Creative Writing Commons^™

Writing As Dancing: The Dancer In Your Hands , A Novella <>, Joanna Tollemache Pollitt

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

With the premise to ‘write like I dance,’ Writing as dancing investigates new methods of accessing and revealing choreographic thinking in three distinct ways; writing as a soloist, writing for the ensemble and writing responsively in collaboration. Resulting iterations have variously emerged in the form of performance, novella, play, artist-book, exhibition and long form poem; the novella The Dancer in Your Hands, being the primary solo work presented alongside this exegesis.

The research posits engagement with solo dance improvisation practice as a dynamically charged, and tangible way of thinking that is transferable to the practice of writing. It draws …

Gone To Ground, Brian Blair

Theses

Gone to Ground is a collection of short stories that explores the possibilities beyond the edge of the everyday. They are an attempt to peek beyond the imaginary boundaries we erect for ourselves in the name of danger or the unknown. Each story is an opportunity to see our own familiar humanity in others, no matter the accidents of fortune that separate us. Though the stories in Gone to Ground often touch the surreal or the magical, they are firmly rooted in what could be out there, on the other side of our walls, whether real or imagined. These are …

Wrought Constituent, Kenneth Jakubas

The Hilltop Review

No abstract provided.

Blazing Worlds, Bethany Kinney

Master's Theses

Blazing Worlds is a collection of short stories exploring themes of understanding, isolation, the world of work, and identity. These stories follow characters who are searching for connections to others, to their environments, to their work, and to themselves. The protagonists of these stories inhabit worlds that are slightly adjacent to reality, worlds cast into a near future, and worlds that operate by the logic of the campy and the fantastic. Through heightened technology, body horror, or blurred metaphysical boundaries, the residents of these blazing worlds pursue knowledge of their place in life and fight to establish and maintain their …

Editor’S Note, Trent Hergenrader

Journal of Creative Writing Studies

One of the primary goals of the field of creative writing studies is to examine creative writing lore. Lore is anecdotal knowledge, often passed down through generations as informal advice and traditional knowledge that is often framed as appealing to our common sense. Lore is not necessarily wrong or bad; indeed, it usually has more than a grain of truth to it, which is why it survives and continues to be shared, like a folk remedy for the common cold.

Thirteen Unlikely Stories, Joseph Gray

Dissertations

Thirteen Unlikely Stories is a collection of fiction composed and revised at the

University of Southern Mississippi’s Center for Writers.

A Matter Of Value: Creative Writing Strategies And Their Transference To Composition, Brandy Dawn Clark

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Creative writing and composition seem to be taken, at least in the academic world, as separate and unequal entities. While there are many questions in the research and answers in the research as to why creativity is important, its practical application in the composition classroom is not readily discussed because there is not unanimous agreement as to if creative writing even belongs in the composition classroom. Practical application of creative writing in the composition classroom gives teachers the opportunity to see why it is important, to see why it is valuable, and to incorporate it into already meticulous class standards. …

Impossible Year, Allexus Blanski

Honors Capstones

Capstone submitted as a graduate requirement for the BSU Honors Program.

This thesis features three non-fiction stories that take place mainly during my junior and senior years of college. In Life on 119th Street, I reflect back on the years growing up in my childhood home and my parents’ abusive relationship. Despite this, I also bring to light the positive relationship I had with my parents and the happy childhood they gave me and my sister. I talk about the dogs we had, particularly a Great Dane Duke who was given away, as well as the tense few years …

The Face Of A Young Girl, Isabel Acevedo

Poetry MFA Theses

This collection of poems grapples with identity. What is home in relation to one's physical surroundings and even personal relationships. "The Face of a Young Girl" is a coming-of-age, not quite grown-up poetry collection.

The Keepers: A Collaborative Constructive Narrative Podcast, Shay Carroll

Honors Projects

This is a fictional podcast series that presents a story that is completed through roleplaying. The structure follows that of a video game, with the main characters, or "players," interacting with a set plot while deciding their own course of action. I act as the narrator for the story, controlling the plot and setting as well as non-player characters, or "NPCs." For the purposes of consistency and making sure the characters do not do anything that would be considered too over-powered or unrealistic, I have chosen to use the rule guide and statistics modifier system presented by Wizards of the …

Faculty Book Launch Celebrates Works Of Plath, Theune, Vi Kakaras, '20

News and Events (Discontinued Series)

No abstract provided.

