Creative Writing Commons^™

Mourning In Eco-Poetics & Cellar As Linguistic Category, Gwen Moon

University Honors Theses

These poems are informed by ecopoetics as defined by Forest Gander: "If natural processes are already altered by and responsive to human observation, how does poetry register the complex interdependency that draws us into a dialogue with the world?" Because the backdrop of our lives is changing with increasing signs of eco-collapse, our bodies are constantly sensing fear and loss. These poems merge the personal with the global in an attempt at a corporeal language that conveys meaning as a felt sense over a cerebral relationship. To quote William Wenthe, "…there is something physical, corporeal about our experience of syntactic …

House Of Grief, Megan Eralie

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This collection of essays examines how I house the grief for the losses of my religion and my grandfather. My first essay, “Body of Feathers,” looks at my body as a house of shame and how I transformed my body into something that could be mine instead. It explores a series of moments from my life where I felt disconnected from my body, usually because of rules or expectations set by someone other than me. In the essay, I move from feeling like I had no control of my body, to taking back control and experiencing my body as mine …

Sue, Heath Joseph Wooten

All NMU Master's Theses

Sue is a collection of poetry investigating the cyclical nature of grief through the lens of Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick’s schemas of paranoid and reparative readings. The poems employ motifs such as hunting, disease, and human remains to capture the temporal disorientation experienced in the wake of loss. Via an extensive use of metaphor and recurring poem titles, Sue exploits the multivalence of language to conjure a dense field of meaning, meant to capture the undecidability of language noted by philosopher Jacques Derrida. This collection also employs several vectors of derivation, including erasure of text lifted from the 2002 strategy video …

South Texas Elegy: Life During A Global Pandemic, Brianna Bullion

Theses and Dissertations

South Texas Elegy: Life During a Global Pandemic highlights the narrator’s experience with loss and grief during the coronavirus pandemic, which started in early 2020. This piece is written from the perspective of a narrator living in the Rio Grande Valley, which is in the southmost region of Texas.

This memoir contains thirteen chapters, which discuss deaths of close friends and family members, periods of waiting which occurred in between deaths and updates on the coronavirus, and the narrator’s reflection at the end of the piece. This memoir is a tribute to lost loved ones and an account of an …

Lazarus Taxa, Natalie Mau

Poetry MFA Theses

Lazarus Taxa explores the process of extinction in various forms-- physically, emotionally, relationally, spiritually, and more. However, this thesis also explores the idea of extinction being less of an end and more of a rebirth or rediscovery.

All-Consuming Madness, Ainsley Doyle

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

My honors project is a short story, titled All-Consuming Madness, that follows the main character Annie as she struggles to cope with the aftermath of a car accident that changed her life. The story explores the impact grief can have on family relationships and how trauma can close people off from each other. It also explores Annie’s journey towards healing as she struggles to forgive herself for the accident. The accompanying essays detail the creative process I went through while creating this story and the influences that had an important impact on the story.

Grieving Climate Change: A Psychological And Personal Exploration Of Emotionally Processing The Climate Crisis, Hava Chishti

Pitzer Senior Theses

The psychological concept of grief, although not typically associated with climate change, has strong applications to the emotional processing of climate change for human beings. Grief can be related to climate change in many ways, including the grief that individuals may feel over the anticipated loss of their future, losses that may be experienced due to climate-related disasters, and grief for the overall implications of anthropogenic climate change. A mixture of traditional literature analysis and creative nonfiction essays, which focus on personal narratives from interviews and the author’s experience, are used to outline the ways in which the psychology of …

Mrs. Blackbird And The Visiting Chair, Taylor Barnhart

MSU Graduate Theses

The following thesis is a middle grade novel exploring the events of one summer in the lives of two siblings, Susannah and Sawyer. The siblings are grieving the recent death of their mother and, at the same time, attempting to navigate the emotional withdrawal of their father. During the summer, the siblings get to know their eccentric neighbor, Mrs. Blackbird, who communicates with the spirit of her dead husband through an old armchair which is rumored to have magical powers. The novel deals primarily with the theme of grief and its pervasive nature in people’s lives. The story looks at …

