Creative Writing Commons^™

Department Of Longing, Anthony Gabriel Coffman

Theses and Dissertations

Many have chosen to divide the world of fiction into literary and genre. I do not believe these have to be mutually exclusive. Writers such as Shirley Jackson, Stephen King, and Benjamin Percy note the importance of literary devices while simultaneously creating plots that elicit emotional responses from readers. It is my goal to accomplish the same, and bridge the gap between literary and genre fiction in my collection of short stories by using symbolism and imagery to create a sense of the foreboding.

'The Game Is Afoot': An Exploration Of Mystery Novels And The Gentleman Detective, Anna Pietropaolo

Senior Honors Projects

In the mystery genre, The Gentleman Detective has become a kaleidoscopic icon depicted continuously over the past 200 years. The brilliant sleuth’s image has been used to highlight the contemporary culture of thoughts, faiths, and fears. As a longtime fan of the mystery genre, I wanted to explore this iconic figure and see some of the ways it could be used to reflect upon current values. There was no better way to do that than to write a book of my own, featuring a master of deduction but viewing them with an outside perspective, through the eyes of my main …

Serendipityblah, Amanda Linn Kunkel

English Theses & Dissertations

So, you’ve stumbled upon my neck of the woods, where the weird and fantastical reside. Wit and humor may save you here but beware of what draws near. Beneath the bright and smiling facade, you may find the danse macabre. Within these pages you’ll find magic and wonder, darkness, and failure. The setting is post-March 2020 in Norfolk, Virginia. An urban city at the heart of Hampton Roads where the lines between reality and otherworldliness blur. Witches protect ghosts in a downtown Abbey. The fae break new ground in the art district of Ghent. Even Death stalks the halls of …

Only The Eyes: A Novel, Jason Michael Palomo

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Only the Eyes revolves around a series of murders that take place in the oil-rich United Arab Emirates, the government of which suppresses the media to maintain the nation's reputation as a safe, innovative tourist destination. After the murders are leaked to the international press and can no longer be ignored, the Sheikhs of the country. decide to procure an investigative consultant through manipulative means to help them capture the unknown suspect. Former-Special-Agent Ramon Del Toro is now a true-crime writer, and he reluctantly takes on the difficult task of creating a psychological profile of the suspect, much to the …

Hal : A Romance, Janna Urschel

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Hal: A Romance is a multimodal work composed of short stories, meditations, poetry, photography, and essays that together explore the great love affair of Sodium and Chloride that gives us salt. This is an ethical project concerned with expanding the voice and representation of actantcies beyond the human in the craft of writing and in the public imagination. The project intends to be a praxis that plays through a flat ontological orientation, including various strains of New Materialism and Object-Oriented-Ontology, some of the ideas from which are addressed directly in the section “Loving: A Primer.” Individually and collectively, the pieces …

Laughter, Mahrukh Aamir

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Set in Boise, “Laughter,” is centered on a gullible anti-heroine and an aspiring writer, who is infatuated with a poet.

The novel is about relationships with parents, friends, strangers, complete strangers. An inquiry into what it means to live an authentic life; and what to make of “other” people in fiction: people in books, films, songs.

It’s about blurriness: funniness and sadness; creepiness and devotedness; fiction and reality.

College Slasher Novel, Jeff Hill

Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This project was completed in hopes of creating a new novel that combines the research and craft worlds of composition and creative writing while merging the social worlds of teaching and campus Greek life, as well as making relevant contemporary commentary on the genres of satire and horror. In preparation, beyond necessary course work completion and time to outline, write, workshop, and revise, I read numerous novels and articles and watched dozens of films and television episodes as well as conducted research regarding current campus demographic to compose the best novel I could write in my time within the program. …

The Struggle For Identity: How Female Writers Find Their Voice, Allison Joanne Call

