Creative Writing | Open Access Articles | Digital Commons Network™

Backspin, Ryan Juliano

The Graduate Review

"Backspin" is an experiment in metafiction. The piece's narrative features two characters contemplating greater meaning within the story they find themselves in.

Go to article

The Paulsons Are Going To Be Millionaires, Mark K. Matheson

The Graduate Review

No abstract provided.

Go to article

Investigating The Relationship Between Noun Classes And Plant Folk Taxonomy In Chasu Language Of Kilimanjaro Region In Tanzania, Peter Rabson Mziray

Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences

The current study investigates the relationship between noun classes and plant folk taxonomy in Chasu (G 22). The study focuses on two objectives: the first objective is to describe the plant folk taxonomy in Chasu and the second objective is to determine the relationship between noun classes and plant folk taxonomy in Chasu. Data were collected from rural villages in Same and Mwanga districts by using free listing, field interviews (jungle-walk-and-identify), and written texts containing Chasu plant names. The findings reveal that Chasu folk taxonomy reflects different ethnobotanical categories; including a unique beginner which is mmea/mimea ‘plant(s)’, and three life …

Go to article

Honoring Constellations, Prachi S. Gandhi

be Still

“Honoring Constellations” is a meditation on the quiet labor of attention in spaces shaped by caregiving, illness, and uncertainty. The poem was born from the emotional weight of witnessing how each patient, each moment, carries a constellation of stories that are often untold. In clinical spaces, time presses forward relentlessly, but I wanted to pause inside that pressure to explore what it means to hold space for lives at the threshold of change or loss. The poem aims to honor the meaning that exists even in apparent silence. Here, attention is not just presence; it’s a form of reverence.

Go to article

A Little Piece Of Her Dies, Keturah L. Hancock

Gatherings

This poem explores the emotional labor of being authentic in spaces not built for women of color. This poem specifically addresses the experiences of Black women. Often, Black women find themselves torn between maintaining peace and being themselves. The poem addresses concepts such as tone policing, code-switching, and expression. It honors Black women in academia who feel they have to shrink themselves to be seen. There is a sense of safety that comes with fitting in and not making waves in a predominantly white space. However, this poem offers an alternative, calling Black women to stand up for those who …

Go to article

"Breaking Barriers: First-Gen Experiences", Julian Melendez Miranda

First-Gen Voices: Creative and Critical Narratives on the First-Generation College Experience

Journey to college as a first-generation student, navigating challenges and self-doubt.

Go to article

First Gen Voices, Jesus Arias

First-Gen Voices: Creative and Critical Narratives on the First-Generation College Experience

Looking back at my first semester, I’ve made some truly fond memories. Starting off with an amazing group of people in the program and going on our retreat helped me find a community I could rely on. This community has remained by my side, even during challenging times, and for that, I’ll always be grateful. Whether it was tackling escape rooms or being part of First Year Seminar, the first-gen community has shown itself to be incredibly strong and tightly connected.

Go to article

The First Generation, Alberto Martinez

First-Gen Voices: Creative and Critical Narratives on the First-Generation College Experience

My poem basically describes how I feel as a first-generation student is. Many of us including myself, felt as if we were alone, not knowing if we have someone by our side, but through our experience, we do share a common ground. First to go is a place where we all can share that and is a place where we do not have to be alone but have the support of those around us who can relate to how we feel.

Go to article

Roots, Aolanni Jimenez-Gonzalez

First-Gen Voices: Creative and Critical Narratives on the First-Generation College Experience

This poem closely focuses on my experience and acceptance of my first-generation identity. Language is a symbol of my heritage from my family and how I carry hope and resilience as I navigate my everyday life. I want to depict my journey through language and how it serves as a powerful source to communicate with my loved ones and others. While appreciating the roots and strength of my family and striving to live out my dreams and be the first of many to come.

Go to article

Balance, Alondra Hernandez

First-Gen Voices: Creative and Critical Narratives on the First-Generation College Experience

Through the poem, I wanted to explain my journey as a First Gen student who was struggling to balance school and work. I also wanted to represent the many students who are facing the same fight everyday. My hope was to show encouragement and motivation to keep going.Making sure to remind yourself to live each day knowing you're doing your best.

Go to article

First Doubts, Carla Bueno

First-Gen Voices: Creative and Critical Narratives on the First-Generation College Experience

As first-gen students, we often struggle with the identity and responsibility of being the firsts to navigate through the unknown. With this, doubts of our ability to succeed come naturally and these can be consuming. My advice is to not be afraid of using resources available and asking questions as these are the first steps into finding our way in institutions not built for us.

