Creative Writing Commons^™

Poolside, Mia Fischel

Exile

No abstract provided.

Front Matter

Exile

No abstract provided.

Exile Vol. Lxx, Alexandra E. Andres, Emma Baum, Kate Blue, Juan Chaides Hurtado, Rita Costa, Nine Downing, Lauren Ehlers, Mia Fischel, Anna Gooch, Caden Hazelton, Malina Infante, Anna Northington Jones, Khoa, Georgia Reese Knox, Elizabeth Koeppen, Fiona Kogan, Eliana Lazzaro, Eli Lishak, Sofia Monteleone, Amaya Willems

Exile

No abstract provided.

Abcs: American Born Chinese Stories, Ethan Peng

English Honors Theses

Inspired by life as an Asian American in New York City, ABC and Other Stories explores family dynamics and perspectives, public perceptions, and emotions throughout twenty-six stories, one for every letter of the alphabet. Real memories and fantastical elements intertwine throughout the collection, all falling under the theme of “ABC,” representing both the English language and “American Born Chinese.” Many of the narrators, left nameless and genderless, recount their stories of growing up in an immigrant household. One recalls the last time their parents physically punished them. Another thinks of being unsettled by a stranger on the subway. Other narrators …

The Sea Of Sorrow Has No Shore: A Note On Grief And The Radical Practice Of Grief, Fatemeh Kazemi

Theses - ALL

This paper explores grief through both a personal and cultural prism, specifically focusing on the Iranian context. Intertwining together personal narratives with scholarly discourse, it aims to illuminate the nuanced relationship between individual experiences of sorrow and the broader fabric of collective memory. Notably, it is examining how artistic practice and the visual culture of grief intersect, tracing my own journey through studio work that melds traditional and contemporary representations of mourning. This investigation is bolstered by insights drawn from psychology, sociology, and cultural studies, offering a comprehensive, multidisciplinary understanding of mourning practices in addition to their profound impact on …

Old Wives’ Tales: Collections From Beneath The Floorboards, Layla Barnes

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

Old Wives’ Tales: Collections from Beneath the Floorboards draws on the rich tradition of feminist speculative fiction, particularly in the genre of the fairy tale. It responds to Walidah Imarisha’s idea of “visionary fiction,” a kind of fiction which seeks to participate in “the decolonization of the imagination.” Using an experimental fragmentary form, it explores themes of story and counter-story, maternal legacy, female interconnectedness and community, and magic as a form of female empowerment in opposition to patriarchal control and surveillance.

Queerform/Ing, Matthew Solon-Lee Weimer

Art Theses and Dissertations

My artwork is situated within and around vessels and the Queer Homoerotic World and explores sexuality as a Demisexual within them. This is accomplished through the two processes of my creation, Minivague and Queerform/ing: balancing sexual tension and explicit expression, while subverting traditional norms and stereotypes with queerness to distance oneself from stereotypical Gay Art. Altering/emphasizing makes the artwork more romantic, lighter, whimsical, softer, and tender than the figure/s and the situations actually are. The process is also emphasizing what one sees or wants to be seen. The Pink Boy becomes a celebration of intimacy of any form. I discuss …

Texas Gothic, Taryn Uribe Turner

Art Theses and Dissertations

The emotional and the ecological combine to create my body of work titled, “Texas Gothic.” My thesis tells the stories of my oil paintings created through personal connections to a variety of landscapes, animals and experiences that share the setting of Texas.

Desire and regret take shape as animals and figures not fully formed or real. Unreliable narratives of the past are entangled with present tensions to create a painting that haunts and stalks.

And yet, there is hope!

Through nostalgia and sweetness and burdens, my paintings confront a shrouded future. The contradictions of time passing are explored in my …

Labyrinth And Other Rude Awakenings, Jack Eno

Honors Theses

This thesis is a collection of short fiction stories written by myself over the course of my final three semesters before graduation. Four are short stories, while one is novella length. I went into this project intending to write as diverse a collection as I could manage, while still maintaining a consistent theme or set of themes throughout the collection. The stories are connected by themes of sudden and unfortunate realizations of unspoken truth, religion, and the ways in which religious trauma can affect different people. The stories range in tone, with one comedy, one horror, one criminal drama, and …

In The Weeds: A Collection Of Short Stories, Lexus M. Douglas

Honors Theses

This is a collection of short stories that contain three stories revolving around nature and the supernatural. Each story highlights the interpersonal conflicts between families and close friends, and it explores just how much nature plays a key role in the lives of each character.

