Creative Writing Commons^™

A Psychogeography Of The Lower Colorado River Basin, Arren L. Kimbel-Sannit

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Dried-up canals. Superheated strip malls. Proliferating data centers. Infinite appetite for growth despite its apparent circumstances. Arizona may well be the state of the American future. This multi-genre series of essays from Arren Kimbel-Sannit offers a personal, political-economic and ecological critique of growth and accumulation in Arizona — from the perspective of someone who grew up in its suburban expanses, reported on its politics, and long sought to clarify his relationship with home.

Highway Kind, Caitlin C. Thompson

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

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.

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 …

Light And Unseen, Daša Kulikova

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is a body of paintings and two poetic fragments. Shaped by distance and displacement, the work finds its ground in the tension between the desire to be free from the past and heal, and longing for home and connection. Painting practice becomes an event of contact with what is lost, or unclear, or in the process of becoming through accumulating layers, marks, erasures, and traces of the process of its making.

En Tiempos De Extinción, Adialyz Del Valle Berríos

Graduate Studies Theses and Dissertations 2026

En Tiempos de Extinción is a collection of short, mostly speculative, stories exploring themes of community, exploitation, resistance, and the ever-present effects of colonialism in nearly every aspect of life. “El Amor de una Diosa es Amor Suficiente” centers on a young girl’s initiation into a community that will do whatever it takes to indoctrinate the young. “Al Aire Libre” focuses on two tenured professors determined to enjoy their last day on the job, navigating the complicated feelings of what progress means in a world that prioritizes capital. In “OVNI,” the history of a wacky television dating show unravels …

If Your Muses Don't Hate You..., Hannah Howe

Graduate Studies Theses and Dissertations 2026

If Your Muses Don’t Hate You… interrogates a speaker who feels she lacks the tools needed to properly assess trauma and grief. This collection follows the speaker as she delves into obsessive analysis of self, often using metaphysical lenses as methods of comprehension. Each section explores a facet of the subject’s identity, and examines whether her heartache is self-inflicted, preordained, or both. Six of the seven sections provide the reader with imaginative interpretations of the speaker’s natal chart, allowing the reader the opportunity to analyze alongside the speaker. The first half of these sections present the speaker struggling to separate …

Specters, Fred Lambert

Graduate Studies Theses and Dissertations 2026

Specters is a collection of interconnected short fiction that explores the lives of various characters affected by the Iraq War. Touching upon themes of mortality, dehumanization, guilt, and the trauma inflicted by senseless violence, the stories in this collection aim to blur the line between the concrete and the phantasmagoric. The titular story follows a young Marine whose grip on reality is called into question during the Second Battle of Fallujah. In “Demons,” a recruit undergoing the chaotic and brutal grind of Parris Island begins to wonder if his drill instructors are possessed. “Kill Bodies” chronicles the repeated killing of …

It's All The Same, Lauren A. Bedevia

Graduate Studies Theses and Dissertations 2026

It’s All the Same is a collection of short stories that center around lesbian characters. The stories explore themes such as ambition, morality, karma, mental health, exploitation, and relationships. The collection opens with “Forget Her Inc.,” a short story that juggles an ensemble cast of lesbians and examines whether memory eraser therapy is an ethical practice for treating a broken heart. “It’s All the Same,” the titular story, uses lyricism to present the parallels between two women in terms of family dynamics, interests, and attachment styles; the story explores a loving friendship between a lesbian and a straight woman.

“Fun …

The Place Between Places, Harrison Burke

Graduate Studies Theses and Dissertations 2026

The Place Between Places is a collection of essays centered on belonging. Focusing on the composition of city streets, theme parks, and hidden pockets of wonder, belonging is explored as the product of place and culture. The perspective of the collection shifts between reflection and active exploration, using present moment journeys as catalysts to unravel the past. In every new discovery there is a ghost, past and present journeys fighting for their place in the constructed narrative called “self.”

The collection primarily makes use of braided essays and nonlinear storytelling. “Animal” blends together three night walks through New York, Seoul, …

Taming Wildfires, Bianca Dagostino

Graduate Studies Theses and Dissertations 2026

Taming Wildfires is a novella immersed in the mind of a young woman named Lilla with intense, undiagnosed mental illness attempting to reenter society after losing the crutch of her long-term partner. The novella engages with the intersection of queerness, mental illness, interracial relationships, and the society of recent past (2023-2024), and deals with themes of isolation, loss, self-image, and emotional healing. Readers are invited fully into Lilla’s mind as she navigates a long-term friendship strained by proximity and a new romance marred by omission. These relationships are overcast by her loss, her skewed reality, and her conflicting desires to …

The Holy Dialectic, Ian Gonsher

Short Stories

Discourse is sacred. Every conversation can be taken to be an aspect of the Divine. Every discussion is a part of a holy dialectic, in every time and every place.