Go to article

Dreams To Reality, Annette Gomez

First-Gen Voices: Creative and Critical Narratives on the First-Generation College Experience

Beneath the shade of the trees, I reflect on the weight of my family’s dreams and the determination it takes to pursue a degree. The clear blue skies and open spaces remind me that possibilities are just as boundless, even when the roads feel steep. Here, amidst the peace and beauty I find the strength to strive as a First-Generation Latina student.

Go to article

A New Beginning, Jefferson Ramos

First-Gen Voices: Creative and Critical Narratives on the First-Generation College Experience

The purpose of my reflection is to demonstrate to other individuals, especially first-generation students, my experience with the college process, along with the obstacles I faced, the doubts, and everything that comes along with being the first person in your family to attend a higher education institution in the United States. In my reflection, I describe the process that I experienced, from the very beginning of high school to the start of my college journey. To finalize my reflection, I leave the reader with three important tips I have learned along the journey: being resilient, not being afraid of new …

Go to article

My Experience, Gabby Flores

First-Gen Voices: Creative and Critical Narratives on the First-Generation College Experience

This essay reflects personal experiences starting college and navigating new environments that are new to me.

Go to article

Deceiving Angels Ii, Alejandra Rodriguez

First-Gen Voices: Creative and Critical Narratives on the First-Generation College Experience

I share a dream with my family. The dream of graduating from college, getting a good job, and living a better life. A life where we won’t be financially tied down. I am now attending Loyola Marymount University and pursuing a degree in Animation. I’m the first in my family to pursue a degree in Film & Television, and even though I can’t help the thoughts that I should be doing something more “impactful,” I know that it’s my passion and that it is the combined efforts of my family and those who have helped me, that led me here. …

Go to article

Trailblazin, Zahir Pineda

First-Gen Voices: Creative and Critical Narratives on the First-Generation College Experience

My "trailblazin" collage is just a collage of me and my brother as we grew up. It was just us two for the majority of our childhood and we were always pushed to make the most of our education here in the US. Growing up I always relied on him, and he made sure to be there to guide me and help me learn from his mistakes. Fast forward to now and we're both at LMU together, and the same way he trailblazed the path for me, I hope to do for my two younger siblings. It symbolizes what has …

Go to article

Introduction

First-Gen Voices: Creative and Critical Narratives on the First-Generation College Experience

No abstract provided.

Go to article

Family Dynamics In Everything, Everywhere, All At Once, Isabell Lachinpour

First-Gen Voices: Creative and Critical Narratives on the First-Generation College Experience

This paper was originally a submission for my general psychology final. The prompt for it was to analyze any topic covered in class and connect to any form of fictional media. I chose to study the social psychology behind the relationships of immigrant parents and their children, connecting it to the movie Everything, Everywhere, All At Once by Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan. I especially picked this movie because of how connected I felt to the characters in the movie as I have gone through some of the same experiences they have and know many immigrant children that have felt …

Go to article

Introduction – Musiques Au Proche-Orient Après Le Tournant Numérique, Amr Abdelrahim, Thomas Michel, Nicolas Puig

Regards

Le développement des pratiques du do it yourself, l’avènement des home studios et la multiplication des circulations sonores (samples, échantillons sonores, etc.) grâce aux supports numériques et aux plateformes d’écoute ont modifié en profondeur la production musicale au Machreq. Cette introduction dresse le tableau des études produites sur la musique au Proche-Orient depuis l’avènement du numérique au début des années 2000 ; elle passe en revue les différents paradigmes mobilisés et propose une approche centrée notamment sur les Science and Technology Studies pour comprendre le sens des évolutions en cours.
Elle décrit ensuite les différentes contributions qui alimentent ce …

Go to article

Liminality And Monopoly: Contextualizing The Transformations Within The Egyptian Digital Music Scene After 2013, Fayrouz Karawya

Regards

The echoes of the political upheavals, notably in Egypt post-2011 and elsewhere in the Arab world, have produced a supra-monopolistic structure of music production systems and streaming platforms, reflecting post-revolutionary political strategies amid autocratic restoration across the region. While the digital age initially offered greater freedom and creativity to a rising “mediated dissidence class” and countercultural music currents, post-2013 strategies increasingly instrumentalized digital platforms to impose authoritarian control and restrict musical expression. In parallel, social media platforms, which have become crucial for musical mediation, promotion, and marketing, have mirrored broader social and political polarizations that emerged in the post-2013 period. …

Go to article

Le Stade Rotana De La Pop Arabe, Pierre France

Regards

Rotana, owned by Saudi prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, has been a central and ambiguous player in the Arab music industry since the 1980s, yet its history remains fragmentary and elusive. More than a simple record label with a defined sound and aesthetic, it stands as an audiovisual group embedded within a large holding company linked to Gulf-style capitalism. Rotana has established a lasting model where music operates in close connection — or dependency, from a more critical perspective — with other economic sectors, shaping both artists’ career paths (conceived as buy/sell transactions and transfer markets) and how songs are produced. …