Masters Theses

The purpose of this project is to examine the value and purpose of the female voice in literature. In the first part of this project, my artist’s statement clarifies my intent as a writer and an academic. This statement describes certain specific works that have influenced my writing style and content, and my literary aspirations. The second part of the project is the critical paper, which analyzes the importance of the feminine voice and identity in literature throughout different time periods and through different lenses. Within this paper, I examine how male writers have dominated the writing world and explore …

Save Our Love, Jaime Constance Belk

Masters Theses

Andy Crouch wrote in his inspirational book, Culture Making: Recovering our Creative Calling that “culture is inescapable” and if we are dissatisfied with it, we must “make new culture” (140). These words have inspired my creativity and influenced my writing in so many ways. Romance literature is constantly growing in popularity, but the genre is not evolving. In a world of monotonous storylines and happily-ever-afters, I seek to shift the romance genre with my project, Save Our Love. This is a romance manuscript that tells the powerful stories of Joseph and Denver, two disparate college students who build a bond …

The Vicissitudes, Lara Young

Graduate Thesis Collection

On the surface, Julia's life at middle age seems calm and settled. Her children are grown; she's got plenty of friends and family; and her marriage has survived a betrayal. But when she unexpectedly receives a text from an old flame, one by one the certitudes she's come to rely on start to unravel and Julia's is forced to reckon anew with the meaning of her life and her place in the world.

Bad Actors, Wendell Ward

English Theses & Dissertations

This manuscript contains a collection of short stories. It also includes the first several chapters of a novella. Within are characters who act and suffer consequences without the imposition of supernatural elements to affect outcomes, which is hopefully what makes them seem “real.” But then there are ambiguities and archetypes and symbolic imagery dancing around the edges of their predicaments, too. Think flambéed Flaubert with the saltiness of Hemingway and the peppery tang of Woolf complimented with a sugary pinch of Charlotte Bronte to bring out the flavor of the tomatoes, poured over with a rich, Jungian gravy. If this …

The Crow Chaser, William Warren

Fiction MFA Theses

Fiction - A full novel manuscript. Lon has lost his voice and it isn’t coming back. Having recently survived throat cancer, any hopes Lon once had about a music career in Nashville have been buried under his medical debts. Forced to move back home to Rubyville, a small town in the mountains of Tennessee, Lon lives with his no-nonsense mom Mary, and has reconnected with his high school girlfriend Rose, whose work as a call-girl Lon has failed to accept. As he retreats and sabotages his relationships, Lon turns to a precocious and seemingly mystic flock of crows for company …

Choir Of The Girls: A Peccadillo, Kelly Piggott

Fiction MFA Theses

Choir of the Girls: a Peccadillo

Satori 2022, Abigail Perlinger, Brianna Strohbehn, Elise Modjeski, Gabriel Hathaway, Gabriela Wallberg, Grace Menke, Jennifer Wendt, Kaysey Price, Keaton Riebel, Louisa Shirmacher, Madi Bonebright, Madison Grove, Mckenna Scherer, Page Sutton, Rae Peter, Savannah Egger, Sophia Sailer, Trianna Douglas, Van Herman

Satori Literary Magazine

The Satori is a student literary publication that expresses the artistic spirit of the students of Winona State University. Student poetry, prose, and graphic art are published in the Satori every spring since 1970.

The Satori 2022 editors are Matthew Pearson, Jasmyne Taylor, and Emily Venne. the Satori 2022 faculty advisor is Dr. Jim Armstrong, Professor of English.

