Creative Writing Commons^™

Call And Response : Experiments In Storytelling, Deanne Fernandes

Masters Theses

Being part of RISD's inaugural Masters of Illustration cohort has been an immense honor. This journey has been nothing short of transformative and healing, as it has allowed me to unearth layers of self-discovery through my creative practice.

In my thesis, I introduce a fresh research methodology rooted in the principles of call and response, with adaptability, creativity, and storytelling as its foundational pillars. Through the lenses of visual storytelling, experimental animation, graphic journalism, and fictional world-building, I demonstrate how these techniques can effectively bridge the gap between theory and practice. This dynamic approach fosters meaningful connections among diverse perspectives …

The Day The Door Flew Open, Clara Delgado

Masters Theses

A journey is a chance to better oneself, to go and come back anew. This kind of pilgrimage does not only happen in the spectacular realm of far-off travels. Often it happens where the soles of one’s feet comprehend the curvature of the land. Then, without forewarning, time opens a sliding door that appears on the recognized ground. Stepping in, the world is realized in a new way.

The writings that strike my tongue with ravishing bittersweet flavors are fictional narratives, with voyages that sail through day and night, disguised as lovely prose while critically probing the world. This written …

Good Girls Don't, Tess Fresco

English Honors Theses

Set in the year 1980, "Good Girls Don't" is a bracing coming-of-age story about Cathy, a young woman in Los Angeles who dreams of escaping the city yet feels intimately bound to it. Los Angeles as a terrifyingly beautiful place, in this specific time, figures prominently in this novella; even as Cathy enjoys smoking pot with her best friend Heather, rolls her eyes at her boss at Jack In the Box, and moons over sexy surfer boys, the threat of a serial murderer targeting young women hangs over her mind. On a date one night with Jim, an older boy …

Fragile: Handle With Care A Conversation On Trauma, Flashbacks, And Seeing A Therapist When You Need One, Gloria Aragon

All Theses

The primary content of this creative thesis is a complete manuscript titled Fragile. This is a work of realistic fiction with a central theme of childhood trauma. Additionally, this thesis contains a critical essay entitled, “Moving On: A Discussion on Flashbacks and Childhood Trauma in Fiction”.

Depths Of Perception, Connor Matthews

All Theses

This thesis contains the first four chapters of a novel named Depths of Perception (working title), as well as a short critical essay detailing the process of creating the chapters as well as other literary influences that impacted the construction of the work. The focus of this thesis is on the use of shifting point of view to tell a story from a multitude of character’s perspectives. While this is not a new concept, I aim to derive a deeper understanding of the importance of being able to access the perspectives of a large cast of characters. Allowing the reader …

A Muzzle For The Lamb: A Novel, Scott Beggs

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

No abstract provided.

The Bengali Oil-Eaters: A Speculative Approach To New Materialism And The Nonhuman In Contemporary Petrofiction, Jenna Wayland

Honors Projects

Despite oil’s heavy saturation within the context of contemporary global life, novelistic registrations of oil frontiers and extractive drilling in contemporary world literature remain proportionally barren with regards to oil’s political and geographical importance across the world-system. Petro-cultural production, transnational in scale and imposing in material basis, relegates oil to a paradoxical literary deferment. The general invisibility of petrofiction within the petro-sphere suggests that the materialist basis of petroleum and its fraught geopolitical history has culturally transformed oil into a repressed, peripheral, and hidden material that subsequently renders the oil-encounter unseen in contemporary literature. This creative synthesis of the oil-encounter …

Twisted Threads: A Novel And Exploration Of Fraternity Culture And Race, Christian S. Golden

Senior Theses

Twisted Threads: A Novel and Exploration of Fraternity Culture and Race is a project that seeks to explore questions about race and brotherhood through the lens of the urban fantasy genre. It is the first ten chapters of a full-length fantasy novel and can be considered the first half of the planned novel. The Introduction details some of my influences, both literary and cultural, as well as the thought process behind much of the worldbuilding in my manuscript. It also details some of the research that was conducted to help build accurate allegories and allusions. The novel follows a black …

Greenbrier, Paige Phillips

Senior Theses and Projects

This thesis is the first sixty pages of a horror novel set in the Pacific Northwest. It attempts to navigate the liminal space between monstrosity and humanity. The narrative centers on fourteen-year-old Wren as she encounters a strange new boy, investigates her father's disappearance, and attempts to solve the abductions that plague her home.

