Creative Writing Commons^™

A Kind Of Goodness, Marianne Chan

English Faculty Publications

[Introduction]At the playground, my mother hid from me, I couldn’t find her, and I called her name a thousand times.

And when she reappeared, I ran to her, and she ran to me, and I clenched her neck, and I put my hands on her face, and I said, Where were you? Where were you? and she said, I’m so glad you found me. And we hugged, and she smiled as she cradled me, and I howled, like a gibbon, at her shoulder.

The Disappearance Of Shannon White, Kathryn J. Limberg

Theses and Dissertations--English

The Disappearance of Shannon White is a Mystery-Thriller novel. The aim of the piece is to explore thematic components including perseverance, socio-economic inequities, the stigmas and medical malpractice of the American mental health system in the late twentieth century, and, ultimately, to entertain. My earliest love in the literary world was science fiction and fantasy. Writers like Robert Jordan, and more recently, Simone St. James, create worlds that test the bounds of reality in a way that I find liberating, and I seek to implement this in my own work. Such authors have taught me that fiction offers freedom to …

Mágico Nunca Se Muere: Una Historia De Un Amor Unconditional And Unstoppable, Belén Silvia Yudess

Scripps Senior Theses

This novella explores how traditions of silence, family dynamics, adolescence and storytelling influence identity formation and self-perception for Mexican-American women. Situated within the AIDS pandemic, this story aims to show how even within a world riddled with grief, hatred, and fear siempre hay espacio para las risas y el amor.

The Dirt Underneath My Fingernails: The American Pastoral And 21st-Century Food System Reform, Annabella Isaacson

Scripps Senior Theses

The following is an amalgamation of my experiences personally and vested interests academically, and is meant to be read as just that. As a thesis that combines Environmental Analysis and Writing & Rhetoric degrees, this project challenges traditional academic forms by integrating creative nonfiction and poetry with academic writing and analysis. This thesis attempts to fuse the academic and personal essay into one cohesive piece. The inconclusive nature of the narratives and explorations that follow are intended to represent my process in grappling with the histories and significance of American pastoral literature through the ways in which this genre has …

Reject Modernity, Embrace Tradition: Unpacking Gender Roles In Social Media Performances Of "The Good Life", Lauren Mar

Scripps Senior Theses

What do JD Vance, tradwife influencers, and the “sprinkle sprinkle” movement have in common? They all have something to do with the increasing popularity of an apparent return to traditional gender roles. This thesis is an intersectional investigation of women’s gender roles in relation to class and race as they appear in different performances of “the good life” on social media. Through a series of personal essays, this thesis explores how these media examples represent a deeper political unhappiness with present conditions. This thesis takes the time to unpack the different sides of discourse surrounding each subject, and counters the …

A Perspective On Imbalance: A Memoir Through The Lens Of Eating Disorders Anonymous, Samantha C. Lasky

Scripps Senior Theses

A Perspective on Imbalance uses a crab shell essay format within the adjusted framework of Eating Disorder Anonymous’ “Perspective on Balance” letter. This original letter speaks to how physical, social/emotional, and spiritual balance came to exist in the founder’s life after working the 12 steps of the program, but the author of this thesis felt more inclined to examine what life looks like in each of those categories before the 12 steps, as well as what happens when you choose not to work them (as this has been her experience thus far). The resulting linear prose essay includes themes of …

Tracing The Lines In Comics And Life: Genealogies And My Place Within Them, Audrey M. Loo

Honors Theses

My thesis is a hybrid English Lit/Creative Writing project on comics. The English Lit half is an Artist’s Statement comprised of scholarly research and both analytical and personal writing, and this work will necessarily inform and be informed by the Creative Writing half, in which I create my own comics.

“Women Who Don’T Know How To Stay Married”: The Poetic Afterlives Of The 1927 Bristol Sessions, Aubrey R. Adkins

Honors Theses

This project begins from the understanding that song lyrics can have lasting impacts on the poetic work that proceeds from them, and can and should, therefore, be read as literature. In the cultural context of Southern Appalachia, a historically underserved and academically underrepresented region, this understanding is intertwined with Audre Lorde’s idea that “For women...[poetry] is a vital necessity of our existence.” The women of Southern Appalachia, denied access to particular modes of expression as a result of external circumstances such as poverty and sexism, need poetry, according to Lorde, to take “tangible action” in their lives. What came before …

Our Defender In Battle, Garrett S. "Faustino" Miller Oblsb

Obsculta

"Our Defender in Battle" is a fictional poem about an event not contained within the biblical scriptures. It tells about the coming of St. Michael the Archangel to aid in protecting humanity after the temptation of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and the Fall of Man.

Milk Tooth, 2025, Eddie Anderson, Sadie House, Jay Clark, Ravyn Oliver, Edwin Mayo, Joseph Kettelhodt, Kaitlyn Seibel, Daniel Mcnellis, Elise Fladeboe, Ivy Matejcek, Trinity Johnson, Eve Gwendolyn Hansen, Liz Fisher, Emma Niessink, Hannah Lewis

Milk Tooth

"Writings by Bemidji State University Students". Sponsored by the Bemidji State University English Department.