The Mockingbird - 2018, Department Of Art And Design, East Tennessee State University, Department Of Literature And Language, East Tennessee State University

The Mockingbird [magazine]

Jillian Bailey [Faded]; Taylor Campbell [Move to Jupiter]; Elizabeth Chapman [Sepsis]; Arizona Clawson [13%; November]; Thomas Chase Clayton [Alcohol, Love, and Other Things that Kill You]; Alexandria Craft [Electric Love; Watauga Lake in Autumn]; Brooke Day [Seated and Lovely]; Kelly Dorton [Alternative Quotes]; Nancy Jane Earnest [Home before Dark (Autumn Reflections along I-26)]; Jeremy Fahn [Close Distance; Meaningless Stare]; Seth Grindstaff [Letter to Dreamer]; Kayla Hackney [The Imposter]; Bardley Hartsell [August Chapel]; Zöe Hester [MOASS]; Janice Hornburg [October Shower; Orogeny]; Mark Hutton [Old South]; Emily Johnson [Delicacy]; Rachel Nicole Lawson [Everystudent]; Emily Williams McElroy [Sacrament]; Andrew Miller [A Field and …

Et Cetera, Marshall University

Et Cetera

Founded in 1953, Et Cetera is an annual literary magazine that publishes the creative writing and artwork of Marshall University students and affiliates. Et Cetera is free to the Marshall University community.

Et Cetera welcomes submissions in literary and film criticism, poetry, short stories, drama, all types of creative non-fiction, photography, and art.

Creative Writing In Digital Spaces: Digital Story Book, Christian Tipton

Oswald Research and Creativity Competition

Christian Tipton has been working with Dr. DaMaris Hill for multiple semesters now, and a majority of their projects emphasize making literature accessible for the digital generation. The Digital Storybook is a personal favorite of the two of them. This project combines the visual techniques of a traditional comic book with the contextual elements of free verse poetry. The aim for this particular project was to present poetry in a way that would capture non-traditional poetry readers and present the comic book genre in a way that would capture non-traditional comic readers.

The Damsel Can Rescue Herself: Subverting Common Literary Tropes Of The Fantasy Genre, Melissa N. Hurlburt

Honors Theses and Capstones

This thesis consists of a fantasy novella. A character-driven work, it focuses on internal conflicts rather than the external conflicts and grand, sweeping plotlines that are typical of fantasy novels. Taye is an aerial performer with the king’s circus troupe, Corracha. She is also the vigilante Saorsa, a figure who fights against the injustices the king of Monadh inflicts upon the kingdom’s immigrants. A young woman haunted by her past and struggling to make something of herself in a male-dominated society, she must confront her inner demons when she is injured during a performance. She relies on her best friend …

The Bridge, Volume 15, 2018, Bridgewater State University

the bridge

Editor-in-Chief: Mialise Carney

Managing Editor: Alex Everette

Lead Designer: Cady Parker

Editors:
Sydney Cabral
Jake Camara
Christina Carter
Care DeSouza
Gabriel Hazeldine
Parker Jones
Karina Lagstrom
Alexandria Machado
Emily Melo-Coppinger
Katie McPherson
Joe Near
Harrison Ryan
Soraya Santos
Treina Santos
John Wilson

Faculty Advisor: Evan Dardano

Graduate Assistant: Jill Boger

Consultant: Cheryl Sirois, Design

Life Sucks: Classifying Transgressive Fiction, Jena Christianson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the genre of transgressive fiction and locates my own creative work within this genre. Los Angeles Times writer Michael Silverblatt popularized the term transgressive fiction in 1993 and associates authors such as Dennis Cooper, Kathy Acker, Roland Barthes, Bret Easton Ellis, Michel Foucault, William Gass, Jean Genet, and William Burroughs with the genre; however, the definition of transgressive fiction remains elusive. Therefore, in my first chapter, I analyze three transgressive novels—Bret Easton Ellis’s American Psycho, Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club, and Tony Tullamuthe’s Private Citizens. My second chapter consists of selections from my creative work, a transgressive novel …

Loose Light, Logan Lane

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

My honors project is a 9,600-word collection of two short stories. The first story, Loose Light, is a character-driven narrative about an astronomer who has spent his life chasing an outer space phenomenon he saw as a graduate student and what he does when he rediscovers the phenomenon. The second story, Lost Light, is another character-driven narrative about a young man who, after an automobile accident, begins losing his memories. Both stories examine the perspective of the lost, the obsessed, the isolated, and the angry. In the accompanying self-analysis, I explore how my time as a reporter for The University …

Catching On Dark In Public, Joshua Robert Long

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Catching On Dark In Public contains sixty pages of poetry compiled by the author during his time in the MFA program at The University of Texas at El Paso.

Grammar Jam: Adding A Creative Editing Tactic, David Gillespie

Arts & Sciences Faculty Publications

The author argues reading, hearing, and then composing musical lyrics involving grammatical concerns can help college writing students to edit more effectively for a song's grammar topic. Explaining that the songs need to offer specific advice, such as how to both spot and correct the grammatical problem, the writer offers lyrical examples and provides scholarly evidence for this approach. The essay explains what Grammar Jam is, why music can work, and how to use the tactic in the classroom.