The Lantern, 2021-2022, Sarah Buck, Amy Litofsky, Julia Paiano, Juliana M. Valerio, Lauren Flanagan, Miles Noecker, Amelia Kunko, Isabella Almonte, Makayla Heisler, Bradley Kocher, Kate I. Foley, Jasmine Ruiz, Aurora Mckee, Marie Sykes, Morgan Grabowski, Jessica Schnur, Jenna Lozzi, Tyler Ways, Kyle Guzy, Benjamin Tobias, Elliot Cetinski, Leo Cox, Ian Abrahams, Gabbie Pitt, Derek Matarazzo, Alessandra Armour, Jessica Celli, Emily Crocker, Anastasia Dziekan, Rimsha Maryam, Ryan Savage, Vanessa Worley, Jesse White, Amy Smith, Sarah Fales, Christine Heren, Emily Bradigan, Kristen Cooney, Rishabh Kancherla, Mairead Mcdermott, Kylie Halko

The Lantern Literary Magazines, 1933 to Present

No More Buses through El Paso • A Woman's World • The Angel of Tragedy • A Victim of Circumstance • Ace of Hearts • Ghost Light • Missing Diamonds • The Upside-Down House: A Dialogue with the Self • What is Chronic Pain? • A Sunny Day in Sinkhole • Extra Marshmallows • Fourth Wall Broken • Hemlock • In the Comfort of Others • Lasting Impressions • Let's Do the Time Warp Again • One Last Afternoon • Space Invaders • The Dogwood Tree • An Ode to Poppies • Charlotte's Web • Crab • Crossing • Dandelions …

Cutbank 96

CutBank

No abstract provided.

We Are Not Thinking About Ourselves, Peter Mountford

CutBank

No abstract provided.

Say You're Fourteen, Holly Pelesky

CutBank

No abstract provided.

An Arm And A Leg, Alex Moersen

CutBank

No abstract provided.

One Word Lightning, Bruce Mckay

CutBank

No abstract provided.

The Long Way Home, Sarah Walker

CutBank

No abstract provided.

To Live With, Serina Lund

Honors Thesis

To Live With is a story about an individual, Charlie, living with schizophrenia. The story follows Charlie as he grows up, from a time of no definitive signs of schizophrenia to his first major episode and the consequences that follow. I utilized knowledge and research stemming from my nursing education to create a character meant to connect with readers in a way that broadens their view on mental illness. This story only shows one view of what living with schizophrenia may be like and is in no way intended to encompass all of schizophrenia. I searched for ways to show …

The Evans Family: Familial Relationships In George Eliot's Life And Fiction, Hailey S. Fischer

Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Biographers of George Eliot, when writing about her childhood, have focused on her close and complicated relationships with two of the most important men in her life, her father Robert Evans and brother Isaac Evans. Less discussed are Eliot’s relationships with her immediate female family members, her mother Christiana Pearson Evans and her sister Christiana (Chrissey) Evans Clarke. This thesis reviews the predominant interpretations of Eliot’s relations with her father and brother. It also pulls together the known information about Christiana and Chrissey from several major biographies and adds new insights from Eliot's letters in combination with two of her …

Bi Design: Strategies For Fiction, Audrey T. Heffers

Journal of Creative Writing Studies

How can bisexuality be represented in fiction in a way that is realistic and nuanced? This article presents five strategies of representing bisexuality in fiction, listed here as Implying, Demonstrating, Describing, Using Explicit Labels, and Having Conversations. These practical approaches highlight craft techniques that writers can implement in their own work. By articulating some of the ways in which bisexuality is already written in fiction, these strategies provide tools for writers to write bisexuality in ways that work against common stereotypes. These strategies are presented through an interdisciplinary lens, primarily relying upon Creative Writing Studies, …

Marooned, Richard R. Dipirro

The Lindenwood Review: a journal of literary prose

No abstract provided.

Magic, Meagan Perry

The Lindenwood Review: a journal of literary prose

No abstract provided.

In The Timeline Where She’S An Easy Choice, Gabrielle Tribou

The Lindenwood Review: a journal of literary prose

No abstract provided.

A Place For Nothing, Tegan Bradley

The Lindenwood Review: a journal of literary prose

No abstract provided.

Scars And Time, James Palmer

The Lindenwood Review: a journal of literary prose

No abstract provided.

Spells, Beth Mattson

The Lindenwood Review: a journal of literary prose

No abstract provided.