Ferocious (And Tender) Survival, Alexandra Juhasz

Publications and Research

A review of Blood Loss: a Love Story of AIDS, Activism, and Art, by Keiko Lane (Duke University Press, 2024) in the Anarchist Review of Books

An Acrostic Ekphrasis On The Frauenkirche In Dresden, Germany, Aaron Christie

Obsculta

The Frauenkirche in Dresden, Germany, is widely regarded as the apex of confessional Lutheran architecture. This acrostic ekphrasis is written from the viewpoint of a Lutheran parishioner shortly after the Frauenkirche’s dedication in 1743. The church was built in the milieu of the confessional struggles that ensued in Electoral Saxony when Augustus the Strong converted to Roman Catholicism to become king of Poland. Several sections of this ekphrasis move forward into modern times to recount the Frauenkirche’s destruction in WWII and her rededication in 2005.

Las Pintas Interview Project 2025, Beth Gulley, Luz Alvarez, Vallerie Rogers, Gabrielle Rock, Danielle Mullins, Nina Mcnay, Jayda Diaz, Audrey Weaver, Haisie Halperin, Rita Terrones, George Newham, Esmeralda Monroy

The Las Pintas Collection

In May of 2025, after a five-year hiatus, Johnson County Community College (JCCC) resumed sending students to Las Pintas, Mexico. Traditionally, JCCC sent student from Nursing, Dental Hygiene, and Solar Energy to practice their acquired skills and serve the community at Centro Integral Comunitario (CIC). This latest trip, though, was for Spanish language students to enhance their cultural competency, language practice, and learn about opportunities to study away.

This collection contains stories from eight former JCCC Study Abroad trip members, five people who live and work in Las Pintas, and the ten current JCCC students who traveled to Las Pintas …

Pathos, Winter 2025, Portland State University. Student Publications Board

Pathos

Editor: Adriana Stanzione

East Of The Sun, West Of The Moon Film Pitch Deck, Micah Anderson

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

A pitch deck to present an idea for a film adaptation of the fairy tale "East of the Sun and West of the Moon." The deliverables include a 3-5 minute animatic of a single scene (complete with placeholder audio), the script of the scene, storyboards used to map out each action, at least one model sheet for each major character, and rough sketches of all 30 characters. They are to be presented in an exhibition with the animatic on loop on a TV, a public presentation in the Myers auditorium, and a written paper on the details regarding the medium …

Rabble: A Companion To Pwa-Tem (2025)

Rabble, 2014-

Rabble is a companion chapbook publication to the magazine Pwatem. From the preface of most issues: "'Tell the rabble my name is Cabell."- James Branch Cabell to his editor, to help people learn how to pronounce his name. Cabell used the word derogatively but we are taking it back. These pages will showcase the writing and illustrations of our rabble-the ordinary students of VCU."

Skin And Bones: Transgenerational Trauma, Experimental Storytelling, And The Texture Of Hope, A Creative Dissertation, Janine Blue

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation theorizes and enacts experimental storytelling as a method for engaging transgenerational trauma, highlighting how form shapes the ways histories are remembered, embodied, and reimagined across generations. Grounded in hope rehearsal as both a theoretical and creative framework, this project examines how BIPOC writers use experimental writing techniques to navigate the afterlives of historical trauma and reclaim storytelling as an act of meaning-making, communal care, and futurity. The dissertation begins with a critical chapter that explores these experimental techniques as strategies for recovery and resistance. The dissertations’ creative chapter, Andre Lyle: Skin and Bones, expands on these ideas …

All In The Family: Truths From A Broken Home, Susan Asher

Master's Projects

All in the Family: Truths from a Broken Home is a collection of micro-memoirs about finding strength in the aftermath of a childhood of neglect and harm. Susan Asher shares her story not as a tale of perfect healing, but as a testament to the survival skill of self‑care. Through vivid scenes of family chaos and the hard truths of abuse, she reveals how caring for oneself becomes the essential act of resilience.

This book is not only about one woman’s journey—it is about the lessons anyone can draw when life denies them safety and love. Readers will discover how …

Literary Homeplace As A Site Of Knowing And Healing, Shamonique Hassell

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

The concept of literary homeplace serves as a locus of rhetorical healing for Black women, emphasizing their lived experiences and creative expressions as forms of resistance and restoration (Collins, 1986; hooks, 1990; Nettles, 2001). The labor of Black women within families, churches, and artistic endeavors contributes to the cultivation of a collective consciousness surrounding oppression and healing (Edwards, 2010; Carey, 2016; Morrison, 1992). Building upon hooks’ (1990) notion of homeplace, this dissertation examines how Black women foster spaces characterized by care, dignity, and resilience (Hersey, 2022; Tate, 1984). Using personal narrative and articulating Black women’s voices, I position homeplace as …

From Ink To Code, From Binary To Boundless Reality—Until All Returns To Emptiness, Weitong Sun

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the entangled relationship between language, memory, and technology through the lens of immigrant experience. Moving from programming to visual storytelling, I investigate how dyslexia, bilingualism, and cultural displacement have shaped my ways of reading, writing, and coding.

Beginning with personal reflections on switching from computer science to art, I trace how code offered a form of clarity and expression where written language had once failed me. Yet as I ventured into real-time simulation and XR storytelling, I encountered new forms of mistranslation—where narratives dissolved, mutated, or resisted coherence altogether.

Through a series of experiments in code-driven art, …