Creative Writing Commons^™

Stopping For Death: Plays, Poetry, And Prose, Sally Johnson

Honors Theses

Thesis consists of plays and poetry composed by Sally Johnson.

Poeta Power: The Poetic Journey Of La Erika: Poems, Erika Marie Garza-Johnson

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

This is a collection of poetry set in the borderlands of deep South Texas. The poems take as their subject Chican@ identity, family, the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas, Edcouch-Elsa, Texas, cancer, sexuality, Chicana feminism, childbirth and children, marriage, education, folklore, epithets, among others. As a cycle, they represent the poet‘s development through key stages in her life, including childbirth, marriage, and death of a parent. Many poems in this collection also reflect the linguistic diversity of the U.S.-Mexico border through the poet’s use of code-switching and Tex Mex.

Valley Palm, Melissa E. King

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

In the critical introduction of this thesis, I explore how choices and consequences affect a life, my life. This leads to a discussion of the struggle I had with labeling my work nonfiction. I also explore the effect structure has on the narrative arc and characters in a work, and discuss my process of deciding on a form for my creative thesis. Highlighted in this discussion is the influence of feminism and feminist authors. Finally, I intimate my issues with my cultural identity, and how this is reflected in my story and my place in the literary world. These are …

Put Into Place, Heather C. Carey

Theses & Honors Papers

The blending of illusion and reality is the most prominent theme in the thesis. A mirror is the introductory metaphor for m perception of self and God; it reflects reality, bur does not capture internal conflict. As a character in the work, I internalize others' truths to create my persona; my narrative stance reflects my disconnected, dispassionate view of reality. The cold, stark church building serves as the metaphor for church members' treatment of my family under the guise of religious authority. Elementary school classmates' actions blend with those of men in my dating life to affect this persona and …

Daimon, Miranda Foster Merklein

Dissertations

The following creative dissertation is a book of 57 poems.

The Holiness And Other Stories, Leslie Michelle Nichols

Dissertations

This dissertation is a collection of an introductory essay and ten original short stories written and submitted to fiction workshops in the PhD program at The University of Southern Mississippi’s Center for Writers.

Monticello Rising, Charles Edward Campbell

Dissertations

Monticello Rising is a compilation of fiction accompanied by a critical preface. The pieces within were all composed during my studies at the University of Southern Mississippi’s Center for Writers between the years of 2008-2010. The collection is about aspects of growth, initiation, and loss in human relationships.

Disappearing Children, Beth Lynn Couture

Dissertations

This collection of short stories is primarily concerned with the dynamic between adults and children—parents and their own children, teachers and their students, and other adult/child relationships. In each of the stories, children present a psychological or emotional challenge to the adults, one with which they are not always equipped to cope. They are a problem which cannot be solved easily, if it can be solved at all. On a formal level, the stories in this collection seek to blur the line between the mundane and the magical. Though the collection is riddled with the fantastic, at its center is …

Grown Men, Daniel Charles Crocker

Dissertations

Grown Men is a collection of short fiction that articulates the themes of poverty, adulthood, alcoholism and faith. Some of the stories use the same characters in order to further explore place and economic and social status. Set in small towns in Missouri and Mississippi, Grown Men seeks to examine the way men deal with their changing roles when they lose their jobs, relationships and families. The collection is accompanied by a critical introduction. ii

A Person Of Interest, Jesse Lepre

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

Presents a drama-based screenplay which explores the stereotyping of the modern Italian-American male in contemporary American society.

Meddlesome Markets And Epistolary Escapes: Mediating Discourses In Gissing's New Grub Street, Robert Fanzo

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

.

On Family And Fences: Tracing Melungeon Roots In The Blue Ridge Mountains Of Virginia And Tennessee, Ron Horton

Dissertations and Theses

The Melungeons are a group of indeterminable origin living in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Southeastern Tennessee and Southwestern Virginia. This thesis describes characteristics of these tri-racial isolates and gives theories as to their mysterious origins. Being darker skinned, the Melungeons were pushed into more mountainous regions by European colonists in the early 1700’s. While multiple hypotheses exist as to the origin of the Melungeon people, there is no single theory that is accepted by all scholars.