Green Grass: A Collection Of Short Stories, Julia Wynne

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

Within the country club setting, the levels of financial wealth span greatly, from young adults in search of summer employment to businessmen sealing deals on the 18th hole while retired couples vacation in spacious homes situated directly on the course. Often associated with privilege and luxury, golf is much more than just a game, involving defined dress codes, social events, organized leagues, and tournaments. Centered around the lives of staff and members of an Arizona country club, Green Grass is a collection of short stories that uses the game of golf to explore privilege, money, and motivation. Golf is a …

The River Flowing, Bailey Storm

English Literature | Senior Theses

This piece is set in Kittery Point, ME, where my cousins lived, a place in which I spent many summers growing up. I define these summers as pinpoints in my youth that helped me discover the first touches of independence away from my home in Pennsylvania. All of the time I spent alone was prominent for what I remember of this time. I was incredibly shy and detached from my cousins' friends. Though I loved being a young teenager in Maine, I could never quite grasp the social life similar to Wyatt when he is back home in Kittery from …

Lemons And Other Grand Delusions, Jake A. Yarnold

Master's Theses

Lemons and Other Grand Delusions explores a host of characters as they come face to face with their greatest fears, as they get exactly what they think they want. From magic dimension-bending lemons, to automatons powered by the Philosopher’s Stone, as the powers from beyond become in-hand realities, the characters find their greatest desires are not as simple and powerful in their hands as they first thought. Exploring the limits of greed and desire within ourselves and in the society we live in, the collection asks who are we, if not a collection of our own desires, and the impulses …

Smoke And Mirrors, Adara London

Master of Arts in Professional Writing Capstones

When a human trafficking ring comes to town, a grieving graduate student must choose between investigating on her own to save her sister or leaving the investigation to her impassive cop boyfriend.

The Homecoming Game, Olivia Dorothy Daras

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The Homecoming Game follows 16-year-old Ellie as she discovers that growing up is a lot more difficult than she thought it would be. To her horror, high school has become less about getting good grades and more about your popularity status — or so that’s what her best friend tells her. The growing pains of being a teenager and dealing with a not-so-perfect home life culminate when something utterly insane happens: she’s asked to the Homecoming Dance by someone other than the guy she’s been kind of dating. With her social life and personal life in flux, Ellie has to …

Caelum, Alexandra Requena

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Caelum is a story about the hidden struggles of mental health told in an alternating chapter format that explores the journey of two characters: an angel, Tacenda, who seeks revenge on Mr. Mystical -an unloving God- and Dorian, a human, who is trying to find his place in life. The two

experience parallel situations where they explore their emotions and reactions to life while Mr. Mystical makes everything much more complicated. Tacenda, however, has other plans, and seeks Dorian for help defeating those who have turned against him, causing his demise. As the story progresses and alternates between Tacenda’s quest …

Woman Flytrap, Brianna Jo Hobson

Student Theses and Dissertations

Woman FlyTrap is a short story zine collection that explores the topic of sexual violence through the perpetrator and victim relationship with an explicit lens. Replete with cultural and entomological themes and motifs, Woman Flytrap seeks to remind survivors that we are not alone. In our bodies or in our lives. Neither in the world. There are over a million insects to every human, proving that there is strength in numbers. All five stories in the collection present different abstracts: revenge, transformation, justice, healing, body image, self-harm, mourning, etc. There is also a playlist and a section about the author. …

The Exile's War, Stephen Edwards Arnold

Master of Arts in Professional Writing Capstones

In Gaelwyn, the village of a thousand stories, Katchan receives a powerful ruby and an ancient technique called writing hidden by his grandmother, Maggaline. Jealous of the power Katchan has, the village Elder seeks to destroy him. After escaping the Elder, Katchan must leave his home and traverse a dangerous and mysterious wasteland that will lead him directly into an ancient conflict that lost a powerful empire to the sands of time.

