Creative Writing Commons^™

Rosa: Interactive Active Graphic Narrative As A Tool For Teaching About Human Trafficking, Jennifer Jackson

Master of Arts in Professional Writing Capstones

Rosa is a Choose Your Own Adventure graphic novel-style story on the topic of human trafficking for young adults to interact with on the web. I chose to create this project in an attempt to help fill the gap in youth education in the area of human trafficking.

Nine Times Out Of Ten, You Don't Die, Patrick Ronald Wensink

Dissertations and Theses

My novel, "Nine Times Out of Ten, You Don't Die," is the story of Layla Wisnewski and her quest to write a book about her famous father. In the 1970s, "Big Dan" Wisnewski was a motorcycle stuntman who broke more bones than anyone living. He jumped cars and buses and rivers atop a white Harley Davidson. Big Dan was considered an American Hero.

Fast forward forty years, Big Dan has been dead for decades, and his daughter Layla is writing a book about his life. While researching the book, she learns she was kidnapped as a baby. This …

Exploring The Current Poetics Of The Great Lakes Through The Emergent Lens Of Cultural Ecology: The Aesthetics Of Instability/Volatility And Sustainability (Or Survival) In An Ever-Changing Bioregion, Terrance Mccafferty

Masters Essays

No abstract provided.

Introducing Genre And Transfer Awareness In First-Year Writing, Sarah Continenza

Masters Essays

No abstract provided.

Looking At Shadows: Four French Texts In English Translation, Kalena M. Hermes

World Languages and Cultures

This project present four French texts in English translation that share the theme of loss. This theme is perhaps one of the most poignant and relevant; loss is an experience that every human will encounter, and as people we continue across time to grapple with what it means for us and how to deal with it. These four texts will bring the perspectives of four authors to light in English. When we study how other countries and cultures deal with common human issues, we are able to gain new views on these issues. This project will make these texts accessible …

Untitled Screenplay, Lora A. Herman

University Honors Theses

The following document is a working copy of an untitled fictional screenplay in which the story and characters are the original work of Lora A. Herman.

In 2082 North America, the United States no longer exists as a governing entity. The vast majority of the landscape that once comprised the USA is unlivable due to irreparable advances in climate change -- flood, fire, freeze, and drought.

The remaining society has restructured itself to focus less on controlling its population and their free will, and to instead focus on maintaining the integrity of and resources for the man-made contained communities that …

Sugarcane Crossroads, Sean Carrero

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The following manuscript is a collection of lyric poetry that touches on themes of family history, love, and labor in the service industry. It is divided into three sections. The speaker in the work dwells in mostly private spaces and deals with private symbols such as, water, to represent the father figure in the poems.

“To Be Men, Not Destroyers”: Developing Dabrowskian Personalities In Ezra Pound’S The Cantos And Neil Gaiman’S American Gods, Michelle A. Nicholson

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Kazimierz Dabrowski’s psychological theory of positive disintegration is a lesser known theory of personality development that offers an alternative critical perspective of literature. It provides a framework for the characterization of postmodern protagonists who move beyond heroic indoctrination to construct their own self-organized, autonomous identities. Ezra Pound’s The Cantos captures the speaker-poet’s extensive process of inner conflict, providing a unique opportunity to track the progress of the hero’s transformation into a personality, or a man. American Gods is a more fully realized portrayal of a character who undergoes the complete paradigmatic collapse of positive disintegration and deliberate self-derived self-revision …

Writing A Speculative Fiction Novel, Ashlyn Victoria

Honors Projects

This Honors Project is a speculative fiction novel, and its setting includes topics like artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, and sustainability. Though it's not yet complete (which was expected), I was able to write forty-four pages (the equivalent of more than one-hundred pages using the standard 12-pt, double-spaced Times New Roman font) over the duration of the project. A synopsis is attached, but the manuscript remains unpublished; revealing it could reduce the novel's chances of publication in the future.

The Caged Bird Still Sings: The Poetics Of Peace, Sofia Diane Skavdahl

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Although poetry has been used as a method of peacemaking since Homer’s Iliad, little research, theory, or analysis has been done evaluating precisely what role poetry holds in the realms of peacemaking and conflict resolution. Poetry, along with other arts-based practices of peacemaking, is beneficial because of its ability to encourage personal autonomy and emotional communication, while offering an open and creative space to heal from violent conflict. In terms of the arts, poetry is especially unique because it holds the ability to transform relationships between adversaries and the relationship with the self. This paper seeks to analyze both the …

A Literature Review On Substance Related Grief And Expressive Art Therapy Support Groups, Holly N. St. Cyr

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

In the year of 2017, 18.7 million Americans aged 18 years or older were reported to have a substance use disorder and the pervasiveness of substance related deaths escalated (McCance- Katz, 2017). Researchers have examined how grief experienced by substance users and their loved ones is often disenfranchised by social stigmatization, loss of support, and feelings of regret, blame, humiliation, and shame. According to Valentine, Bauld, and Walter, (2016) “bereavement following a drug or alcohol related death has been largely neglected in research and service provision, despite its global prevalence and potentially devastating consequences for those concerned,” (p. 283). Studies …

