Digital Commons Network^™

Polybius, Katelin Branham

Best Integrated Writing

This story brought me back to my video-game days—the roll of the joystick in my twelve-year-old palm, the smell of adolescent sweat, and the dizzying belief the game was out to get me. Now I’m wondering if that might have been true. Branham’s story delves deep into its main character’s consciousness to extract complicated questions about competition and friendship, the relationship between humans and technology, and the chilling question of what it means to be alive. Branham trusts her readers to keep up and crack the codes of the story, and what we’re rewarded with is both a wild fantasy …

I'D Write The Sea Like A Parlour Game By Alison Dyer, Yvonne E. Blomer

The Goose

Review of Alison Dyer's I’d Write the Sea Like a Parlour Game.

Yardwork: A Biography Of An Urban Place By Daniel Coleman, Vivian M. Hansen

The Goose

Review of Daniel Coleman's Yardwork: A Biography of an Urban Place.

Wild Mares: My Lesbian Back-To-The-Land Life By Dianna Hunter And The New Farm: Our Ten Years On The Front Lines Of The Good Food Revolution By Brent Preston, Kristin Van Tassel

The Goose

Review of Dianna Hunter's Wild Mares: My Lesbian Back-to-the-Land Life and Brent Preston's The New Farm: Our Ten Years on the Front Lines of the Good Food Revolution.

The Language Of Love (Memoir Fiction), Sarah Justine Skriloff

AWE (A Woman’s Experience)

Fiction/memoir of a young woman's encounter with her mother over body weight issues.

Amjambo Africa! (August 2018), Kathreen Harrison

Amjambo Africa!

In This Issue...

Rwanda Bean Coffee ............ Page 7

Congolese Celebration..........Page 8

Cape Verde Celebration........Page 9

South Sudanese Celebration Page 10

Service Listings - Cut Out & Keep! .....................................Page 13/14

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Things We Have In Common: Essays And Experiments, Willow Grosz

All NMU Master's Theses

Things We Have in Common is a collection of short stories, flash pieces, and image-text experiments that attempts, in the wake of the death of my mother, to excavate the relationship between memory and narrative, identity and belonging against a backdrop of the main forces that have influenced my familial group, namely generational poverty, a changing relationship with our Athabascan and Caucasian heritages, and the complicated ecology, geography, and culture of Alaska. Like many forays into memory, this project represents a joyous failure. Please read this collection as a love letter to Alaska.

That Said, Karl Alderic Schroeder

All NMU Master's Theses

That Said, a creative thesis of poetry and poetics in two parts, explores points of contact between human interaction, capitalism, consciousness, and the process of meaning itself. The collection appropriates the language of business, scholarship, and politics alongside philosophical substructures from such disparate traditions as Marxism, Existentialism, and Taoism to provide a several windows of perspective into anxiety, relationships, identity, and consumerism. Through the blending of both direct and experimental forms and processes, nontraditional and everyday diction and syntax, and multifaceted content of both personal and external significance, these poems may simultaneously amuse, alienate, and inspire philosophical and critical …

Rapunzel Has Insomnia: Stories, Mary Buchanan Sellers

LSU Master's Theses

Rapunzel Has Insomnia is part story collection, part fairy tale vignette, and part personal memoir, dealing with themes of mental illness and inheritance, the complexity of mother daughter relationships, and childhood trauma. Similar to the structure of a novelin-- stories, Rap unzel ’s connective tissue is made up of memoir, specifically dealing with the aftereffects of my mother’s Bipolar One disorder and subsequent psychiatric commitments throughout my childhood and young adult years. The other more peripheral narratives are magicalrealist in nature, which are made up of fabulist fiction stories. Both of these narratives are then tied to an over arching …

Murmuration, Braeden Dillenbeck

Dissertations and Theses

The poems that comprise Murmuration are an act of vigilance in the face of loss. At certain moments in the distorted timeline of grief one searches the remaining world around them for signs of the beloved, signs that they are not simply gone but instead transformed or dispersed into another way of being. In this looking one's relationship to the external world undergoes a radical transformation of its own and demands a sustained attention from the bereaved that often draws from, but ultimately outruns cataloguing acts of memory. These poems attempt to render the movements of that attention as it …

