Creative Writing Commons^™

A Small Oasis Behind The Ocean, Willow Bermudez

The Echo

No abstract provided.

Pelican, Caden Vandygrift

The Echo

No abstract provided.

Preface & Table Of Contents, Furman University

The Echo

No abstract provided.

Outlook, Daniel Chen

The Echo

No abstract provided.

Cover

The Echo

No abstract provided.

Echo 2026 - Complete Issue

The Echo

No abstract provided.

Performance Of Illustrations And Images As Language In Sarnath Banerjee’S All Quiet In Vikaspuri, Akanksha Barthwal Ms

SANE journal: Sequential Art Narrative in Education

Sarnath Banerjee’s All Quiet in Vikaspuri, fictionalizes but at the same time addresses water wars and political ideologies in the city of Delhi. By the means of eco-critical approach in the name of Vi-kas (development) Banerjee discuss the acts of slow violence subverted on nature in the name of progress (vikas). Through text/ images the author depicts chaos and challenges for the readers in more direct and obscene ways. The current paper attempts to look at Banerjee’s illustrations and images as new form of language emerged in modern Indian literature with the possibly that illustrations have more effect on …

Tùn-Scene And A-Futurism: Biomythography, Opacity, And Posthuman Imagination, Minglu Du

Masters Theses

Grounded in the author’s position as a Chinese feminist, this thesis examines how East Asian women, as well as East Asian-coded femininity more broadly, are objectified and othered within futurist visual culture in the age of artificial intelligence. Through an engagement with ornamentalism, techno-Orientalism, and posthumanism1 , it argues that the persistent figure of the feminized humanoid cyborg continues to reproduce colonial and patriarchal structures of desire, rendering marginalized bodies as fetishized and violable surfaces. In response, the thesis develops Tùn-Scene, a biomythographic artistic framework and the first experiment in what the author provisionally names A-Futurism. Drawing on Donna Haraway’s …

Fallen Leaves:The Unseen, Forgotten, Presences That Live In Us, Juhee Cho

Masters Theses

The fallen leaf is a material figure of the unseen, forgotten moments that have made us and holds us still while remaining outside our sight. In urban environments, fallen leaves are managed as seasonal waste, collected and quickly separated from everyday encounter. Yet within ecological systems, they continue to participate in cycles of regeneration, becoming the soil that sustains new life. This quiet continuation is unavailable to the eye, yet known by the body. As a proof of this, the leaf’s transformation reveals itself not to the mind, but to the hand. The curling fiber wears out, the deepening brown, …

Draw To Breathe, Ranran Ma

Masters Theses

This thesis explores visual expression in drawing as an intuitive mode of thinking suited to everyday life—a form of expression that runs parallel to language and surpasses it.

The project begins with a daily Post-it note drawing practice. These drawings often emerge before conscious understanding, subsequently accompanied by brief text, allowing image and word to resonate through emotion and intuition. Through the use of small-scale, portable, low-pressure materials, and with immediacy and intuitive freedom as the foundation of making, a visual language system grounded in the self develops. Through this sustained practice, I developed an instruction-based card system titled Draw …

Where Each Step Lands: Reconnecting And Reparenting Through Visual Narrative, Skye Wang

Masters Theses

This research begins with lived experiences of dissociation and a persistent sense of disconnection between body and consciousness. It explores the potential of visual narrative as an embodied practice. Through daily walking and sketching, bodily sensations are translated into visual language through a synesthetic process, forming the foundation for a picture book as the central outcome of this project.

The picture book adopts the perspective of a jumping spider positioned beneath a five-year-old girl’s shoe, creating a shifting, downward-facing viewpoint. The spider functions as a viewing position, while the girl represents the inner child. The narrative is constructed around the …

An Anxious Artist's Guide To Magic, Mot Tuman

Masters Theses

Illustration’s essence is using some type of media to tell a story. This could be anything from sculpture, watercolor, even just text alone. Beyond its medium, I have been thinking for a while of illustration and storytelling as a type of illusory magic. Magic, according to the Oxford language dictionary as being "The power of using supernatural or other unseen forces to apparently influence events or human behaviour." It gives us the power to reach inside the mind and heart of a person and change their emotional and mental state. It's the ability to create a world and have others …

Illustrated Children's Book: "The Adventures Of Mr. C", Anne-Marie Wadsworth, Joanne Whitcombe

Honors Capstones

"The Adventures of Mr. C" is a children's book written by Anne-Marie Wadsworth and her grandmother, Joanne Whitcombe. It was illustrated by Anne-Marie Wadsworth, 2026 NIU graduate, as her honor's capstone project. The book was presented at NIU's 2026 Visual Communication Senior Show on April 30th. It is a christian-inspired true story about an abandoned bird (Mr .C) that becomes part of Joanne's family. Mr C. flies away from his home and is lost for many months, until Joanne experiences a timely, unexpected miracle that only God and his angels can take credit for.

Alternative, Ashlynn M. Stroud

Graduate Theses and Dissertations (2019 - present)

A series of illustrations, sculptures and comic book issues designed to introduce a series of stories and characters that represent the history and members of a fictional mythology depicting the cultural social group often referred to as the “alternative” community. Alternative takes place in a world that combines high fantasy and science fiction with elements of pop culture and music. This world uses iconography of the various genres of the alternative subculture and music, metal, post-punk, and the evolving scene of the underground with varying visuals from both gothic and industrial time periods. Viewers are encouraged to read and follow …

Ink (2026)

Rabble, 2014-

The student-run features magazine covering the fashion, art, music and culture worlds at VCU and in Richmond. Published annually in print and updated regularly online.