The Role Of Meaning Making In Expressive Writing And Adults With Post Traumatic Stress Disorder: A Literature Review., Leah Kennedy Rose

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

This literature review examines the positive impact that expressive writing can have on adults who have experienced a traumatic event and are suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Expressive writing can take a number of different forms and falls under the category of expressive arts therapy. When used in addition to traditional psychotherapy and, if necessary, psychotropic medications, expressive writing can be an effective treatment method for adults with PTSD. Despite an initial increase in negative affect arousal, engaging in an expressive writing intervention can result in numerous improvements in physical, mental, and emotional well-being. By facilitating the meaning-making process, …

Dmt And “The Man Box:” Provoking Change And Encouraging Authentic Living, An Arts-Based Project, Steven Reynolds

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

This thesis explores the mind-body experience through an arts-based research approach to examine, and redefine the emotional capacity and usefulness of males through societal determinants that limits and hinders men from living their authentic selves. Through the lens of a metaphoric “Man Box” 112 men participated in a workshop recreating their personal narratives of socialization through, style of dress, coping mechanisms, belief systems and who they should be as men through society's standards. In the “Man Box,” male bonding, and emotional feelings are discouraged, while the objectification of women, material property and physical/emotional strength are encouraged. This research investigates the …

The Battle Of The Powers: Newly Obtained Benefits From The Revitilised Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, Scott Halsted

Master's Projects and Capstones

The Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement would have been the most sizeable free trade agreement in history. The agreement was set up by the Obama administration as an economic benefactor plus geopolitical tool to maintain the balance of power in the Asia Pacific region, rivaling the power of China. However, numerous politicians within the Trump administration, plus multiple political opposers including Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders, were major advocates for the U.S. removal after realistically adjusted estimates of the TPP showed economic benefits not equating to original estimates. However, the United States withdrawal raises significant successes that can be …

Mutts: A Collection Of Short Fiction, Shane E. Page

MSU Graduate Theses

This thesis begins with a critical introduction about narrative closure, as opposed to traditional narrative resolution, in fiction. I cite the work of John Gardner, T.S. Eliot, Milan Kundera, and Charles Baxter to explore the functions of motif, objective correlative, and symmetrical composition, focusing on how these three ideas inform effective characterization. I argue that narrative closure achieves equally if not more satisfying endings by prioritizing characterization above all other aspects of plot. After the critical introduction, you will find works of short fiction and flash fiction. A common theme among the longer, more traditional stories is the process through …

The Resurrection Of Nora O'Brien, Abigail Elizabeth Benson

MSU Graduate Theses

There is a cave, hidden in the hills, that brings the dead back to life. Its power is the driving force behind the blood feud between the Walshes and the O’Briens that lasts for generations. Jeremiah Walsh, a young boy growing up just after the civil war, is entrusted with the location of the cave and its secrets. But when he kills to protect his family legacy, he is stricken with guilt and questions his loyalties. His story parallels Nora O’Brien’s, a teenage girl who moves to the Ozarks with her family after the death of her grandfather. As she …

The Boys With The Spare Keys, Katelyn Elizabeth Grisham

MSU Graduate Theses

As human beings, we are constantly losing something: our keys, our wallets, our credits cards, or the mate to our favorite pair of socks. But what if you lose something that cannot be replaced, something that will impact your life in a permanent way? This collection looks at what it means to lose something life-altering; our sense of self, our friendships, our planned futures, our grasp on reality. Some things cannot be replaced. From trust fund kids to a dad preparing a Christmas tree for his daughter, this collection will explore the idea of what we can (or cannot) afford …

Middle Car, Christopher Daniel Crabtree

MSU Graduate Theses

Middle Car is a collection of poems written during my course of studies at Missouri State University, and illustrates my evolution as a writer through a consistent focus on story. The poems explore the everyday, fantastical, often unexpected, and sometimes forced frictions between people and or environment, which cause moments of meaning and resonance. The poems collected here are introduced by and an essay advocating for the preservation of story through narrative and situates my work in a neo-Romantic position in a post-Deconstruction world.

How To Water The Body, Taylor M. Lorenzo

MSU Graduate Theses

This thesis begins with a critical introduction about metamorphosis, both literal and figural, in short fiction. I analyze essays on metamorphosis by Marc Chenetier and Stanley Corngold and apply them to my work as well as other works which are influential to my own writing style and form, including Lydia Davis. Metamorphosis in literature is a reaction of the human condition of resistance to an end. In utilizing transformation, writers can explore the longing humans experience to continue themselves while revealing deeper truths about written subjects. After the critical introduction, you will find flash fiction and poetry. My work is …

At Least Buy Me A Drink First, Ali Renee Geren

MSU Graduate Theses

This is a collection of poetry that focuses on relationships and how those relationships shape our identities. The collection begins with a critical reflection on the poems in the piece and the way that they interact with pop culture and other contemporary poetry. Although the piece is not divided into sections, the poems deal (primarily) with three types of relationships: romantic/sexual, mother/daughter, and patient/caregiver.

