Creative Writing Commons^™

Dead Trees & Etz Chaim: A Messianic Jewish Autoethnographic Reflective Poetry Chapbook, Mark Trager

Master's Projects

This capstone project, Dead Trees & Etz Chaim, is an autoethnographic reflective poetry chapbook that explores the author’s identity as a Messianic Jewish believer through the Jewish motif of the Tree of Life (Etz Chaim). Drawing on personal experience, biblical texts and theology, and archival research, the collection integrates poetry and prose to examine themes of faith, worthiness, suffering, redemption, and salvation.

Structured in five thematic chapters, the chapbook traces a progression from early spiritual questioning and formative experiences, including the author’s bar mitzvah, to deeper theological reflections on the nature of the Jewish Messiah. The work advances the claim …

Depths Of Power, Savannah A. Jackson

Master's Projects

When twelve-year-old Evie Johnson hears her deceased mother’s voice echoing from the depths beneath Poseidon’s temple, she is drawn into a world of magic and mystery. After a fateful encounter in a hidden cave and a shocking revelation from a trusted adult, she is thrust into the Hydrian kingdom of Ageria. She meets Nereus, the overburdened heir who enjoys spending his time with the unwanted people of his future kingdom. As they uncover the instability threatening their kingdom, they must confront Nereus’ ambitious father, Prince Aegeus, as he attempts to overthrow his sister. Together, the two embark on a journey …

The Creative Nonfiction Story, Lee Gutkind

Literary History: The Creative Nonfiction Story

How a little magazine defied resistance and ridicule and helped launch the true-story revolution.

Riverrun 2026, Saint Mary's College Of California

Riverrun Literary Magazine

No abstract provided.

The Room That Remembers: A Sanctuary Built From Silence, Kayla Brown

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

This installation is a process-based paper artwork that seeks to protect, enlighten, and discover what healing can be in silence. Through the creation of immersive art objects and experiences, I seek understanding and resolutions for my lived experiences. I utilize the physicality of paper in conjunction with the fragility of topic to enhance the meaning behind my material choices. I transform the idea of a traumatic room into an activated space of healing: one that rest, time, and momentary silence exist as choice rather than by force.

Looking Beyond Minimalist Pedagogies: Rhetorical Listening As A Framework For Ethical Collaboration And Student Empowerment In The Writing Center, Abby M. Samella

West Chester University Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Final Projects

Since its establishment, the Writing Center has strived to solidify its institutional presence as a space of student-centered pedagogy, minimalist directive approaches, and collaborative learning. However, students frequently perceive Writing Centers as the polar opposite of collaboration, frequently seeking out this support for a transactional, ‘remedial’ fix to their writing product. As Writing Centers grapple with this tension that threatens their process-driven pedagogies, scholars recognize a gap in Literature regarding collaborative approaches that empower the student through the implementation of rhetorical listening. Using the foundational framework of Rhetorical Listening as a strategy to reassert the collaborative identity of the Center …

Thistlebloom Moondog, Gary W. Jensen

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

An aging grieving artist decides to write a memoir as part of a self-healing process, using samples of song lyrics from his extensive collection of original Americana songs as narrative prompts.  Steeped in wanderlust, aspiration, paradox and dysfunction, his is a tale of vexing sub-clinical troubles rooted in the mire of developmental and religious trauma.

Inherited Sins: Essays, Claire Ellerman

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Joan Didion said of her book, The Year of Magical Thinking, that, “the reason I had to write it down, is that no one had ever told me what it was like.” She was trying to make sense of her grief following the death of her husband, and in doing so, wrote a piece of creative nonfiction (CNF) that explores her own life in and around the larger ideas of mourning, connection, and moving forward. This is the ultimate aim of creative nonfiction: writing to make sense of our lives in relation to the world around us. In this …

The Secret Life Of Ferns: Narratives And Reflections On Homesteading, Mindy M. Wren

Dartmouth College Master’s Theses

The Secret Life of Ferns is a collection of personal essays that contemplate the joys and difficulties of homesteading and rural life in the northern Vermont region known as the Northeast Kingdom. Observations and experiences over the last three decades serve as catalysts for reflection as I explore themes of isolation, loss, adaptability, and connection. My insights are informed by my role as an immersed outsider: a native New Yorker who has endured the playful label of “flatlander” for many years. My reflections draw from my experiences growing up in a large city.