The Lantern, 2025-2026, Naila Twyman, Rach Wascoe, Lauren Macallister, Owen Fazzini, Sidney Belleroche, Jordyn Chaise, Christopher Gerrow, Catherine Stump, Madeline O'Connor, Shiloh Bloom, Luke Peloquin, Benjamin Warner, Sasha Schweitzer-Weeks, Andrew Mihniak, Adrienne Dyer, Gregory Dervinis, Neil Hutchinson, Olive Neri, Daniel Barry, Izabella Entrekin, Vienna Gurev, Ash Hawkes, Bowie Dake, Mike Davis, Anita Farrell, Daniel Mcgrath, Taylor Rainer, Sharon Gearhart, Sophia Bush, Caitlin Cunnane, Olive Sturm, Hayden James, Alex Kolb, Gianna M. Scotto, Casey Kracz

The Lantern Literary Magazines, 1933 to Present

Acceptance • The Negro Mermaid • Rubber Rosebud • Exposing the Smoker with Acne Scars • Alarms Down • Dress Rehearsal • Drowning in the Depths • I'm Stuck on the London Eye 'Cause My Paperwork's Got Inconsistencies and They Won't Let Me Get Off • Loose Change in a Pickle Jar • Marge Returned on a Tuesday • One Call Away • Regression to the Mean • Revenge is a Dish Best Served Cold • That Which Lurks • To Write a Wrong • Vines Above Us • What Must Be Done • Lullaby to Acceptance • To Sooth …

Emigration Of Our Great Colossus, Sterling Imago

Landshark Literary Review

A short poem on the emigration of The Great Colossus (Statue of Liberty) due to her view of the soceioeconomic state of The United States of America.

Mermaid Hurricane, Benjamin Tabor Jr.

Landshark Literary Review

No abstract provided.

Krohn Headed, Benjamin Tabor Jr.

Landshark Literary Review

No abstract provided.

More Than Any Thing Or Any One, Baylie E. Rice

Landshark Literary Review

These sister poems "more than any thing" and "more than any one" were written as an exploration of how we tend to romanticize people we are involved with romantically. After they break our hearts or hurt us in some way, we begin to see them as they truly are, for better or worse. "more than any thing" is the process of viewing someone through rose colored glasses, while "more than any one" is looking back on the relationship and wishing you had spent more time learning to love yourself.

Hot Ears, Anna Thomas

Landshark Literary Review

A short creative non-fiction piece about the daily battle of living with depression. This work explores the diagnosis of depression through a singular moment in time, taking a scene and expanding it into it's higher meaning. This piece also develops part of the support system an individual with depression relies on, as well as an intimate relationship between college students.

Between The Posts, Avery Smith

Landshark Literary Review

No abstract provided.

To My Love, Gabriel M. Navarro

Landshark Literary Review

It is a gothic romance about a person in the distant past that had nothing but his relationship with one person. He reflects on it and wishes to find a way to remember it.

This Anger Has No Home, Lamarcus M. Lenoir Jr.

Landshark Literary Review

This poem was written because of my frustrations with the media and how the Palestinian genocide is being portrayed. I wanted to combat the way people try to use religion to in a way justify these horrific acts.

Right Of Passage, Benjamin Tabor Jr.

Landshark Literary Review

No abstract provided.

Rub Your Eyes, Benjamin Tabor Jr. Jr.

Landshark Literary Review

No abstract provided.

Freezer Bride, Chris M. Woodry

Landshark Literary Review

No abstract provided.

Pwatem: An Anthology Of Literature And Art (2026)

Pwatem (Poictesme), 2006-

Pwatem is an anthology of literature and art from undergraduate students at Virginia Commonwealth University. Pwatem publishes poetry, prose and art of all kinds from talented undergraduate students of all majors.

Look, Make, Play: The Natural Order In Children’S Books, Claire M. Lloyd

Children's Book Writing and Illustrating (MFA) Theses

This paper will examine conceptualizations of nature through environmentally themed picture books. While environmentalism is not a new topic for children’s book, recent works reveal changing attitudes toward the impact of human agency on the natural world. These texts provide a microcosmic view of the shift toward “green” kidlit and shows literary depictions of human interactions with nonhuman nature through an ecocritical lens. Specifically, I will look at three approaches to how humans conceive of, impact, and interact with the natural world depicted in children’s literature: observation (as the observable “other”), creation (as a communal resource), and recreation (as urban …

Wordless And Anthropomorphic Picture Books Featuring Insect Characters, Jocelyn Norcross

Children's Book Writing and Illustrating (MFA) Theses

This thesis explores the intersection of wordless narration and insect anthropomorphism in children’s literature through the creation and analysis of three original picture books: Clawula, Fly, and Home. These works utilize wordless (or near-wordless) storytelling to feature insect characters that possess human emotional qualities while remaining grounded in their true biological environments.

The research begins with a historical overview of wordless picture books, examining their definition, educational utility, and global classification as "silent books." To establish a foundation for visual narrative techniques, a case study is conducted on the wordless trilogy of South Korean author-illustrator Suzy Lee, …