Creative Writing Commons^™

0829: John Mckernan Collection, Marshall University Special Collections

Guides to Manuscript Collections

The John McKernan Collection contains mostly published materials that John McKernan collected related to his own poetry. There are a limited number of non-McKernan publications that he saved.

Passings, Lisa M. Tillmann Ph.D.

Faculty Publications

The author, a heterosexual woman, and Gordon Bernstein, a gay man, have been friends and research collaborators since 1995. In 2004, the author accompanied Gordon on a trip to his hometown of Philadelphia to conduct fieldwork and interview family members. This project ethnographically explored personal and relational opportunities and challenges associated with coming out in a family system defined by avoidant communication, hegemonic masculinity, and terminal illness.

State Of Unions: Politics And Poetics Of Performance, Lisa M. Tillmann Ph.D.

Faculty Publications

At the 2005 International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry, the author delivered a poem and slide show, “The State of Unions: Activism (and In-Activism) in Decision 2004.” The performance processed the election in the context of her research community, a network of gay male friends—marginalized by sexual orientation but privileged by sex, gender expression, race, class, and education. Audience members offered mixed responses, some praising its provocative content, others criticizing the author’s position and tone, which some perceived as hostile, even as “gay bashing.”

Our Lady, José Angel Araguz

Faculty Publications

This poem by José Angel Araguz originally appeared in Apple Valley Review: A Journal of Contemporary Literature.

José Angel Araguz comments on "Our Lady":
The vision in this poem really happened; I remember my aunt coming home from a trip to Mexico visibly shaken. I was raised by only my mother and aunt, with my aunt being the hard-nosed disciplinarian. To see her shook up was something new. One detail that lives around the poem but didn’t make it in is that she quit heavy drinking for a while after this incident.

Calliope, Armstrong State University

Calliope Magazine

Volume 31

The Romantic Author And The Romance Writer: Resisting Gendered Concepts Of Creativity, Rebecca Tushnet

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Dominant narratives of creativity regularly expect female-associated forms of creativity to be provisioned naturally without need for the economic incentives provided by exclusive rights, just like housework and childcare. Even as the concept of Romantic authorship has come under sustained analytic assault, its challengers often look elsewhere–to the kinds of creativity in which men are more likely to participate–to find models of situated, always-influenced authorship. In this chapter, I examine one variant of the problem, in which certain arguments about copyright discount the value of forms that are predominantly produced and enjoyed by women. But creative works in these oft-denigrated …

Good Reasons, Rachel Mindell

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

Bridging The Information Gap For Ulcerative Colitis Patients, Amanda Morgan

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Nearly all humans, throughout the course of their life, have been diagnosed with everything from a mild cold, to a viral infection, or perhaps a diagnosis of a chronic condition. Upon experiencing symptoms, patients are exposed to a plethora of information. The Internet holds home remedies, for those wary of the doctor's office, or there are advice boards where people share their experiences, trials, and tribulations. In some cases, the doctor is the purveyor of the information and written materials are sent home with the patient dictating the regimen to follow to achieve wellness. However, some patients, particularly ulcerative colitis …

The Sun House, Max Kaisler

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

The Mountains And The Men, Caitlin Macdougall

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

Caitlin Stainken's Thesis, Caitlin Stainken

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

The Millennial Who Planted Trees, Trevien Stanger

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

In this work of creative non-fiction essays and stories, the author explores ecological restoration through a variety of contexts, settings, and conditions.

Damas Y Caballeros, Guadalupe Mendez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Collected Poetry - Manuscript over socio - political and culturally relevant context.

Growing Pains: The Good, The Nasty, The Ugly, Sarah Porter-Liddell

Masters Theses

This thesis includes a collection of Slam and performance poems that examine issues of race, sexuality, religion, family, and life choices; including a critical introduction briefly explaining the oral roots of slam and performance poetry in which I relate the work of contemporary poets such as Alix Olson and Hattie Gossett to my own work, while explaining the effects of reading the work of contemporary poets in anthologies such as ALOUD: Voices of the Nuyorican Café, and how my poetry develops through the language of the poets included in these anthologies.

Woodlawn: A Collection Of Working Class Poems, Anthony Travis Shoot

Masters Theses

This thesis includes a collection of working-class poems that explore such issues as poverty, work, racism, family, and substance abuse through the lens of class. It also includes a critical introduction that gives a brief overview of the history and current state of working-class studies, specifically poetry. In this thesis I relate the work of contemporary poets such as Jim Daniels and Simon J. Ortiz to my own work, while explaining the themes of contemporary poets compiled in anthologies such as Working Classics: An Anthology and American Working Class Literature.

Creative Writing Pedagogy: The Autobiographical Narrative In Hybrid Projects As A Means To Explore Intersectionality, Tana G. Young

Masters Theses

My thesis addresses the role of creative writing methods in fostering close observation, attention to detail, critical thinking and a keener awareness of intersectionalities in writing classrooms across disciplines, but most especially the humanities and social sciences. I contend that the "real work" of the academy is critical thinking. Further, using creative writing, specifically autobiographical narrative in FYC, anticipates multimodal projects and digital storytelling, all of which fosters creative and critical thinking.

