Creative Writing Commons^™

Elegy, Brendan Nixon

Bryant Literary Review

Death stood there in a leather jacket,
sunglasses on and his hands in his pockets.

Birds Of The Black Canyon, Vicki Lindner

Bryant Literary Review

As they crossed the big mountains only she talked, hands off the wheel to gesture vivaciously.

Respect Your Elders, Charles Harper Webb

Bryant Literary Review

"Ready for a fastball," the grizzled grampa
leather-lungs. "Alls he's got's a fastball.

Bald Eagle, Blackbirds, Matthew Spireng

Bryant Literary Review

A dead blackbird on the driveway, eagle
swooping down to avoid the plague of blackbirds

If This Man, Matthew Spireng

Bryant Literary Review

If this man with hairy ears, ears
sprouting--not like an old man,

Rising To The Call, Christa Albrecht-Vegas

Bryant Literary Review

Julie heard them calling: the high, shrill pinging of a thousand points of--not light, but tinnitus.

As If It Mattered (Gambling Sounds), Fredda S. Pearlson

Bryant Literary Review

if today moves
through its hours
with no lost rings

Chez Moi, Dennis Saleh

Bryant Literary Review

I am all there is
of me Of this there

Victor As A Victim Of Precipitation, Jonathan Greenhause

Bryant Literary Review

Victor's car was stolen, but he chose to drive it anyway.

Every Few Years, Jack Cooper

Bryant Literary Review

Every few years
I look back and think
what a fool I was before

Prayer Of The Bell, Laura Bonazzoli

Bryant Literary Review

I guess you probably want to know how I got to be in a mess like this.

The Womb Of The Unknown Soldier, Tom Chandler

Bryant Literary Review

Is unoccupied at the moment
could be most anywhere

The Presentation Of Postmodern Sexuality In Short Fiction, Allie J. Kapus

Senior Honors Theses

Shifting norms in twentieth century western society, coupled with emerging postmodern thought in the 1960s, radically changed the ways in which people viewed sexuality, gender roles, and the institutions of marriage and the family. The literature of the postmodern era, namely short fiction, also reflects such ideological shifts. Literature is a powerful communicator of the human condition as well as a crucial means for reflecting the customs, beliefs, and norms of a society at the time of its writing. Such evolving differences as were occurring in the realm of sexuality came to be represented in postmodern literature. This thesis aims …

Redactándome A Mi Misma: Writing Place, Process, And Identity Across Two Languages, Jenna Ziegelmayer

Senior Honors Projects

Emily Dickinson once wrote a poem titled “Tell all the truth but tell it slant,” where she advises writers to do just that. One should tell the truth about their experiences, but tell it through their own unique perspective in order to make it “dazzle” on the page. My slant? Una segunda lengua.

As a student of Spanish, learning a different language has impacted the way that I see the world and my place in it. Studying abroad taught me about the language and culture of Spain, but it also taught me a lot about myself, my own native language, …

Leaning Into The Party, Stephen Roberts

Bryant Literary Review

I was having a good time at the party
until I leaned back on the door frame

It Wasn't In The Cards, Sarah Brown Weitzman

Bryant Literary Review

"I'm in", I announced and sat down
to play the cards I'd be dealt.

Old Mirror, Tom Chandler

Bryant Literary Review

Speckled from having witnessed too much,
from being peered into for an answer.

Wildfire, Charles Laird Calia

Bryant Literary Review

For months there was no rain or very little, the mountain grasses were dry, prone to lightning strikes and wildfires, and Frank could see the river far from his little cabin, just beyond Federal land, drying up before his eyes.

Right Now At This Moment As We Speak, Tom Chandler

Bryant Literary Review

Two humpback whales
are breaching eight miles
off the coast of Venezuela

My Date With The Scientist, Kristy Nielsen

Bryant Literary Review

He tells me even land has tides,
pulled like water by the moon.

Lists, Michael Onofrey

Bryant Literary Review

Earl has begun the prep work for painting the "foyer" of Bob and Lisa Kob's house, "foyer" a term Bob had used.

Block Island Haiku, Fred Yannantuono

Bryant Literary Review

So many hatchbacks.

Space Storms, Sarah Thompson

Bryant Literary Review

You are the star
In the blackened sky

The Blind Man At The Grand Canyon, John Kristofco

Bryant Literary Review

He stood there with his friend,
the hundreds at the rim,

Coverings Of White In Plath's 'The Bell Jar" And "Ariel" Poems, Emma M. Kuper

The Criterion

No abstract provided.

How To Be The Perfect Asian Wife!, Sophia Hill

Art and Art History Honors Projects

“How to be the Perfect Asian Wife” critiques exploitative power systems that assault female bodies of color in intersectional ways. This work explores strategies of healing and resistance through inserting one’s own narrative of flourishing rather than surviving, while reflecting violent realities. Three large drawings mimic pervasive advertisement language and presentation reflecting the oppressive strategies used to contain women of color. Created with charcoal, watercolor, and ink, these 'advertisements' contrast with an interactive rice bag filled with comics of my everyday experiences. These documentations compel viewers to reflect on their own participation in systems of power.

Crafting Fear: The Horror Film Trailer, Courtney Dreyer

Honors Theses

My research project investigates horror film trailers in an effort to define the characteristics of this genre and discuss its ideological implications. Focusing on theatrical trailers for American wide-release horror films between 2013 and 2017, I closely viewed a sample of forty trailers to inform my investigation. Horror trailers create an intense emotional experience of both dread and fear, tending to follow a similar narrative structure and employ a common set of stylistic techniques to achieve this emotional intensity. The shared stylistic techniques include elements such as tight framing, innocent imagery, and genre misdirection. The repetition of these elements promotes …

17th Edition Of The Laureate, Jessie Fales

Honors Theses

The Laureate is an undergraduate literary journal sponsored by the Lee Honors College at Western Michigan University. As Editor in Chief of the 17^th Edition, I coordinated the journal’s publication over the course of an academic year. The editorial process follows methodical stages, which have become standard over The Laureate’s lifetime—recruiting submissions, selecting submissions, coordinating with the design center, and hosting a launch party, etc... Of course, every editor has a unique experience, but we must honor the journal’s entity as something larger than ourselves—this journal has existed long before my time, and I hope it keeps on …

Visitor Parking Only, Jeremy Caldwell

Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

VISITOR PARKING ONLY is a thesis comprised of 40 poems and a fifteen-page introduction that travels simultaneously through the climatic seasons and familial generations, creating a cyclical effect of inevitable loss and regrowth. The poems start in late spring, early summer and dive into adolescent wonder, vulnerable, and loss of innocence. Gradually as the seasons change so does the speaker, diving into young adulthood and parenting and the sense of responsibility, guilt, and confusion that has played such a large role in developing me as a person. The poems transition into the winter months where older generations, such as my …

A Failure Of Femininity Within 'G.I. Jane', Maggie Weaver

Line by Line: A Journal of Beginning Student Writing

This essay was wrote and edited throughout my ENG 200H course which featured the theme of women in the military. In preparation for the essay the class watched the film G.I. Jane directed by Ridley Scott. The assignment was to address and analyze one prominent theme within the film and after research and consideration I decided to examine how the film portrayed femininity. After identifying which aspects of the film I wanted to address in my paper I wrote my first draft. This original draft then underwent several edits both from my professor and the University of Dayton Write Place …