Dr. Brent Kennedy’s The Melungeons: The Resurrection of a Proud People, served as a catalyst for my Melungeon research. Kennedy is my …

Across Our Native Wild: Explorations In The Search For Home, Stacey Greene

Morehead State Theses and Dissertations

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 Stacey Greene in May of 2010.

Broken Stone: Finding Dust And Dragons In Appalachia, Jonathan Lounsberry

Morehead State Theses and Dissertations

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 Jonathan Lounsberry in May of 2010.

Monarchs In Love And Other Stories, Matthew Swetnam

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Monarchs in Love and Other Stories is a collection of nine short stories. These stories are structurally and tonally heterogeneous, and it is this heterogeneity of form that emerges as the collection's central concern. Present are stories which borrow other forms' organizational conceits (the almanac entries of "Excerpts from the Dwarf-Monger's Handbook"), stories which arrange themselves around arbitrary organizational conceits (the order of the letters of the alphabet in "26 Characters"), and stories which employ radically traditional formal models ("Blind Boy and Mammoth.") Present are stories narrated in the first-person point-of-view ("For a Walk," "Harem Girls"), stories narrated in the …

True You Magazine, Amanda Romaniello

Honors Capstone Projects - All

True You Magazine was created because of the turmoil and conflict that today’s media creates for young girls between the ages of 10 years old and 14 years old. Girls of this age are highly susceptible to influences of any media form, including magazines, television shows, and movies. In the magazine industry, there are many women’s and teen fashion and health magazines. Unfortunately, the majority of these publications lack healthy representation of female bodies. Some of these magazines also discuss and advise on topics, like sex or dieting, that girls in this young age range should not be reading.

Knowing …

Upstate Roadkill Memorial Service, Scott Christian Fynboe

Dissertations

Upstate Roadkill Memorial Service is a collection of poems that examines death and mortality and includes a critical preface.

The Son's Return, Gary Charles Wilkens

Dissertations

This dissertation is a collection of poems accompanied by a critical preface.

The Nightingale Of Austerlitz, Lindsay Marianna Walker

Dissertations

The Nightingale of Austerlitz employs poetry, fiction, and nonfiction to articulate the theme of (mis)communication. A pliable, multi-genre approach was necessary to convey the urgency of two central characters’ desire to connect despite the impossibility of doing so. Prose interrupts and challenges the set precision of poetry in order to embody the stops and starts—the literal and figurative breakdowns—of communication. The juxtaposition of genres dramatizes dialogue, silence, affective distance, and desire. Song, sound, repetition (using lullaby, referencing music, thematizing the ear) further assert the power of language as performance and aesthetics as consolation, and provoke a particular kind of attention …

Cryptid, Phillip Jarett Underwood

Dissertations

Cryptid is a term from the field of cryptozoology, which ostensibly presents itself as the study of creatures that may or may not exist, such as – but not limited to – Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, and the Jersey Devil. The term itself, cryptid, refers to one of these unknown creatures. The novella presented here concerns a half-Native American man and his struggle to know not only his dead parents, but himself and his place in the world. While cryptids play a minor role within the boundaries of the narrative itself, the novella concerns itself more with the ways …

Not Knowing The Days, Jennifer Davis

Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

This thesis consists of a collection of three short stories and the chapter of my first novel, as well as a critical introduction addressing the literary and creative contexts of the work. The pieces encompass a range of themes, but I have paid particular attention to perspective, perception, and a feeling of displacement or incongruity with society. In the introduction, I discuss the Southern Gothic genre in literature and how several of its characteristics have shaped the stories in my collection as well as my writing in general, especially verisimilitude and the grotesque.

Disappointing Shades, Ann Shivers Mcnair

Master's Theses

Disappointing Shades is a collection of poems written at The University of Southern Mississippi. It is accompanied by a critical preface.