Rogue: A Novel - And - Wonderlust: The Value Of Wonder For Readers, Writers, And The Vault: A Critical Essay, Amanda Betts

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This thesis consists of an original novel, Rogue, and an exegesis titled Wonderlust: the value of wonder for readers, writers, and The Vault.

Rogue is the second novel of the series titled The Vault, which is a speculative fiction duology for young adults (thirteen and above) with the possibility for crossover into adult readership. Rogue picks up the story of fifteen-year-old Hayley who, after choosing to leave her previous home of an underwater seed vault, finds herself washed onto the cliffs of Maria Island, off the coast of Tasmania. As Hayley ventures further into the terrestrial ‘real world’ …

A Coat Of Ashes: A Collection Of Poems, Incorporating A Metafictional Narrative - And - Poetry, Daoism, Physics And Systems Theory: A Poetics: A Set Of Critical Essays, Janet Ruth Jackson

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This thesis comprises a book-length creative work accompanied by a set of essays. It explores how poetry might bring together spiritual and scientific discourses, focusing primarily on philosophical Daoism (Taoism) and contemporary physics. Systems theory (the science of complex and self-organising systems) is a secondary focus of the creative work and is used metaphorically in theorising the writing process.

The creative work, “A coat of ashes”, is chiefly concerned with the nature of being. It asks, “What is?”, “What am I?” and, most urgently, “What matters?”. To engage with these questions, it opens a space in which voices expressing scientific …

Food Transitions: How Food Symbolizes Another Chapter, Josiah Peralta

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Through critical self-analysis of my life, I intend to answer the question, “How does food help us transition from one chapter of our life to another?” My purpose is to provide a personal viewpoint about related topics associated with food, like class, origin of food, religion or lack of, culture and tradition, obesity, food choice, and love. Through this viewpoint, I will demonstrate how food associations can encapsulate our past, memories, and identity in a way that moves us from the past to the present, and, hopefully, the future.

Capstone theme: Food, Ethics, and Politics

Ncte State Affiliate Extravaganza Ii: Michigan Council Of Teachers Of English Myaf Creative Writing Program, Kia Jane Richmond

Conference Presentations

Discussion of the Michigan Council of Teachers of English Creative Writing program for high school students through the Michigan Youth Arts Festival.

Commonthought (2017), Commonthought Staff

Commonthought

This issue features works created by Lesley University students and covers a broad range of topics. The work itself crosses many disciplines from creative writing to visual arts.

Sentinel, Bailey Merlin

Graduate Thesis Collection

Devastated by the mysterious death of her guardians, Elizabeth Davenport finds herself thrust into a new world that proves to be scintillating and dangerous. Can she trust those who claim to be her friends? Or will her trust lead her into trouble? When a mysterious letter presents itself and proves that her guardians might have been more than they ever let on, Elizabeth must gather her courage and pursue the truth, whatever the cost.

Arizhio: Tales Of Glorious Manifest Destiny, Clinton Craig

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This is a book of short stories with a critical introduction. In theme, the stories seek to find the border between the Midwest and the Southwest of America by focusing on Ohio and Arizona. Some of the stories seek to exemplify “experimental” fiction, while the critical introduction seeks to define “experimental.” In addition, the introduction theorizes about the role of setting in linking collections and characterization.

Mermaid Song: The Notebooks Of The Writing Woman, Gianna T. Ward-Vetrano

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis is built on the model of Doris Lessing’s The Golden Notebook, that is, it is a feminist project of holistic integration that does not reject fracturing, ambiguity, or contradiction, but aims to attain a more complex and thus truer portrait of the woman writing. Lessing’s notebooks examine conflicts between communism and capitalism, racial conflict in Africa, conflict between men and women, and the conflict between the protagonist Anna Wulf’s identity as a woman and her identity as a writer, each of which she then attempts to integrate into the singular golden notebook of the title. I propose …

Write Place At The Write Time: A Study Of How Writing Contexts Affect Rates Of Productivity And Perceptions Of Success In Creative Writing, Sydnie R. Long

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

This research explores the writing contexts of a few creative writers in an effort to learn more about the habits and conditions with which creative writers prefer to work. My goal is to observe how different contexts affect the success or productivity a writer experiences. I will build my project off the central question, is there a correlation between writing contexts and success in writing? From there, I will divide the project into three subsections guided by four subquestions aiming to explore where and how writers write, and gain an insight to their views on what success and productivity mean …

Retellings : A Collection Of Nonfiction Essays., Jennifer Kiefer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is a collection of nonfiction essays, extending both into the realms of journalism as well as into more traditional creative nonfiction essays. While each piece is based in true stories, each piece has its own style. As such, this collection is an exploration of different forms of and takes on the nonfiction essay. It is divided into four chapters, one for each essay. The first half encompasses journalistic pieces previously published in Louisville Magazine, one in the August 2016 issue and one in the February 2017 issue. The first piece is a literal retelling of three medical stories, …