For Cheryl: The Long And The Short Of It, Rachel Lebo

Graduate School of Art Theses

Short stories are an indirect way of creating a truth by showing instead of telling. They are a way to observe and communicate a single idea. A short story for me is a vehicle for hiding my truth behind a character, exploring myself in the safety of an identity that is not my own. When I read Chunky in Heat, author A.M. Homes and I hide together behind her character, Cheryl, and find solidarity.

The following writings, paintings, and sculptures are collaborations between myself and the women of short story fiction. Those women being the authors, the subjects, and …

Universe Of Things: A Human Presentation Of Food-For-Thought., Madeline Halpern

Bachelor of Fine Arts Senior Papers

I present this statement under three loose categories: People, Objects and their Environment. I consider People as human, Objects as art objects, domestic objects, and food, and Environment as the shared space of the former groups. Food directs this statement as I present each concept and creative process as a metaphorical dish. Material exploration carried me from a direct practice of reorienting acrylic paint and questioning object functionality through personified sculptures into theoretical thesis work in which I use interpersonal relations and the idea of consumption to translate tactile, gustatory and olfactory sensations into digital film. In this meal I …

Things That Happened, Christian Chase

Senior Theses

This creative writing thesis contains a collection of short stories by Christian Chase.

• A Whole Lot of Nothing
• Grand Artistic Vision
• Architecture
• Hanging Around
• Silent Life
• A Special Dread
• Snowbound

"Are You There, Dog? It's Me, Riley": Poems, Riley Christine O'Connell

Canterbury Scholars

The end product of Riley O'Connell's Canterbury Fellowship, these poems, ranging in topic from family and loss to love and dogs, were composed over the course of Riley's four years at SCU, included but not limited to her time at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford University, where she taught creative writing therapy for her Canterbury.

Decolonizing Playwriting Through Indigenous Ceremonial Performances, Jay B. Muskett

Theatre & Dance ETDs

This dissertation attempts to express the importance of storytelling within the Indigenous Theater framework. It does so by first analyzing the progression of the writer’s unique upbringing and analyzing the influences of story upon an indigenous identity. I will also attempt to describe the aesthetics of Native Theater along two lines of methodology which includes praxis described and developed by Hanay Geiogamah and Rolland Meinholtz. I will also explain how the script 1n2ian tries to follow those concepts of Native Theater to create a ceremonial performance that uses a blending of both methodologies.

Slotus, Alison F. Huntley, Michael F.X. Daley

Honors Thesis

When a paranoid, image-obsessed woman becomes Second Lady of the United States, she will protect herself and her family from the (often non-existent) eyes of the press no matter what - despite her three step-children’s protests.

"The Birth" And Other Flights Of Fancy, Abigail Adent

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is a collection of ten fictions, poems, and things in between that play with a variety of forms, ranging from the choose-your-own-adventure story to Oulipian constraints like the lipogram and Mathew’s Algorithm. I attempt to convey narratives of my own felt experience in the world, dressed in elaborate metaphor and strange images. In this thesis you will see: severed hands, a short severed tongue, eyes on moss, too many teeth, attached very long tongues, dripping earlobes, a tentacle, etc.

Silver, Blood And Singing, Zachary J. Posey

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Silver, Blood and Singing is a novel that is an exploration of the blurred lines between science fiction and fantasy in which the concepts of grief and mourning are explored. This thesis consists of a novel following two sisters and those around them as they try to come to terms with their grief. Along this journey they end up being opened up to worlds more dangerous and stranger than any they have come across before. As they explore these new worlds this functions as a place to examine the understanding of what it means to be a person and how …

Eulogy, Kim T. Allison

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

Particular to the three short stories in Eulogyis the importance of place, as they are set in the fictional location of Potter’s Island, which is based on my childhood sense of Florida.Contradictions, complications, and disappointments can be uniquely tied to a sense of place. My own parents and grandparents moved to Florida when I was three years old, but where they lived, how they lived and worked, and what dreams they pursued was only partially an immigrant’s story of wanting a better life.

The past has weight—a weight that must be dealt with, for real people, and for …

Dee: A Feature Length Drama, Laura Angelyn Mccarter

Master of Arts in Professional Writing Capstones

“DEE” is a feature length drama about a young addict who pursues a career in music in an attempt to keep her brother’s memory alive after his untimely death tears her family apart. The story explores how the characters deal with drug abuse, loss, broken families, toxic relationships, and pursuing one’s dreams. The film will feature original indie rock music for several of the characters who write and perform their own songs. It’s A Star is Born meets Beautiful Boy.