Between Heaven And Hell And Heathens, Gabrielle Knock

Masters Theses

This work of fiction explores the relationship between worshipped and worshipper by dually depicting it as a child/parent relationship and as a relationship between lovers. Written in the tradition of parodies like Don Quixote and re-imaginings of myths like The Childhood of Jesus by J.M. Coetzee, I use humor and a contemporary setting in my book about a child who could be the second coming of Christ, but who cares more about his mother' s approval than he does about God.

For Quality And Training Purposes: Stories, Sean Towey

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

Troubled, Solomohn Nallshi Ennis-Klyczek

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

The Lyric And The Lathe: Dreams Of Perfect Poetic Efficiency, 1800-1917, Steven A. Nathaniel

Masters Theses

This study examines patterns of efficiency in the poetry and theory of William Wordsworth, Hilda Doolittle, and other figures from the Modernist and Romantic periods. I begin by defining perfect efficiency as occurring when energy transforms, without loss, inside a closed energy system, and I offer perpetual motion machines as hypothetical examples of this impossible state. I then demonstrate the process of efficiency in William Wordsworth's poetry, which begins with circumlocutory poetic cycles but contracts into terse repetitions. Since technical efficiency is calculated by the formula output/input, poetry's subjectivity makes poetic efficiency difficult to measure. However, I suggest that repetitions …

The Holy Dialectic And Other Short Stories, Ian Gonsher

Short Stories

These short stories are a collection of commentaries. They are a collection of discussions.  These dialogues, written over many years, with differing themes and questions in mind, all share something in common. They are all manifestations of a holy dialectic. Discourse is sacred because everything that is written, and everything that is said, and every conversation, is a holy expression of the unity of opposites.

Contents: The Holy Dialectic; Poetry After Auschwitz; The Parable of the Four Prayers; An Agonistic Encounter with a Featherless Bird That Had Broad Flat Nails.

The Field Trip, Randy Harritan

Mighty Pen Project Anthology & Archive

A soldier grapples with horrifying events in Vietnam, then comes home to grapple with the effects those events have had on him.

Articles, stories, and other compositions in this archive were written by participants in the Mighty Pen Project. The program, developed by author David L. Robbins, and in partnership with Virginia Commonwealth University and the Virginia War Memorial in Richmond, Virginia, offers veterans and their family members a customized twelve-week writing class, free of charge. The program encourages, supports, and assists participants in sharing their stories and experiences of military experience so both writer and audience may benefit.

Blue Devil 2, Malik Hodari

Mighty Pen Project Anthology & Archive

A soldier in Vietnam continues to face interpersonal conflict as he fights to keep his team alive and complete his mission.

Articles, stories, and other compositions in this archive were written by participants in the Mighty Pen Project. The program, developed by author David L. Robbins, and in partnership with Virginia Commonwealth University and the Virginia War Memorial in Richmond, Virginia, offers veterans and their family members a customized twelve-week writing class, free of charge. The program encourages, supports, and assists participants in sharing their stories and experiences of military experience so both writer and audience may benefit.

Blue Devil 1, Malik Hodari

Mighty Pen Project Anthology & Archive

A soldier in Vietnam keeps his team alive and moving while grappling with interpersonal conflict.

Articles, stories, and other compositions in this archive were written by participants in the Mighty Pen Project. The program, developed by author David L. Robbins, and in partnership with Virginia Commonwealth University and the Virginia War Memorial in Richmond, Virginia, offers veterans and their family members a customized twelve-week writing class, free of charge. The program encourages, supports, and assists participants in sharing their stories and experiences of military experience so both writer and audience may benefit.

Sexuality, Desire And The Ageing Female Body: An Essay, Lauren Marsh

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This thesis consists of a novella, ‘One Night in Hong Kong’, and an essay, ‘Sexuality, Desire and the Ageing Female Body.’ The novella tells the story of an erotic affair between the female narrator and a man in a hotel room in the neon city of Hong Kong. Told in four parts, the story shifts in time, reflecting on earlier events in the narrator’s life and a trip she made to the Sicilian city of Catania in 1954.

Older female protagonists and their sexuality are rarely depicted in contemporary Australian fiction. Where representations do exist, they act as ‘interventionist’ texts, …

Maps For The Lost: A Collection Of Short Fiction And Human / Nature Ecotones: Climate Change And The Ecological Imagination: A Critical Essay, Susan Heather Greenhill

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The thesis comprises a collection of short fiction, Maps for the Lost, and a critical essay, “Human / Nature Ecotones: Climate Change and the Ecological Imagination.” In ecological terms, areas of interaction between adjacent ecosystems are known as ecotones. Sites of relationship between biotic communities, they are charged with fertility and evolutionary possibility. While postcolonial scholarship is concerned with borders as points of cross-cultural contact, ecocritical thought focuses upon the ecotone that occurs at the interface between human and non-human nature.

In their occupation of the liminal zones between human and natural realms, the characters and narratives of Maps …

The Historian’S Daughter (A Novel); Monsters And Memory (An Essay), Rashida Murphy

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This thesis comprises two parts, a novel and an essay. ‘The Historian’s Daughter’ is a work of fiction based on family memories and historical research that speaks to the trauma of abandonment and displacement in an immigrant family living in Australia. The accompanying essay is titled ‘Monsters and Memory’ and is an autoethnographical text which combines theoretical, experiential and embodied research to argue that the inclusion of women’s stories, particularly those of trauma and abuse, must be foregrounded in any exploration of cultural and diasporic memory. Drawing primarily on the work of Said (1978, 1993, 1999, 2001), Bhabha (1990, 1994), …