Between The Sky And Earth, Swetha Amit

Master's Theses

Between The Sky And Earth is a collection of short stories that takes place in India, and in America, capturing the lives of Indian immigrants, and a cat, from different walks of life, some made up of students who came to pursue the American dream. The time span ranges between the early to late 2000s, capturing some significant events like farmer suicide and undocumented immigrants. These stories explore grief, trauma, identity, displacement, and relationships, focusing primarily on the consequences of losing loved ones, and unexpected mishaps that lead to a life and death situation. A couple of the stories grapple …

I Have News To Tell You, Jeanne M. Allison

Theses

I Have News To Tell You is a poetry collection that reckons with grief, survival, and mortality through the exploration of harrowing life experiences and contemplation through nature and relationships. The collection contends with what it means to be a human shaped by scars.

Where The Animals Sleep At Night, Meghan Reed

Theses and Dissertations

When the world is full of so much fear and worry, pain and tragedy, we need new ways to work through our own personal loss; we need new ways to heal. It is my opinion that stories are meant to heal, to make us feel and take us to a better place. Stories offer understanding, a good laugh, a way to move forward, they thrill us, make us cry, show us love, or scare us into momentary elation. My creative thesis will be a collection of short fiction that employs elements of literary realism and magical realism to explore the …

Kaboom, Karstin Margaret Johnson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This document is a collection of original poems written between Fall 2018 and Spring 2022.

Catching Smoke, Megan Duffey

Creative Nonfiction MFA Theses

"Catching Smoke" is a creative nonfiction essay collection that focuses on living in the south and the hardships associated with matters of poverty, addiction, incarceration, and family cycles. This collection ponders all the ways that the concept of smoke affected my family's life and gives multiple meanings to the phrase and title "Catching Smoke." Artifacts (pictures, letters, etc.) are used throughout to express a family narrative concerned with keeping a record, destroying family secrets, and examining the "shadows" of truth.

Black-Eyed, Abigail Sipe

Honors Theses

Black-Eyed tells the story of Rowan Mae Baker, a ten-year-old girl dealing with too-big-for-a-ten-year-old problems. In the past year, Rowan moved from Jackson to Winona after the unexpected arrest and sudden death of her father. Then, almost a year later, Rowan is sexually assaulted by an older boy from her school. Rowan understands neither of these things. Throughout Black-Eyed, Rowan spends twelve hours running away from home while trying to figure out how to talk to her mom about the assault. Alone for the first time, she begins to observe and question the world around her, to process her …

The Wind Still Blows, Sophie Ellen Kautenburger

Senior Projects Spring 2022

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Languages and Literature of Bard College.

Spectrum Of Shit, Hannah Hiaasen

Theses and Dissertations

Contending with the loss of a parent to a mass shooting in their workplace, a newsroom, I find myself suspended in time, in an office. Post-its, fans, button-ups, snow globes, clipboards, reporters notebooks, scrap paper, jot downs, keyboards hold me up. I crave the comfort of repetitive cumulative hand work. Quilting, weaving, and cutting away help me breathe, haptically process and memorialize these grieving objects, this grieving person. Weed-wacking towards intimacy, my work employs a range of materials to mourn the mundanity of a workday, fantasize transformative justice, and steward embodied grief to the surface. My only speed is slow-- …

God Damn, Robi Mahan

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

God Damn is a poetic collection that delves into the complex relationship between a daughter and her father, who has recently suffered from a stroke. As her father grapples with Aphasia, a neurological disorder which has rendered him with a uniquely limited vocabulary, the author must confront her beliefs about life, death, and the great beyond. The collection recounts the authors childhood with her father, an outspoken atheist from a small town, and how the ideals he has taught her influence the way she navigates life with a man who has lost his ability to speak.

The Language Of Loss, Liam Ainslie Mayo

Senior Projects Spring 2021

After an old man, Jeremy Haskell, dies in a small town, the people important in his life have to reckon with what his passing means for them. Three in particular receive letters from his death bed: Abigail, the woman who took over the hunting store that he ran, Rys, his grandchild, and Randolph, the Grim Reaper with whom he shared a long and mysterious past. Through the letters, those three come to a new understanding of who Jeremy was, and the place he had in all of their lives.