Mimola Or The Story Of A Casket, Antoine Innocent, Susan Kalter

Undiscovered Americas

Appearing for the first time in English, Antoine Innocent’s 1906 novel Mimola or the Story of a Casket weaves the story of Mimola, daughter of Madame Georges, who suffers from an incurable nervous disease, with an investigation of the traditions of Haitian Vodou. Desperate to end her daughter’s affliction, Madame Georges goes on a pilgrimage across Haiti to Ville-Bonheur to help her ailing daughter. Along the way, she meets a woman whose son, Léon, suffers from a similar disorder. Will their mothers’ devotion be enough to ensure the children’s recovery? Will the suffering Mimola and Léon embrace Vodou beliefs and …

Amjambo Africa! (July 2018), Kathreen Harrison

Amjambo Africa!

In This Issue...

Profile: Angela Okafor........ Page 10

Know Your Rights ................Page 12

Families Separated at the Southern Border...............Page 12

The Earth, The Moon, The Stars: Stories, Cameron Jay Moreno

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This is a book-length, hybrid collection of short stories and poetry with a critical introduction. The narrative of these stories and poems are told through the perspective of Xavi Muñoz and various characters related to him. In theme, this collection explores machismo and Xavi’s attempt at overcoming it by discovering the intersectionality between masculinity, sexuality, gender, and gender roles. In addition, the introduction theorizes about masculinity by relating it to water.

Break Us Beautiful, Elizabeth Upshur

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The problem addressed in this thesis is cultivating an answer to the question: what creates or comprises the sum total of my Blackness as a modern American woman living in our current political climate? I primarily use a read/call and response methodology, responding to both lived and hypothetical experiences that explore or demonstrate the ways that identity, race, gender, sexuality, regionality, religion, and the historical thumbprint intersect. The results are this collection of poems that is at times mythological, at times irreverent, both abstract and formal as it seeks to fit these pieces into a singular mosaic. The conclusion drawn …

Bones I Found In The Garden, Alena Indigo Anne Sullivan

Stonecoast MFA Theses and Capstones

This collection is a volume of small, intimate moments portrayed in both poetry and prose. Rather than grand, operatic plots telling convoluted stories, this work speaks of the magic in simple things, looking in at personal (and often difficult) moments—the process of finding the beauty in ugly things, finding the crumbs of human emotion that slip through the cracks—lending them the attention they are due but often fail to receive. This collection digs up potsherds of childhood trauma, bones of old romances, and ghosts of things that will never be, all presented to the reader through the lens of fantasy. …

Oakwood

Oakwood

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Devoted Motherhood Linda Christianson
Wolf Eel David A. Evans, Jr
Untitled Ruth Mueller
Peggy Renee L. Larson
Triathalon Susan Carry
Footprint Lisa Davis
Untitled Julie Larrabee
Untitled Steven J. Herr
Seven Julie Larrabee
Len Lisa Davis
Untitled Rae Brecht
The Monkey Phil Baker, Jr
Jester of the Ram Laurie K. Ramhorst
Daydream Jeannine Huber
Untitled Susan Carry
Legs Linda Christianson
Untitled Marty Morgan
Study of Faces of DeVinci Laurie K. Ramhorst
Steele Linda Christianson
Untitled Connie K. Wagenaar
Meltoff: Dawn Janice H. Mikesell
Undraped Trees Janice H. Mikesell
Matthew 28:5 & 6 James Beck
Untitled James Beck …

Oakwood

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Table of Contents

Man of his Words Karie Frank
Untitled Pat Freese
Vegetarians Prayer Janice H. Mikesell
Manhattan Breakfast Melissa Denton
An Evening at the Athenian Janice H. Mikesell
Watercolor Susan Gary
Crayon drawing Sheila Dwyer
Photographs Melissa Denton
Etching Darrell Mohr
Old Women Who Wear Big Black Shoes Julie Stroup
Bailer Cherie Ramsdell
Crayon sketch Janet Odden
Crayon sketch Janet Odden
The Holstein Herd Linda Selken
Photographs Alex Williamson
The Wall Maxine S. Darnall
The Green Cup Jackie L. Richardson
715 3rd Street Bonnie K. Feller
In the Blood Bonnie Kingsley Reidesel
Untitled Pat Freese
Growing Pains Sharon Gustafson …