Go to article

Contentious Culture: The Convergence And Contestation Of Class And Identity In Egypt’S Mahraganat Scene, Elisa Schouten

Regards

Since its inception in the early 2000s, Mahraganat music has undermined traditional cultural gatekeeping and reshaped Egypt’s music scene, becoming one of the country’s most debated music genres in recent history. This paper aims to examine Mahraganat within the broader context of cultural identity formation and technological developments and contextualize the criticism of the genre and its makers. Building on research conducted in Egypt’s capital between 2019 and 2024, this paper explores the history of cultural gatekeeping and argues that social class lies at the core of the heated debate surrounding Egyptian music and Mahraganat in particular. It shows that …

Go to article

Brehony Louis, "Palestinian Music In Exile: Voices Of Resistance", Le Caire, Auc Press, 2023 – El Rashidi Yasmine, "Laughter In The Dark: Egypt To The Tune Of Change", New York, Columbia Global Reports, 2023., Amr Abdelrahim

Regards

The contributions of this special issue demonstrate a renewed scholarly interest in popular music in the Middle East in recent years. In the face of resilient Arab authoritarianism and the continuing ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians, it is not surprising that many scholars seek to identify a glimmer of hope in the everyday cultural practices of the dominated. The two volumes under consideration are representative of this scholarly impetus, as well as the challenges it must overcome to attain a better understanding of “music in everyday life”: namely articulating art and politics without collapsing one into the other, and resisting …

Go to article

The Independent Music Scene In The Levant Between 2003 And 2023: Do-It-Yourself With The Support Of Arts And Culture Organizations, Areej Abou Harb

Regards

The beginning of the 21st century witnessed the rise of the internet and mobile technologies, as well as the expansion of the digital sphere and the emergence of the Do-It-Yourself music. Simultaneously, it experiences significant changes that reshaped the arts and cultural scene in general, and the music production in particular across the Levant. This period marked the institutionalization of arts and culture production and diffusion. It saw the formation of “intermediate” pan-Arab and regional organizations such as Culture Resource (Al-Mawred Al-Thaqafy) and AFAC (The Arab Fund for Arts and Culture), as well as the establishment of small record labels, …

Go to article

Sonic Acts Of Care: Friendship-Based Networks And Grassroots Activism In Beirut, Rim J. Irscheid

Regards

The article examines a Beirut-based network of self-funded, independent musicians that translate memories and their emotions into artistic and activist practices. Drawing on musical albums created since the 2020 Beirut port explosion, the article explores the social and emotional impact of artist-run spaces for music production. Focusing on a friendship-based network around the collectively-run recording studio Tunefork Studios, it examines how care, trust, and solidarity with Lebanon’s citizens and music producers are translated into both their creative practices and their production and distribution strategies. I argue that Beirut-based musicians increasingly thematise the emotional toll and personal investment in political, infrastructural …

Go to article

Promouvoir Son Image Et « Se Faire Un Nom » Dans La Scène Rap Proche-Orientale : L’Exemple De Soundcloud, Thomas Michel

Regards

This article examines the role of the SoundCloud platform in building careers for independent rappers and producers in the Middle East, particularly in Jordan and Palestine. Based on an ethnographic survey conducted between Amman and Jerusalem, the author analyses how artists use this platform to make themselves known, distribute their music, and navigate a digitized musical ecosystem. The study draws on Popular Music Studies and studies of digital platforms to examine three main areas.
The first concerns visibility, through the recommendation tools and playlists offered by SoundCloud, which provide local and international exposure. The second looks at the forms of …

Go to article

Unremitting, Matthew T. Mcevoy

Advances in Cancer Education and Quality Improvement

A poem that describes the different stages of a patient’s cancer experience through metaphor and word play, exploring the myriad difficulties while also maintaining hope.

Go to article

Infographic: Motivations To Write For Pleasure, Dominique Russell

Teacher infographics

A survey of 115,000 children and young people aged 5-18 from across the UK asked what, if anything, would make them want to write in their free time by giving them a list of 11 suggestions. The results offer insights into possible strategies for your own students.