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Languages and Literature of …

Before You Grow Fruit, Stella Rose Schneeberg

Senior Projects Spring 2021

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Languages and Literature of Bard College.

Streaks, Maximino R. Janairo Iv

Senior Projects Spring 2021

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Languages and Literature of Bard College.

A Rhapsody Wild, Corey Davis

Honors Theses

This thesis is a fictional novel which explores themes of morality and tragedy within the society of a crime-and-murder-ridden city called Spekender. The mayor, Ev Edison, has become a disgraced recluse as a result of the tragic deaths of his wife and unborn child a year and a half prior to when the story takes place. His remaining children (three boys and a girl named Nimble) are left to navigate their disaster-torn worlds in isolation from their father and from each other. All of this changes one day when Nimble encounters a dangerous supernatural character that seems to know everything …

Responsible Friend, Nina Correa White

English Theses & Dissertations

This novel explores the purity of friendship and the ugliness of grief, and how each can affect, complicate, and enhance the other. It represents the life-changing relationships that exist in this world, but those that do not need romance or sexual desire to save us. This is a love story between two friends.

This, My Breath, Suzette Louise Mack

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This, My Breath, is a creative collection of memories gathered along the seasons in my life-mostly from my formative years. The stories highlight the patient, unconditional love my parents shared, and the way it has influenced me throughout my life. The stories are about life, love, loss, a yearning to belong, and a longing to be both interdependent and independent.

In my family of origin, it was the simple rhythms established through daily life and the honoring of traditions that inspired the deepest meaning, purpose, and hope. The seasons of the year brought my family alive with a flow of …

And We Run, Laura Ann Pierson

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

“And We Run” is a Young Adult novella that explores themes of grief, obsession, teenage suicidality, and loss. It follows a teenager named Seth, who has recently lost his twin brother, Colin, in a car accident. Seth refuses to believe his brother is dead, and he becomes obsessed with retracing his brother’s life through the journal Colin left behind. As Seth becomes more and more enthralled with trying to understand Colin, he also becomes fixated on his brother’s past relationship with a girl named Candice. Seth pursues a friendship with Candice, and the two of them begin to chase some …

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 …

Probably Nothing To Worry About, Jennifer Bravo

Dissertations

These are (allegedly) poems.

When We’Ve Left The Table, Lauren Rose Clark

Theses and Dissertations

When We’ve Left the Table is a collection of poems that explores personal identity as it relates to family and upbringing, as well as grief in its various forms.

Bramble And Knife, Sara Ryan

All NMU Master's Theses

This thesis is a collection of poems that center on the themes of extinction, family, the female body, and the presence of the animal. During my time in the Upper Peninsula, I found a connection with the natural world around me, and this led to my fascination with animals and extinction, both of which manifested in my poetry. As I struggled with the residual effects of toxic relationships, as well as the bleak romantic landscape of the UP, I saw my own body reflected in the bodies of animals. I specifically noticed this reflection while studying the art of taxidermy; …

Still Life: Growing Up With Death - A Visual Memoir, Lindsey Roth-Rosen

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This capstone is a multidimensional visual narrative project that incorporates heuristic methodology to illustrate complicated grief that emerged from early childhood loss. The memoir’s intention is to exemplify grief as a complex and mutable composite response to the death of my mother. One objective of this capstone is to understand melancholy, commonly associated with mental illness or symptomatic of depression, as an aesthetic emotion as well as a conduit for philosophical reflection. I use non-verbal approaches to the genre of a memoir by incorporating my photography to epitomize art as a powerful means to comprehend the totality of loss: as …

In His Wake: Applying Life's Truths In Fiction, Joseph M. Balderas

Theses and Dissertations

The culmination of the creative work and its introduction attempt to delve into the psyche of what it means to lose someone you love. The screenplay explores the grieving process and the coping mechanisms that accompanies it, with an examination on how far some people are willing to go for closure.

To reach my conclusions, I draw from my own life experience, the experiences of others, and a fine amount of research. It also means to shed light on the impermanent mental strain that chaperon’s grief.