts seek to complicate the myriad—and often conflicting—models of femaleness and the female body.

Limitless And Free, David Nicholas

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Every mission through time and space to save Jim Morrison's life failed. He always died, no matter what. Always at four-ten AM, on Saturday, July the third, nineteen-seventy-one. Each of Jim's many deaths—in Paris or L.A.; bearded or shaved; drunk or sober—reminded me of my father, at home in the year two-thousand-and-six, in a hospital bed at St. Luke's, who, like Jim in nineteen-seventy-one, had death written all over him.

The Sweet Air, Ann Braley Smith

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

1. April

1986: Wind melds sky turns to rain turns to snow turns to white closes in.

A South Dakota blizzard is a shape-shifter, undulating, hiding, revealing little of what lies beneath. In its aftermath, fallen snow is delicate, ephemeral. It quells noise, erases the line between earth and sky. It envelops sound: footsteps, passing vehicle, a runaway dog, cannot shatter this silence. The tired scraping of a metal shovel against idewalk is the only thing penetrating the quiet, quiet hush, as I wade through snow in my Sorels, clearing the walk. Breathing in, I feel my nostrils sting. I …

Following Cleng Peerson: A Niece's Journey, Christine Suzanne Ardis

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

In the summer of 1821, Cleng Peerson came to America as a scout for a group of Norwegians hoping to find a place where they could freely express their religion and enjoy economic prosperity. In this thesis, I explore the results of Cleng’s scouting and his preparations for the arrival of his sister, Carrie, her family and their friends on the Norwegian sloop Restaurationen. Throughout the text, I juxtapose my life story with Cleng’s. Together we experience relocation, homesickness and hardships and create a familial bond 188 years after his arrival in America. My thesis ends at the Murray/Kendall settlement …

“Jugando En Serio” And Other Works, Shoney Flores

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

In the critical introduction of this thesis, I explore how the different choices we make as creative writers affect the targeted audience of a work. I focus on the endless battle between genre writing and literary writing, in hopes of there being a style of writing that can utilize the best of both. I write about the issues and themes of the works in this thesis that come close to being nonfiction. Finally, I highlight how stylistic choices in bilingual writing can change or destroy potential audiences. These are aspects that have shaped the creative writing included in this collection. …

Static And Accent, Naomi Beth Tarle

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

This thesis continues my ongoing interest with art and writing, and my concern with investigating both of them as a subject I find difficult and frightening. I manipulated, and integrated sources from various disciplines, until the major source text became accessible. Tension regarding inheriting personal and general history is a vital aspect of the work. My engagement with art and writing is in line with Max Ernst and Norma Cole. Their works exhibit the energy of collaboration between multiple mediums and forms.

The rewrites are a type of translation, interpretation; they are an alternate version of the original. The rewrites …

Among The Stars, Bradley Cook

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

The left-fielder lays the boy’s things across the passenger seat: a jersey worn by the left-fielder two seasons ago, an autographed baseball in a glass cube, new glove. He folds the note from the boy’s father and slides it into his shirt pocket. Errands: bank deposit, clothes to the cleaners, a list from his wife of items at the store—bread, coffee, Capri Sun for Karl’s lunches. He sits behind the wheel and watches Karl, his son, roughhouse with the neighbor kid. His son is tough, like he used to be. Different neighborhoods, but boys can be tough anywhere. The left-fielder …

Circuit Rider, Kimberley Harris Idol

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

An historical novel set at the end of the American Civil War focusing on the week between President Lincoln's assassination and John Wilkes Booth's death. The backdrop of the story is comprised of the historical events and political figures that shaped this period in time in America. The plot is also configured around the fictional histories of three young souls, the spirit of a murdered Chinese immigrant girl, and a brother and sister who's home in the Appalachians was destroyed during the war. All three are escaping the devastating consequences of the war and seeking a new start in the …

Wraith Walking, Jason Coley

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

With this work I wanted to explore the space between memory and imagination: namely, how much imagination fills the fissures that run though our knowledge of our past. The protagonist, Joshua, has been estranged from his family for nine years and learns of his father's death while in China. But without explanation, Joshua is awaken one morning by an old fabrication of his childhood imagination--a character now very real--who accompanies Joshua on his search for a fantastical object.

Pareidolia is the phenomenon of seeing figures and faces in vague stimulus, such as clouds and wood grains. It is commonly believed …

Perspectives, Lauren Orsini

Student Research Submissions

No abstract provided.

Lost Sex And Other Poems, Katherine Ringley

Theses & Honors Papers

The purpose of this thesis is to examine, through a collection of poetry, loss and its effect on the speaker or characters of each poem. In "Lost Sex and Other Poems, " I often write about death, the ending of relationships, and loss of the self. While addressing these subjects, I also focus on a turn from religion, or a sense of disillusionment with cultural norms, that often follows a substantial loss. As Elizabeth Bishop once wrote, "the art of losing isn't hard to master," and I have had to face and evaluate many different changes in my life. The …

Things I Remember Which I Cannot Prove And Other Stories, Austin Eichelberger

Theses & Honors Papers

This thesis is a collection of short narrative fiction stories which vary in length from one page to several.

Nakajima Atsushi Influences Of Romanticism And Taoism, Evelyn Huang

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

Abstract Nakajima Atsushi (1909-1942) is an erudite writer who has combined Eastern and Western thoughts in his short stories. This thesis focuses on the influences of Romanticism and Taoism on his writings. Nakajima is skeptical of civilization and yearns for a natural and simple existence. The concepts central to Nakajima's works as articulated by Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Lao Tzu are introduced in chapter l. Chapter 2 examines Nakajima's upbringing and the influences of his family, education, and work on him, as well as his thoughts revealed in his autobiographical fiction. His nostalgia for the past and nature, which concurs with …

Come Tomorrow, Annemarie C. Messier

Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview

Collection of five short stories : Foo Foo, Like Father, Birthday Girl, Omens, and Come Tomorrow.

The Natural Order Of Things: Stories, Gene Albamonte

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Natural Order of Things is a collection of unrelated short stories that focuses on the love, despair, happiness and sorrow prevalent in relationships. Another common thread is how the lack of communication between family, friends and lovers can create burdens that, in some cases, are simply too heavy to lift. Some of the stories have a humorous voice while dealing with those burdens. Many others deal with the complexities of those emotions in a more somber tone. These fictional stories are completely unrelated to each other, and yet they all aim to shine a light on life's conflicts--and on …