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Table of Contents

TROUT RANGER-Kevin Waster
TOSHIBA II-Janet Odden
CITY KID'S GENESIS-Janice Mikesell
UNTITLED-Kathy Vrchota
CALF TABLE-Mike Powers
PHOTOGRAM-Greg Herbranson
GUTS MUCKLUSKI-T.R. Maves
BANANAS-Rich Street
THE SORRY SAYING-Paul Witherington
UNTITLED-Donna Lewis-Jones
MAYBE SOMEONE ELSE WAS WATCHING-Gawain Roberts
UNTITLED-Dave Piro
PATHS OF DUST-Sharon Gustafson
FEATURE ARTIST-Carol Hepper
W.A.R.M. PIECE-Carol Hepper
DOUBLE CHAMBER-Carol Hepper
SANCTUARY-Carol Hepper
PIERCED/PEGGED-Carol Hepper
A WALK WITH MY FATHER-Nancy Veglahn
UNTITLED-Patti Monahan
LIKE MEN WHO WALK TIGHT-Julie Stroup
UNTITLED-Jonnie Einspahr
PLEASE DO NOT RESHELVE BOOKS-Leon Tetzlaff
CAST PAPER-Duane Schat
OLD BLOOD & GUTS-Anonymous
UNTITLED-Sandy Mikelbost
THE PROPRIETOR-Emma Dimit
UNTITLED-Rich Street
BEFORE SHOOTING-Kevin Waster
AERIAL VIEW/TEXTURES-Angie DeWispelaere
SHE WHO …

Oakwood

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Table of Contents

THAT'S YOUR GRANDFATHER'S WATCH: Robin Ruark
HALLOWEEN: David Allan Evans
UNTITLED POEM: Beryl Younger
SUNDAY AFTERNOON AT THE BASIC SKILLS CENTER FOR THE DEVELOPMENTALLY DISABLED: Meta Brandl
SOUNDS FROM BELOW: Lynne Waters
UNTITLED POEM: Carrie Chesnik
SOMETHING: Leon Tetzlaff
FULL SERVICE: James Marten
WHEN ALL IS STILL: Leon Tetzlaff
SISTERS SWEET: Daniel R. Phen
FARM KID ON ROLLER SKATES: David Allan Evans
UNTITLED POEM: Julie Stroup
DIRTY BUCK LOTUS: Emma Dimit
FREDDIE: Frederick Fiekema Manfred
YOU MUDDY: Deb Seaburg and David Wigtil
SLEDDING: t.r. maves
IN FALL: Jomay Steen
DADDY LONG LEGS: Wendy Howell
AT A QUARTER …

Oakwood

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

POETRY

CHANGING LANGUAGE: Beryl Younger [page] 8
SOUTH DAKOTA FARMER: T.R. Maves [page] 9
HENRY'S HARVEST: Kevin Woster [page] 10
YOUNG FARMER SHOOTING POOL: Doug Cockrell [page] 16
COUNTRY STORE: Cary Cross [page] 17
THE COWGIRL IN THE SALOON AT THE RAMADA INN: William Kloefkorn [page] 19
DIRECTIONS: David Allan Evans [page] 21
PEONY RIDGE: J. Alan Martin [page] 22
THE WOOD-CARVER: Meta Brandl [page] 23
THOUGHTS RUNNING THROUGH MY HEAD: Linda F. Hanson [page] 24
ON THE RIVER: Ted Kooser [page] 25
ANOTHER DRUNK INDIAN: Kevin Woster [page] 27
SAUNA: Leon Tetzlaff [page] 28
THE NIGHT …

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Table of Contents

Prose

THE WHITE BULL: Pat Collins [page] 11-16
A LETTER: Siv Cedering Fox [page] 16
PEACE WITH HONOR: Glen Barton [page] 17-22
FRONTIER TRAILER COURT: Dan Domench [page] 23-25
SWEET TIME: WORKING A POEM: Phil Hey [page] 27-29
CENTER RING STAR: Kelly John Mernaugh [page] 30-34