Traversing The Internal And External Worlds: An Analysis Of Du Fu’S Use Of Nature Imagery, Arwen Mox

Rushton Journal of Undergraduate Humanities Research

Born in 712, the Chinese poet Du Fu lived in the cultural peak of the High Tang and the devastating events and aftermath of the An Lushan Rebellion in 755. This essay explores how Du Fu employs nature imagery as a medium for reflection the internal and external worlds. By tracking the use of this motif across the three major periods of his work as embodied in three different poems, the nuanced shifts in his portrayal of nature and humanity becomes apparent. This essay argues that nature is a versatile medium within Du Fu’s work.

Arts & Literature: Cursed, Nadeem Zaman

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

No abstract provided.

The Bmt: Will This Time Be Different?: Red Hook Braces For A Mega-Project On The Waterfront. Can It Avoid The Mistakes Of Atlantic Yards?, Steve Kastenbaum

Capstones

"The BMT: Will this time be different?" investigates how New York City's push to rapidly build housing is reshaping communities. A $3.5 billion mega-project at the Brooklyn Marine Terminal promises transformation through 6,000 apartments, a modernized port, and waterfront improvements, but residents are split on whether it represents progress or displacement. The development uses a controversial "general project plan" process that bypasses normal community review, the same approach that enabled the still-unfinished Atlantic Yards project. Local voices in Red Hook range from excitement about investment, jobs and amenities to fears about gentrification and broken promises. This pilot episode launches a …

Embers Of Hesitation, Alexandro Salas Rosales

Student Scholar Symposium

Alexandro Salas-Rosales’ collection Embers of Hesitation explores the rise and fall of a person who wants to change the world. The speaker begins with little to no motivation, and evolves a passion for both justice and love. Throughout the collection, the speaker grows more ambitious about the possibilities of a new love and a more optimistic tomorrow, even while they can be disgusted by the indifference of their peers. The speaker’s unchecked ambition grows and solidifies the connection between self isolation and mental illness. In Embers of Hesitation, Salas-Rosales follows the speaker’s trajectory from disengaged observer to zealot.

The Star Compass, Megan Gables

Student Scholar Symposium

In Megan Gables’ manuscript, The Star Compass, Gables’ character, Cole Summers, endeavors to prepare for grad school, but she is rejected by her dream program, the London Lost Tribe College of Archaeology. Even though her application has been denied, Cole discovers that she will be allowed to participate in an archaeological expedition funded by the London Lost Tribe College of Archaeology. The expedition would attempt to follow a compass that some claim can navigate star charts and is rumored to have been involved in actions regarding World War II. Cole fears joining the expedition, because she suspects that the …

Things That Just Happen, Naomi Hollans

Student Scholar Symposium

Naomi Hollans’s nonfiction piece, “Things That Just Happen,” narrates a young woman’s experience with tragedy. After her grandfather’s death from cancer, the young woman receives another shock: her mother is diagnosed with cancer. While her mother endures chemo and the young woman prepares for college, her 4-year-old brother is also diagnosed with cancer. In the midst of these bafflingly painful circumstances, the narrator, her peers, hairdressers, and Sunday school teachers seek an explanation for suffering. Hollans’s reflection examines the human need to understand pain and discusses the various motivations for asking “why?” in response to grief. “Things That Just Happen” …

Change Over Time, Seth Wright

Student Scholar Symposium

No abstract provided.

Divinely Woven, Lily Robinette

Student Scholar Symposium

The relationship between science and faith has often been viewed as contradictory, with individuals typically aligning with one perspective or the other. However, a deeper examination reveals that these two ideologies are not independent but are interconnected parts of the greater tapestry of life. This paper takes the audience on a journey through the thought process of a chemistry student of the spiritual and physical being affirming of each other rather than competing ideas. It delves into the concept of complex interactions of atoms and the purposeful design of life that suggest that the universe is not a product of …

Message In A Bottle, Ellie Harwood

Student Scholar Symposium

In her poetry collection “Message in a Bottle”, Ellie Harwood explores the relationships we maintain with each other, animals, and nature. Through the poems in this collection, Harwood examines how we as humans simultaneously harm one another and our fragile ecosystem while seeking love and belonging in those very relationships and spaces. By contrasting the evolutionary journey of whales with the rampant development of technology in the poem “Whale Song”, or through portraying the desire to flee from somebody you love deeply in “Bedhead”, Harwood highlights the many contradictions and conflicts that come with being alive (and the numerous ways …