My work highlights relationships between women, family, …

110% Asset Disruption, Bradley W. Fish

Dartmouth College Master’s Theses

110% Asset Disruption is a satire of the modern workplace set in a lightly dystopian near- future United States. Written as a feature length film, it follows Ethan Martens, a citizen and employee of Calcudyne. Ethan has a contentious relationship with his manager Douglas Farview, who performs a series of hostile actions towards Ethan in order to attempt to force him out of the company. The conflict between the two men escalates until Ethan is put in the position of having to prevent Calcudyne's President & CEO from starting a global thermonuclear war. 110% Asset Disruption is influenced and inspired …

Modernism’S Wild Child: The Interplay Of Modernist And Children’S Literature, Rachel Riffel

All Master's Theses

Within literary criticism, American and British modernism are often characterized by the disillusioned writers and creators who established an elitist literary community during the early 20^th century. This period is also distinguished by the Harlem Renaissance highlighting Black art, culture, and writing. Gertrude Stein, T. S. Eliot, Langston Hughes and Arna Bontemps are well-known for contributing core texts to modernism and the Harlem Renaissance that expressed existential themes and developed experimental techniques. What many readers don’t know, however, is that these authors and many other contemporaries wrote stories and poetry for children. In this thesis, I explore the children’s …

A Few Words From Our Staff

Digressions: Literary & Art Journal

No abstract provided.

True Love, Thaily Jeanty

Digressions: Literary & Art Journal

No abstract provided.

Bucket List, Eddie N. Hammans

Digressions: Literary & Art Journal

No abstract provided.

American Gal, Nicole M. Gomez

Digressions: Literary & Art Journal

No abstract provided.

Echos Of Renewal, Jasmine Diaz-Marquez

Digressions: Literary & Art Journal

No abstract provided.

Sedona, Az, Inchara Kumar

Digressions: Literary & Art Journal

No abstract provided.

Antelope Canyon, Auston Hsieh

Digressions: Literary & Art Journal

No abstract provided.

Full Issue

Digressions: Literary & Art Journal

No abstract provided.

This House Is Not The Same, Daniella M. Acosta Reyes

Digressions: Literary & Art Journal

No abstract provided.

When Sailboats Fly, Salarah Seymour

Digressions: Literary & Art Journal

No abstract provided.

Woman In Silk, Roseline Jean-Pierre

Digressions: Literary & Art Journal

No abstract provided.

Mystery Boxes, Grace K. Wong

Digressions: Literary & Art Journal

No abstract provided.

Contents

Digressions: Literary & Art Journal

No abstract provided.

Legend Of The White Bison, Garrett Hurley

Voice/Craft

Age 14, Grade 8

Resting Deer, Nicole M. Gomez

Digressions: Literary & Art Journal

No abstract provided.

Lost And Found, Pranav Police

Digressions: Literary & Art Journal

No abstract provided.

Illusions Of Fairness And Sacrifice, Brady Schwertfeger

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The American West is a shifting landscape. An incongruous expanse of isolation and urbanity, wilderness and extraction, wealth and welfare, clear water and fire. Fifteen years ago, I moved to my mother’s ancestral homeland of Montana, and have been here ever since. Before that, I was born and raised in Texas, both the West and the South (and often something else entirely), depending on who you ask. My experiences in this region have shaped me indelibly, and have inspired this collection of essays built around culture, politics, and justice in the West. “Pinedale, Wyoming” considers the musician as itinerant wanderer …

See You In The Cosmos Literary Essay, Eugenia Chatalbasheva

Voice/Craft

Grade 8

New Meaning Of Hope, Avery Wilcoxon

Voice/Craft

Age 13, Grade 8