Creative Writing Commons^™

“We Were Just Trying To, You Know, Survive”: Coming Of Age As A Displaced Person And Narrative, Eli Megibben

Undergraduate Theses

“Home” is a personal construct that shapes who we are. It is not a physical place, but rather an experience tied to a place. How are people to respond, then, when the socio-political institutions that rule the land that they call home say “you’re not allowed to exist because of who you are and where you come from”? In this project, I investigate the effects that physical displacement (by way of war and violent conflict) have on an individual’s identity through the analysis of narratives composed by individuals who were displaced by the Holocaust, the Bosnian war, and the current …

Reset, Victoria M. Banks

Master of Arts in Professional Writing Capstones

Reset is a indie, science fiction, adventure game set in a near future where patients can choose to have an optional and controversial procedure called a “reset surgery.” The operation wipes patients’ memories, so they can forget their past and become a new person with a fresh start in life. However, when the protagonist, Rana, experiences headaches accompanied by flashbacks of her pasts, she becomes obsessed with finding out who she was and why she decided to erase her history. The player must help Rana recover her memories, piece them together to solve the mystery, and make choices that will …

Before The First Draft: Cultivating Inspiration And Creative Insight In The Classroom, Brandi Reissenweber

Journal of Creative Writing Studies

Creative writing courses often overlook the work that takes place before any writing occurs. Indeed, this creative thinking is elusive and not entirely understood. Still, it is essential, and more time spent attending to it helps students navigate a broader base of the creative process. This essay details relevant findings from neuroscience to lay the groundwork for this approach, describes some of the techniques used in the classroom to shift focus to the early stages of the creative process, and shares preliminary findings from a research study regarding this approach.

The Day, The Pain, The Plough, Faith Thompson

Poetry MFA Theses

A collection of poetry focusing on such issues as womanhood and religion.

An Ode To The Imperfections, Alexandra P. Schaffer

Undergraduate Distinction Papers

I first became fascinated with the personal essay when I read Tina Fey’s autobiography, Bossypants. I become so immersed in her writing because of how much I related to it. Like me, Fey is of Greek and German descent. Little details like this resonated with me along with a number of other characteristics we both shared, such as our shared love for self-deprecating humor. I fell in love with her stories, because although they were specific to her, they still connected to my own life. Her essays made me feel something, and they also helped me realize that I …

Ashbelt: Volume Six, Ash Belt

AshBelt

No abstract provided.

Brennan, Mary Kate (Fa 1284), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 1284. Student interview conducted by Mary Kate Brennan with renowned Appalachian poet Jim Wayne Miller. Brennan’s focus throughout the interview is on “the cultural sensitivity and awareness that permeates Miller’s poetry.” Miller also touches on what he considers to be the central themes of his work, the struggles and triumphs of communities within the Appalachian region, and pride in cultural heritage. The collection contains a detailed index, interview summary, transcription, index cards with questions, and a reel-to-reel audio tape of the interview.

The Shadow And The Song, Talena Michele Mcneely

Student Theses and Dissertations

Throughout this creative thesis, I explore multiple themes such as love, sex, family, identity, mental illness, and loss in free verse form. Most of these poems are derived from personal experience, but I combine fantastical and/or surreal elements with my memories to distort them. Due to my academic background in analyzing modern and postmodern literature, my own work draws from similar manipulations of structure, language, and symbolism. I hope these opposing images and ideas come together to create simple but unique texts. In my critical introduction, I explore the history of free verse poetry and the nature of configuring lineation …

A Song Of Distant Memory, Andrew Devin Gadberry

Student Theses and Dissertations

This creative thesis features a critical introduction, which discusses both the nature of the fantasy genre as well as my authorial process in creating this story. Our story begins as Ohku, Hunter of hunters, tracks a rabid beast through the depths of the mysterious dark forest of La'ia only to find that the creature is no mere beast. And when the hunter's path crosses with that of a fallen spirit, the creature’s dark nature begins to reveal itself. Yet, when Ohku returns to his village and warns the Chief and Warden of what he has found, he is sworn to …

Two Poems: Stop Time Before; Forsaken Ones, Ánh-Hoa Thị Nguyễn

Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement

This creative work features two poems: Stop Time Before; Forsaken Ones

Two Poems: Chanda Says; Dropping Chanda Off At Nursery School, Bunkong Tuon

Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement

This creative work features two poems: Chanda Says, Dropping Chanda Off at Nursery School.

Anxiety Constellation, Leah Kuenzi

Creative Nonfiction MFA Theses

This thesis is a collection of essays.

The Rhetoric Of Substance Use Disorder, Morgan Carter

Master of Arts in Professional Writing Capstones

A critical discourse analysis of the marginalizing language present in the field of rhetoric and composition and cultural studies around those with substance use disorder.