Editing The Outcrowd, Alex Kish

Honors Capstone Projects - All

My capstone project is the completion of two issues of The Outcrowd, a student run lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and ally magazine at Syracuse University. I served as editor-in-chief of the publication from fall 2009 to spring 2010. As a magazine journalism major, my leadership position on t this campus magazine helped improve my editorial skills, and taught me to become a more effective leader. Both issues were published toward the end of both semesters and were distributed across Syracuse University’s campus.

My reflective essay discusses the editorial vision behind the publication. Since its creation, The Outcrowd has …

El Huisache Es Pocho, Pero Las Raíces No: Poems, Isaac Chavarria

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

This project is a collection of pocho poetry. The poems in my collection emphasize my identity as pocho. The term “pocho” is often used as a derogatory term describing a Mexican American who has lost the ability to speak Spanish. I recontextualize the border pocho as an occupant of two nationalities, as well as several social classes. Along with poets who identify themselves as Chicano/a, I am inspired by family and acquaintances who self identify as Chicano/a, Hispanic, Mexican American, or Mexican. I believe the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas is a unique enclave influenced by its people, landscape, …

Scores: A Story Collection, Robert Paul Moreira

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

This is a short story collection dealing with the themes of identity, immigration, death, and ethnicity, all juxtaposed with the game of baseball. The critical introduction of this thesis begins with a detailed survey of the baseball fiction genre, with a focus on seminal works and their respective authors, and their place in American literature. I examine major authors outside the genre who have employed baseball (metaphorically, symbolically, synecdochically) in their own works, as well as analyze the effect and evolution of realism in baseball fiction, and the themes of ethnicity and identity. I explore my own works in the …

Angel Walking: A Documentary, Jesse F. Garza

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

This creative thesis is divided into two parts: “The Critical Introduction” & “Angel Walking: A Documentary Screenplay.” In the “Critical Introduction to Angel Walking: A Documentary” I define the modes used and how similar documentaries and movies have helped me formulate a stronger story to showcase cerebral palsy from a 12 year old Latino’s perspective. I discuss how filming the documentary was an engaging process and led me to find a connection with the subject. This leads to how the development of writing the screenplay is somewhat of a “backward-process.” Therefore, the second half of this creative thesis is the …

Low Water: A Collection Of Short Fiction, Charles Conn

Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

The craft of fiction evolves and progresses alongside other pursuits in the humanities. This thesis project represents a culmination of study in the process of creating fiction from standard practices which are fundamental to creating fiction that “works” to innovations in the field and how they have shaped the craft through its history. The creative thesis project is an attempt to apply some of these fundamental and experimental concepts to my own creative work and thereby develop a collection of short fiction representative of my abilities as a writer and my training as a writing student. A brief look into …

Starkin, Rebecca W. Miller

Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

In traditional fantasy novels, as established with J.R.R. Tolkien‘s Lord of the Rings, the main character embarks on a heroic journey. As defined by Joseph Campbell, who was the author, editor and translator of books on mythology such as The Hero with a Thousand Faces a heroic journey is an epic quest that leads the hero physically to an internal rebirth. Within Campbell‘s study of the monomyth, using those conventions outlined by Campbell, I will show how Tolkien elements uses Campbell‘s conventions in Middle Earth, where a simple young hobbit ends up saving his world. In traditional fantasy, the stories …

Manuscripts, Illuminated: A Collection Of Ekphrastic Poems, Jacqueline Vienna Goates

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

This thesis is a unique integration of creative writing and research of a specific literary tradition. As a student of art history and literature, and a creative writer, I am interested in fusing my interests by writing about art and studying the relationships between text and image. I have written a collection of ekphrastic poems, poems which are based on works of art. After reading extensively in this genre of poetry and researching its origins and evolution throughout literary history, I have come to a greater appreciation for those who write ekphrasis and what it can accomplish in the craft …

Between Silver And Glass, Catherine V. Lopez

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

The critical introduction explores my stories, as well as my influences, and ultimate desires for said stories. The stories themselves explore a variety of topics. They are stories about growing up. They are stories about being a girl. They are stories about the magical world we live in. They are the sort of stories I'd like to read if I ever have free time again.