Hattie: A Twin Territories Matriarch, Madison P. Brown

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

“Hattie: A Twin Territories Matriarch” is a creative novel of vignettes in the vein of historical fiction set at the turn of the 20th century in Oklahoma/Indian Territory exploring the complexities of love and betrayal through generations of one Muscogee family as they battle the legal and personal implications of white-settler encroachment. With societal criticisms and Indigenous methodologies, this thesis aims to explore land ownership, resource allocation, and the complex governance of Oklahoma tribal reservations. The research of this novel focuses on primary documents from National Archive probate records, Dawes Commission enrollments, newspapers, and a familial collection of photographs, letters, …

Storytelling & Holistic Mental Health: A Fiction Collection, Grace Holmes

Self-Determined Majors Final Projects

In this collection, I have used fiction to explore my academic focus on the holistic perception of mental health and healing. In my time at Skidmore College, I have explored all kinds of perspectives– religious/spiritual, psychosocial, medical, anthropological– what I have found is that the only generalizable thing is our need to tell a story about what we’re going through. My collection strives to show the value in the experiences of people with mental illnesses and addictions: how these experiences are often sidelined or seen as inferior/incorrect/out of touch with reality, but how these “alternative” realities can create inspiration, excitement, …

The Jubilant City Almanac: Stories, Azaria Brown

Graduate Thesis Collection

The Jubilant City Almanac is a collection of short stories set in the magical Jubilant City, a city founded by a group of Black women in 1736. These stories bridge the whimsical and magical with the realities of poverty, classicism, addiction, abuse and health disparities. “Got His Alligator” follows the journey of two codependent addicts as they try to get their fashion designs onto Jubilant City’s premiere drama, Girl, Please. The characters in “Carbon Copy” use a magical phone to bring Denzel Washington to the city. “Jeremiah the Conqueror” summons Black American folk legend, High John. THrough an exploration of …

Not About You: A Novel, Hillary Colton

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

This novel-in-progress explores the complexities of single parenting and coming of age in a misogynistic society. Through the perspectives of a recently divided family, we are drawn into the coping mechanisms of characters who have been impacted by the cyclical nature of sexism, alcoholism, and abuse. Told through multiple points of view, the novel aims to explore questions of how internalized misogyny and generational trauma force a person to look at their complicity in the rippling effect of societal expectations, and whether it is possible to break free after a lifetime of trying to survive in a society rooted against …

Lady Winters, Madeline Ice

Student Research Submissions

Lady Winters is a young adult fantasy novella based in a world of royalty and assassins. The line between good and evil should be clear but recent events have blurred them. In the shadows, lurks a darkness that seeks to change the course of history.

In a futuristic kingdom, Lady Celestia Winters inherits debt and a kill list following the death of her parents. She takes over her mother’s position as an Academy Assassin and uses her training to work towards paying off the family debt. In charge of her assignments is the infamous Headmistress and Celestia’s newest target is …

Harvest: A Story Of Afropessimism, Briana Williams, Briana Williams

Dartmouth College Master’s Theses

Afropessimism is the idea that Black people will never be able to truly overcome the centuries of racism and oppression they have faced. A bleak notion, the idea heavily contrasts with Afrofuturism, the ways in which Black people use technology to regain their autonomy and rise from the societal binds they’re placed in. This story focuses on how even in the supposedly more evolved and progressive political landscape of the modern world, Black people still cannot escape the shackles of racism, particularly in the United States. Taking the common themes of and ideologies of Afropessimism, Harvest follows the story of …

The Dazzled Rope Of Lightning Against The Cloud Is Not The Downward Bolt But The Compelled Upstroke Through The Heated Ether: Stories, Jack S. Muth

Senior Projects Fall 2023

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Languages and Literature of Bard College.

All-Consuming Madness, Ainsley Doyle

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

My honors project is a short story, titled All-Consuming Madness, that follows the main character Annie as she struggles to cope with the aftermath of a car accident that changed her life. The story explores the impact grief can have on family relationships and how trauma can close people off from each other. It also explores Annie’s journey towards healing as she struggles to forgive herself for the accident. The accompanying essays detail the creative process I went through while creating this story and the influences that had an important impact on the story.

The Romanian Goodbye, Andrei Dumitriu

Senior Projects Spring 2023

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Languages and Literature of Bard College.

Unable To Locate A Fire, Lily Isabel Taggart

Senior Projects Spring 2023

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Languages and Literature of Bard College.

The Strangeness Of Being Alive, Marxe Altman Orbach

Senior Projects Spring 2023

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Languages and Literature of Bard College.

Coup De Grâce, Violet Rea Mass

Senior Projects Spring 2023

This project, composed of an introduction and a fiction piece, explores the complex power dynamics at play on the university stage put into perspective of the Human Rights study. The fiction follows young Olive as arrives for her first term at a university in a secluded valley where she must come to terms with a darkness greater than she had ever imagined.

By The Rivers Of Babylon We Sat Down And Wept, Sarah Ann Hudes

Senior Projects Spring 2023

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Languages and Literature of Bard College.