Recovering Grace: How One Man's Religious Movement Turned Into A Homeschool Cult, Kathryn Knight Harper

Master of Arts in Professional Writing Capstones

It turned out that the rules about Cabbage Patch kids and Troll dolls weren’t the only things that would leave lasting impressions on ATI students. This curriculum, as I was finding out, was more than just restrictions on toys and media consumption. ATI was the homeschooling program, but IBLP had rules and principles that touched absolutely every area of life. The homeschooling and seminar materials, all written by Gothard and honed over fifty years, were treated as the law by people in both of his organizations. There wasn’t room for debate, and there wasn’t room for dissention. Those who did …

Painting A Biblical Worldview In Children, Brook Blackwell

Senior Honors Theses

Children are impressionable beings shaped by the changing world around them; this has become increasingly more true as the years progress and the impact and prevalence of media rises. Television shows, movies, music and books, no matter how insignificant they may seem, can play a tremendous part in the growth of children’s worldviews. It is important for authors and artists to delve deep into the impact of media on the growth and development of children in today’s media-rich world. In doing so, they should hope to find the best way to implement a Christian worldview into the media a child …

The Amygdala Era: Emotion And Experience In Memoir, Meagan Shelley

Senior Honors Theses

Amygdala Era is a culmination of short memoirs and brief poetry designed to express a stream of consciousness state of emotion over logic. The work utilizes base, primal parts of the mind such as happiness, sadness, and fear, and dissipates into the emotion and memory that is experienced daily. This is achieved through a focus on creative writing theory including stream of consciousness, interior monologue, and free indirect discourse. Amygdala Era synthesizes the techniques, strategies, and methodology of these three theories by examining past literary examples from world history. Analysis of the targeted market for Amygdala Era is detailed based …

Things I Can't Remember: A Memoir In Fragments, Heather L. Haile

Theses and Dissertations

The creative nonfiction portion of my thesis project is 37 pages of a fully designed ebook version of a hybrid genre memoir titled Things I Can’t Remember: A Memoir in Fragments, which is about my experiences as an adult dealing with multiple childhood traumas, specifically the acceptance of the difficult reality that I experienced childhood sexual abuse, even if I can not remember every instance of the abuse. In addition to the creative portion, there is a rhetorical evaluation of this designed memoir, detailing and defending my research methodology, writing methodology, design process, editorial process, and discussing my personal growth …

The Talus, Carol Roddenberry

Master of Arts in Professional Writing Capstones

Falling from a high place into an unknown abyss of strange characters and even stranger events takes readers far further than Humpty Dumpty and into a cats-cradle of mystery and humor. Jonah Tinderwunkel, the protagonist, mistakenly cast a curse upon himself at the age of fourteen. Now, twenty-eight years later he is a high-tech loner and loser who finds himself seeking help after a great fall. With a cracked cranium and smashed ankle (talus), he stumbles into a small Florida town off the beaten track—home to a mix of retired circus workers. As he recedes into a coma, his fate …

Identity In Life Writing: Fact, Fiction, And Memory, Bridget Langdon

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is a collection of excerpts that explores the lives of a Midwestern family who are forced to cope with a new reality following the AIDS diagnosis and eventual death of Bruce, the son and brother. The stories are meant to examine the way new identities are created posthumously through memory as well as identities that result from social expectations. Additionally, this collection explores the concepts of truth and fact on individual and social basis within the fiction and non-fiction aspects of memoir.

Advocating For The Use Of Poetry And Mixed Media Work In Analytic Processes, Jason D. Dehart

The Qualitative Report

As part of my analytical process of looking at data collected from a pilot study on the use of film in the classroom, I discovered that I had the space to engage in a creative analysis process. In this article, I propose that creative methods be employed when analyzing data. An arts-based approach to research (Barone & Eisner, 1997) led to two creative products for my research: Poetry, which has been used with research in the past (Cahnmann, 2003; McCullis, 2013) and mixed media. This article explores relevant literature about integrating poetry and other arts into analysis and serves to …

Leper/Cat, Bryan Halvarsson

Theses

This novella is about an artist stricken with leprosy who has to spend the rest of his living days on a mountainside with a particularly large cat.

No Doubts About "Doubt"

St. Norbert Times

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Carnivore, Shelby Metz

The Oval

No abstract provided.

Kiss, Kelaiah Horat

The Oval

No abstract provided.

Slice Of China, Marley Merchen

The Oval

No abstract provided.

Smoke For Divinity, You, Gill Ritchie

The Oval

No abstract provided.

Mountain Views, Raegan Hauschildt

The Oval

No abstract provided.

To Feel Better, Savannah Woods

The Oval

No abstract provided.

Bugs, Tyler Brown

The Oval

No abstract provided.

Femme, Sara Diggins

The Oval

No abstract provided.