Go to article

Creative Engagement With Ai Through Poetic Inquiry: A Posthuman Pedagogy, Amanda B. Deaton

Feminist Pedagogy

In this article, I describe an original teaching activity that explores the intersection of generative AI, poetic inquiry, and posthuman pedagogy, examining how students can critically and creatively engage with disruptive technologies. Using Rosi Braidotti’s posthuman framework (2013, 2019), I consider how generative AI might be used to challenge traditional notions of creativity, authorship, and knowledge production. Through a structured learning activity, students analyze a human poet’s work, generate AI-assisted poetry, and compose their own creative pieces, fostering non-linearity, memory and imagination, and defamiliarization—three key elements of Braidotti’s posthuman thinking. This pedagogical approach encourages ethical, affirmative engagement with AI, offering …

Go to article

The Dinosaur Trials, Ashley Brooke Allen

Masters Theses

This thesis presents dinosaurs as a thematic craft element in fiction. The research portion of the thesis project describes dinosaur fiction as a genre and surveys key works of dinosaur fiction. It focuses on how the genre’s literary tradition established thematic precedent for fictional dinosaurs. The thesis highlights dinosaurs as characters and symbols while tracing the development of tropes and expectations within dinosaur fiction. It also acknowledges a potential limitation in the genre where science fiction elements constrain the creative and thematic potential of fictional dinosaurs. In response to this limitation, the thesis argues for new fantasy genre installments of …

Go to article

Full-Text Articles in Creative Writing

Backspin, Ryan Juliano

The Graduate Review

The Paulsons Are Going To Be Millionaires, Mark K. Matheson

The Graduate Review

Investigating The Relationship Between Noun Classes And Plant Folk Taxonomy In Chasu Language Of Kilimanjaro Region In Tanzania, Peter Rabson Mziray

Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences

Honoring Constellations, Prachi S. Gandhi

be Still

A Little Piece Of Her Dies, Keturah L. Hancock

Gatherings

"Breaking Barriers: First-Gen Experiences", Julian Melendez Miranda

First-Gen Voices: Creative and Critical Narratives on the First-Generation College Experience

First Gen Voices, Jesus Arias

First-Gen Voices: Creative and Critical Narratives on the First-Generation College Experience

The First Generation, Alberto Martinez

First-Gen Voices: Creative and Critical Narratives on the First-Generation College Experience

Roots, Aolanni Jimenez-Gonzalez

First-Gen Voices: Creative and Critical Narratives on the First-Generation College Experience

Balance, Alondra Hernandez

First-Gen Voices: Creative and Critical Narratives on the First-Generation College Experience

First Doubts, Carla Bueno

First-Gen Voices: Creative and Critical Narratives on the First-Generation College Experience

Dreams To Reality, Annette Gomez

First-Gen Voices: Creative and Critical Narratives on the First-Generation College Experience

A New Beginning, Jefferson Ramos

First-Gen Voices: Creative and Critical Narratives on the First-Generation College Experience

My Experience, Gabby Flores

First-Gen Voices: Creative and Critical Narratives on the First-Generation College Experience

Deceiving Angels Ii, Alejandra Rodriguez

First-Gen Voices: Creative and Critical Narratives on the First-Generation College Experience

Trailblazin, Zahir Pineda

First-Gen Voices: Creative and Critical Narratives on the First-Generation College Experience

Introduction

First-Gen Voices: Creative and Critical Narratives on the First-Generation College Experience

Family Dynamics In Everything, Everywhere, All At Once, Isabell Lachinpour

First-Gen Voices: Creative and Critical Narratives on the First-Generation College Experience

Introduction – Musiques Au Proche-Orient Après Le Tournant Numérique, Amr Abdelrahim, Thomas Michel, Nicolas Puig

Regards

Liminality And Monopoly: Contextualizing The Transformations Within The Egyptian Digital Music Scene After 2013, Fayrouz Karawya

Regards

Le Stade Rotana De La Pop Arabe, Pierre France

Regards

Contentious Culture: The Convergence And Contestation Of Class And Identity In Egypt’S Mahraganat Scene, Elisa Schouten

Regards

Brehony Louis, "Palestinian Music In Exile: Voices Of Resistance", Le Caire, Auc Press, 2023 – El Rashidi Yasmine, "Laughter In The Dark: Egypt To The Tune Of Change", New York, Columbia Global Reports, 2023., Amr Abdelrahim

Regards

The Independent Music Scene In The Levant Between 2003 And 2023: Do-It-Yourself With The Support Of Arts And Culture Organizations, Areej Abou Harb

Regards

Sonic Acts Of Care: Friendship-Based Networks And Grassroots Activism In Beirut, Rim J. Irscheid

Regards

Promouvoir Son Image Et « Se Faire Un Nom » Dans La Scène Rap Proche-Orientale : L’Exemple De Soundcloud, Thomas Michel

Regards

Unremitting, Matthew T. Mcevoy

Advances in Cancer Education and Quality Improvement

Infographic: Motivations To Write For Pleasure, Dominique Russell

Teacher infographics

Creative Engagement With Ai Through Poetic Inquiry: A Posthuman Pedagogy, Amanda B. Deaton

Feminist Pedagogy

The Dinosaur Trials, Ashley Brooke Allen

Masters Theses