Poetry

TWO POEMS: Albert Goldbarth [page] 35
INDIANS: R. P. Dickey [page] 36
THE WOMAN THE LIGHTENING LIT UP: Mary McAnnally-Knight [page] 37
TWO POEMS: George A. West [page] 38
POEM: Andrew Grossbardt [page] 39
TWO POEMS: Al Fogel [page] 40, 41
CLOCK THE SUMMER: Jay S. Paul [page] 42
COMING …

Transatlantic Détournement? An Institutional Perspective On François Bon’S Reception Of Kenneth Goldsmith’S Uncreative Writing, Gert-Jan Meyntjens

Journal of Creative Writing Studies

This article investigates the ambivalent reception of Kenneth Goldsmith’s Uncreative Writing by the French author and writing workshop facilitator François Bon. Although admiring Goldsmith’s radical poetics, Bon hesitates when it comes to integrating digitally-driven uncreative writing methods in his own workshop. In one entry on his personal website, Bon proposes a détournement of Goldsmith’s experimental practices in the form of a return to the novel. To account for this ambivalence on the part of Bon, this article takes the contexts of American creative writing and the French atelier d’écriture into account. It argues that the novelty of Goldsmith’s project can …

Voices From Verse: The Power Of Poetry For Seattle's Homeless Youth, Savannah Grace Hadley

Honors Projects

This paper is a creative nonfiction essay combining research, interviews, and personal experience to discuss how and why poetry is helpful in a therapeutic context, specifically working with at-risk youth. Pongo, a program that provides incarcerated youth an opportunity to write poetry, under the direction of Richard Gold, has found through survey responses that with the Pongo Teen Writing Method “100 percent of youth enjoyed the writing experience, 98 percent were proud of their writing, and 73 percent wrote on topics they don’t normally talk about” (Gold, 21). I came to understand, through time volunteering with the writing groups at …

Pre-Service Teachers’ Perspectives On How The Use Of Toon Comic Books During Guided Reading Influenced Learning By Struggling Readers, Ewa Mcgrail, Alicja Rieger, Gina M. Doepker, Samantha Mcgeorge

SANE journal: Sequential Art Narrative in Education

The study presented in this article examines the use of comic books, specifically the TOON comic books during guided reading instruction. The instruction was provided to struggling readers by the Literacy Center at a comprehensive university in southeastern United States. What most pre-service teachers in this study agreed upon was that comic books served as an effective tool for getting their students interested in reading. Reading comic books with tutors as partners in conversation with the struggling readers in this study was also a powerful medium for facilitating students’ literacy skills development, particularly in the areas of reading fluency and …

The Minotaur, Kevin B. Anderson

CLAMANTIS: The MALS Journal

n/a

Never Trust A Gun, Stephen P. Hull

CLAMANTIS: The MALS Journal

n/a

The Body In Pain / The Body In Ecstasy, Shannon Kenny

LSU Master's Theses

The Body in Pain / The Body in Ecstasy is a series of short lyric essays/extended poems which catalogue major discriminatory movements against disabled people in the 20th and 21st century, specifically in the United States. My work contains duel storylines, using these movements/categories of violence as frames for my own personal narrative, and connecting individual experience to larger historical structures. I do this to disrupt the notion that history is disconnected from the present, and showcase how humans are built by context, where personal and political are inexorably intertwined, and social development is tied to both the body and …

Nature's Paths, Chloe Switzer

Senior Theses

This creative writing thesis contains a lyric essay, short story, and poetry by Chloe Switzer.

• Love of Place
• Lost in Venice
• The Willow's

The Place Where All Ends Meet, Benjamin Long

Student Theses and Dissertations

A novella.

Climbing The Cerulean Butte, Emma Knudson

Senior Theses

This creative writing thesis contains third-person memoir writing by Emma Knudson.

• What Did the Loss Mean to You?
• How Do You Experience Your Grief?
• What Kind of Strategies Do You Use to Cope?
• What Kind of Guidance is Helpful?
• With Whom Do You Share Your Loss?