All Things Pass Away,
2025
Dartmouth College
All Things Pass Away, John Stuart Wilson
Dartmouth College Master’s Theses
“All Things Pass Away” is a work of crime fiction. Set amidst the downfall of local print journalism, laid off sportswriter Mark McGinnis travels from Rochester, New York to the oil boomtown of Fort McMurray, Alberta to pursue a freelancing project on troubled NHL draft prospect Noah Jeannot. Once there, McGinnis’s profile on the player is thrown into question when Jeannot disappears after an apparent violent altercation near his billet family’s home. Exploring themes of nostalgia, ambition, and obsession, the novella traces McGinnis’s attempts to understand not only the culture of the twin gods – oil and hockey – which …
How To Walk On Water: Living Through The Absurd,
2025
Rhode Island School of Design
How To Walk On Water: Living Through The Absurd, Esther Du
Masters Theses
Set in a speculative world submerged by water, this thesis constructs a fragmented, nonlinear narrative that reflects on survival, memory, and displacement in the aftermath of catastrophe. Through three interwoven chapters—The Outcast, The Researcher, and The World—the project explores the emotional and psychological landscapes of individuals navigating a post-apocalyptic existence where the past is irretrievable and the future uncertain. Using an interdisciplinary form of visual storytelling, writing, and sound, the work draws from personal experience and collective trauma to examine how people reconstruct identity and meaning after loss. Rather than offering a definitive answer to existential …
Bellyache,
2025
Santa Clara University
Bellyache, Valerie Braylovskiy
Canterbury Scholars
My manuscript of poems, called "Bellyache," speaks to my experience with endometriosis and how it intersects with both womanhood, and the pain we inherit from our ancestors that becomes stored in our bodies over time. This project gave me the permission to write poems that grapple with both escaping and recreating what it’s like to be a woman inside the medical system which continues to equate pain with hysteria, and inside a world that either says you’re sick, or you aren’t.
Daphne,
2025
Lindenwood University
I Fear Not For I Have You,
2025
Lindenwood University
I Knew,
2025
Lindenwood University
The Pub Is Bare,
2025
Lindenwood University
Simon Thinks,
2025
Lindenwood University
A Sleepless Existence,
2025
Lindenwood University
Us Once,
2025
Lindenwood University
Imperfect Code,
2025
Lindenwood University
The Names We Don’T Ask For,
2025
Lindenwood University
Piercing Eyes,
2025
Lindenwood University
Regardless,
2025
Lindenwood University
Personas Issue 3, 2025,
2025
College of the Redwoods
Personas Issue 3, 2025, Jonathan Maiullo
Personas: Multilingual Creative Writing Journal
No abstract provided.
A Crisis Of Craft: Creative Writing In The American University,
2025
University of San Diego
A Crisis Of Craft: Creative Writing In The American University, Brenna E. Derbish
Undergraduate Honors Theses
In this essay, I aim to analyze the changing nature of the Creative Writing MFA through the lens of the American culture that shaped it. In the 1930s, creative writing in American universities began to take shape, citing itself as a way to reform the philological study of literature into a more active field, a way for the common person to learn through creativity and self-expression. However, as the number of MFA programs in the nation continued to rise, admittance became increasingly selective, with many universities accepting only between 5 and 10% of their applicants. This increase in exclusivity, coupled …
Maxim Gorky’S Illusionary Reformation Of Human Nature And The Rise Of The Soviet Citizen: Socialist Realism As A Constructive Force In Mother,
2025
Seattle Pacific University
Maxim Gorky’S Illusionary Reformation Of Human Nature And The Rise Of The Soviet Citizen: Socialist Realism As A Constructive Force In Mother, Alysia Gayle Meyer
Honors Projects
This paper examines the origins and evolution of the Socialist Realism movement headed by Maxim Gorky, as a defining ideological and artistic framework of the Stalin era. Emerging in response to the experimental avant-garde movements of Revolutionary Russia, Socialist Realism sought to construct the ideal Soviet Reality, reimaging society and its citizens through the lens of collectivism, labor, and ideological purity. Central to this exploration is Gorky’s first major Socialist Realist novel, Mother, which serves as a blueprint for depicting the ideal Soviet citizen. By analyzing the motivations behind this movement and its portrayal of utopian ideals, this study reveals …
A Study Into The Psychology Of Emotions, Dark Comedy, And Theatre Of The Absurd: Ghosted An Original Script,
2025
Gallaudet University
A Study Into The Psychology Of Emotions, Dark Comedy, And Theatre Of The Absurd: Ghosted An Original Script, Courtney Bronson
Undergraduate University Honors Capstones
Imagine a world without emotions. Ghosted is an eleven-part dark comedy script inspired by The Giver, Clue, Knives Out: Glass Onion, and Inside Out. The script explores the consequences of a dystopian, government-controlled society that has eradicated emotions in the name of order. The script blends dark comedy with elements of Theatre of the Absurd to highlight the farcical nature and danger of emotional suppression. Drawing on research in emotional psychology and emotional dysregulation, Ghosted presents emotions as incorporeal “Emotion Ghosts” that possess five volunteers and unleash unpredictable chaos. When one volunteer ends up dead, the remaining members begin to …
Creative Expression Through Worldbuilding: A Study On The Connections Between Literature And Music Through Analysis Of Brandon Sanderson's The Stormlight Archive,
2025
University of Mississippi
Creative Expression Through Worldbuilding: A Study On The Connections Between Literature And Music Through Analysis Of Brandon Sanderson's The Stormlight Archive, Lauralei S. Palmer
Honors Theses
This thesis examines the worldbuilding connections visible throughout fantasy literature and musical works. Though their tools seem different, authors, composers, and performers use equivalent techniques to draw in their audiences and produce an immersive, emotional experience. This research focuses on American author Brandon Sanderson’s highly detailed worldbuilding in his epic fantasy series, The Stormlight Archive. The Stormlight Archive exhibits the three pillars of worldbuilding: completeness, invention, and consistency. This research also examines Franz Liszt’s Les Préludes, a symphonic poem based on Alfonse Lamartine’s poem, Ode. Finally, this thesis culminates in the fusion of literary and musical worldbuilding in description …
The Defect Within You,
2025
University of Mississippi
The Defect Within You, Sarah Spencer
Honors Theses
This thesis is a collection of science fiction short stories exploring human limitations in our era of unprecedented influence over the world. Despite everything we can accomplish, we are not as powerful as we think we are. My stories focus on how this manifests in our embodiment and our relationships with our bodies.