Animal Man: Morrison's Reflection On The Author, Ellie Harwood

Student Scholar Symposium

Grant Morrison’s Animal Man debuted in DC Comics in 1988. For seven years as its author, Morrison explored themes of animal rights, conservationism, postmodernism, existentialism, and even free will all through their careful deconstruction of the superhero genre. In “Animal Man: Morrison’s Reflection on the author”, Ellie Harwood analyzes major portions of Morrison’s comic to identify their commentary on the relationship between people, animals, and fictional characters, and the moral ramifications of those relationships. Harwood achieves this through identifying the similarities between how Morrison portrays animals in the comic, as well as how they portray their own characters on a …

When It Calls You, Layla Al Sadoon

Student Scholar Symposium

Layla Al-Sadoon’s collection “when it calls you” explores the intersection of religion and womanhood. Al-Sadoon’s speaker compares the ambiguous relationship of her body and the earth, even when she is unaware of the positive and negative movements between both. “when it calls you” situates itself in a wilderness that carries the both speaker and audience into a feeling of isolation and a demystification of romance and wildness. The speaker grapples with her identity as she encounters the unknown within herself, and the representations of femininity she recognized and fears.

Pain Is A Gift, Hannah Fritsch

Student Scholar Symposium

Hannah Fritsch’s poetry collection, “Pain is a Gift,” explores what it means to live every day with pain. The poems look at many aspects of suffering, from the invisible psychological burden and despair it can bring to acceptance and hope. Using word pictures and metaphors, Fritsch’s work invites readers to look through her eyes and see how pain can draw people together and birth new dreams.

Why The Dancer Laughs, Anna Summerville

Student Scholar Symposium

The short story “Why the Dancer Laughs” explores the gradual mental and physical decay of a professional dancer, as she struggles to come to terms with a new life in which a chronic illness slowly takes the power from her legs. Weaving through her grief and regret in an introspective first person perspective, the story explores themes of change and holding onto the past, using a statue of a dancer in her family room as a foil between its preserved state and her deteriorating form. Overall, “Why the Dancer Laughs” aims to answer the question: How do we find the …

Presenting, Camille Floyd

Student Scholar Symposium

In Camille Floyd’s collection, “Presenting,” the lyric speaker describes her internalized gaze, obsession with connection and understanding, and modes of presenting to others. Floyd’s work examines the feminine experience in different moments and spaces. The collection features the speaker wrestling with how she relies on and trusts in memory, religion, and the normalized rules around movement and being.

The Turning Of The Years, Katie L. Smith Lopez

Masters Theses

This thesis explores the exquisite interplay of moments that matter in brief human interactions. The Critical Paper focuses on the contrasting literary theories of Reader-Response Criticism and Psychoanalytic Criticism, which illustrate the varying ways readers engage with written works. The Artist Statement provides insight into the origin story of the writer and the variety of influences that led to the lyrical field of writing. The Creative Manuscript features a substantial portion of the writer’s memoir. Titled “The Turning of the Years,” this memoir-style work is anchored by significant life events that occurred near the writer’s impactful birthdays. An undercurrent of …

Anvilstorm: The Dweller's Crown, Todd Gaige

Masters Theses

The thesis explores a personal vision for the original manuscript of The Dweller’s Crown, and the impact of setting in literature and world-building. The thesis also shares a variety of characters and how they represent themes of belonging, acceptance, unity, faith, and friendship. From the very beginning, the strong bonds between Araad, Thomble, Atlee, Sylvan, and Mereth distinguish the world of Thir Thodim apart. This thesis and the following chapters focus on the characters' deep desire to protect their beloved world. It is through their faith in one another and shared goals of survival and preservation that they set out …

Aeolian Tones: A Book Of Minor Poetry About Isolation And The Space Between Disconnection And Connection, Thaddeus Tague

Masters Theses

This is the artistic statement for Aeolian Tones, the poetry chapbook that will serve as my thesis. In this accompanying paper, I explore the vision, process, and inspiration behind the various themes in the chapbook, as well as the overall goal. I hope to provide personal context for the writing's purpose, as well as offer reflections and interpretive guidelines for how the poetry can and should be understood. In this work, I aim to provide a space for readers seeking reflections on loneliness, healing, profound pain, and disconnection.

Next, the literature review will examine ten modern works of minor non-epic …

Archetypes: Angels Of Literary Art; Demons Of Science, Ronald A. Davidson

Masters Theses

This Master of Fine Arts Creative Writing thesis focuses on archetypal literary theory and criticism and their application to Bushido of the Cur, a novella by Ronald A. Davidson. The critical analysis will evaluate the characters in the novella and identify how their roles in the story align with everyday human experiences, suggesting the existence of a literary collective unconscious. The creative manuscript, Bushido of the Cur, exploits the craft of character development to present a storyline that feels authentic, even though it is a work of historical fiction in the western noir genre. The goal of the manuscript is …