'My Body Is Fertile Ground': Exploring Relational Agriculture Through Gender, Body, And Local Food Policy, Erin M. Tansimore

Graduate Student Portfolios, Professional Papers, and Capstone Projects

This master's portfolio, "'My Body Is Fertile Ground': Exploring Relational Agriculture Through Gender, Body, and Local Food Policy," explores the concept of relational agriculture through multiple forms of practice. It comprises three parts: a personal essay discussing the author's experiences with the land as a young woman with a turbulent relationship with her own body; a literature review on gender dynamics in alternative agricultural spaces; and a survey report and a USDA Census of Agriculture data brief produced during an internship with two local food entities.

The first piece, "My Body Is Fertile Ground," details the author's experience with an …

Anthropaean Storytelling, Community, And The Ripples Of The Climate Crisis, Jonathan Summers

Undergraduate University Honors Capstones

The climate crisis has grown into a dangerous global threat, pushing our planet to the point of ecological no return. We face the certainty of increasingly destructive climate disasters and social upheaval, threatening our societal and biological survival. The next few years will prove critical to the future welfare of our species and our planet. However, we are not without our defenses. Through the lens of fictional short stories, this capstone concentrates on community and storytelling, two deeply human behaviors that could be two of our greatest tools in the struggle against climate change. Human beings are social creatures at …

To The Dark Boundary: Holocaust Poetry As Testimony And Message, Gabriel Shapiro

Graduate Liberal Studies Theses and Dissertations

In the years after the Holocaust, there was concern that to write poetry after Auschwitz was, in the word of the philosopher Theodor Adorno, “barbaric,” that the lyrical aspects of poetry were not appropriate for the horror witnessed in the death camps. Despite Adorno’s warning, Holocaust poetry flourished out of the needs of poets to recount and honor a past that was passing out of survivors’ personal reflections into the twenty-first century. Holocaust poetry liberates the poet’s testimony as a message an empathetic reader can carry to fight dehumanization. This thesis discusses many of these poems in light of the …

With Love, ; An Interdisciplinary And Intersectional Look At Why Creativity Is Essential, Theo Starr Gardner

Whittier Scholars Program

My Whittier Scholars Program self-designed major, Teaching Creativity, is a mixture of Art, Literature, and Education classes. My research and praxis classes have been focused on the ‘how?’s and 'why?’s of creativity, so it felt only right that my project should be a constructivist, generative project. The project I have been working on throughout my time at Whittier, and that has just fully come to fruition on April 11th, 2024, was a solo art gallery/open mic event entitled ‘With Love,’. With Love, was conceptually inspired by the research I’ve conducted on creativity and creative arts education over the past few …

A Little Spot Of Green In A Big Red World, Maarten Lempia

Exile

No abstract provided.

Contributors

Exile

No abstract provided.

Extractions, Lauren Ehlers

Exile

No abstract provided.

Bystander, Anna Northington Jones

Exile

No abstract provided.

The End Is Here (Response To “I Know The End” By Phoebe Bridgers), Rebecca Hurtado

Exile

No abstract provided.

Mirror Image, Rita Costa

Exile

No abstract provided.

Always Running, Caroline Lopez

Exile

No abstract provided.

Connection, Maggie Jones

Exile

No abstract provided.

125 N Alta Ave., Anna Gooch

Exile

No abstract provided.

Vino Rosso, Malina Infante

Exile

No abstract provided.

Drown Ur Sorrows, Rita Costa

Exile

No abstract provided.

Dear Miss Dickinson (Response To ““Hope” Is The Thing With Feathers” By Emily Dickinson), Antonia Baylor

Exile

No abstract provided.

His Homeless Heroes, Cordero L.M. Estremera

Exile

No abstract provided.

Running On Empty, Mia Fischel

Exile

No abstract provided.

L’Étoile, S.A. Culyer

Exile

No abstract provided.

Pink Skittle On The Library Floor, Rita Costa

Exile

No abstract provided.