Creative Writing Commons^™

New Portland: A Novel Exploring The Futility Of Duplicating The American Experience, Aaron Anthony Weiss

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

In the novel NEW PORTLAND, Beau Bergeron is fighting obsolescence at the school where he's taught for thirty years in Portland, Maine. Once an up-and-coming star in the old boys' network of New England prep schools - a future school president - a sustained pattern of problematic behavior has blocked his advancement and leaves him defending his work performance to the newly installed school president (who took the job Beau believes should have been his). With enrollment in Beau's French courses decreasing, he's given the chance to demonstrate his adaptability by teaching a special summer course for visiting Chinese exchange …

No Reservations: A Collection Of Truth, Josie I. Lockhart

English Undergraduate Honors Theses

This collection contains thirty orginal pieces of poetry, prose, and photography; and focues on many aspects of Native American history and Indigenous identity in modern America. Topics include: Native American boarding schools, Cherokee Freedmen, Indigenous potrayal in media, Native American incarceration, Indigenous identity, matriarchy, death and grief, substance abuse, MMIW, and Indian Child Welfare. A research grant was awarded for both semesters. The grant funded a research trip to the National Archives in Fort Worth, Texas. Research was conducted in order to retrieve materials and records pertaining to the subject of Native American boarding schools and case files for Native …

Confessions I Make To Myself: A Collection Of Poetry & Prose, Isabella R. Sotlar

English Undergraduate Honors Theses

Confessions I Make to Myself is a deeply personal collection of poetry and fiction, reflecting my journey through grief, self-reflection, and growth. The collection is particularly influenced by the passing of my grandfather, whose support for my musical and literary endeavors shaped much of my life. Many of the poems explore themes of loss, family, and relationships, while others reflect on introspective moments during my time abroad in Milan, Italy. The work also addresses personal struggles with anxiety, self-image, and a recent medical diagnosis, capturing the experience of being a young woman navigating the challenges of 2025.

The poetry in …

The Castle Is Still Here, And Yes, It's Still Scary: Reconstructing The Gothic Through Contemporary Short Story, Alyssa Kilroy

Undergraduate Theses

Since Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto published in 1764, the literary Gothic has grown and spread to include a multitude of subgenres in a variety of formats. Gothic literature has served as both a product and a showcase of its contextual influences, providing a deeper look at humanity's deepest flaws, fears, and passions that shape our societies. While the Gothic's historically fluid identity allows Frankenstein to exist in a literary realm alongside Wuthering Heights, something consistent in its core continues to appeal to modern audiences and remains relevant in contemporary literature and other media. This project offers a …

The Setting Sun, Tristan Allen

Calliope

No abstract provided.

On Becoming Genderless, Asteroid Toles

Calliope

No abstract provided.

Echovore, Gabby Beury

A Midwestern Review: A Magazine of the Arts and Issues at DePauw University

"Gabby Beury is a Senior English Writing major with minors in Film and Italian Cultural Studies at DePauw University. She enjoys reading and writing comedic and absurdist works."

Sky Temple Of Remebrance, Emily Loera

A Midwestern Review: A Magazine of the Arts and Issues at DePauw University

Emily Loera is a Junior double majoring in Design Studies and Asian Studies. She is on the Women’s Track and Field team and involved in many other organizations on DePauw’s campus. She loves to share her art with others, read, and hang out with her friends.

Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International, Sahit Liyanage

A Midwestern Review: A Magazine of the Arts and Issues at DePauw University

Sahit Liyanage is a Freshman at DePauw University. He is yet to declare a major, but it will be either English Writing or a double major in English Writing and Biology. He enjoys wildlife photography, boxing and badminton.

Love Is A Bag Of Tide Pods, Ira Satpathy

A Midwestern Review: A Magazine of the Arts and Issues at DePauw University

Ira Satpathy is a Philosophy, Politics, and Economics major at DePauw University. They enjoy making portraits, writing poetry, and playing badminton. Listen to them on What the Feminism!, their podcast on intersectional feminism.

Book Review: Local Signs And Wonders: Essays About Belonging To A Place, Susanna R. Smith

Georgia Library Quarterly

Book Review of Local Signs and Wonders, by Richard Rankin

Sidewindings, Jeff Marvel

Graduate Thesis Collection

A memoir cataloguing the impacts of my late-onset Type 1 diabetes diagnosis at the age of 26, in which I attempt to realize the ways in which my sense of self, and sense of the world around me, has been altered or disfigured by this hardly-visible disease.

To Turn To Wind, Savannah Butler

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

The thesis is a poetry collection, titled To turn to wind. Each poem is distinct but connected, in turn creating a narrative, serial poem that explores an individual’s relationship with poetry and nature. There are four sections where the speaker a metamorphic journey, and the end of each section leads to the beginning of the next. The poems are written in free verse, and each individual line is indicative of the poet’s breath and wind patterns to further develop the themes of unity and poetry, as well as “form as an extension of content”.

The poems are inquisitive and seek …

Some Sonnets, Caleb Merritt

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

This thesis, titled some sonnets, is an exploration of generative practices, language gathering, and experimental fragmentation that manifests in a “cacophony of voices.” Parallel to and estranged from the traditional sonnet form, these poems emerge from a collaged and sculpted approach to Poetry, which places the work more on the side of conceptual art than traditional collection of verse.

The sonnets are recursive, referencing their own making, their own debatable status as “poems,” and the language that populates them. Here, meaning is offered in fragmented ways, inviting a small readership to attempt to parse these quasiautobiographical viewings and compositions. The …

The Wicks They Stimulate, Adam Ray Wagner

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

The Wicks They Stimulate is a collection of poems and translations. Through a variety of forms and images, the poems were written with a predominant attention to concentration, clarity, and persona. The poems use tone and rhythm to work through different phenomenological perspectives to see words or phrases from changing angles, often employing spare language and short lines, but sometimes using longer, more prosaic forms.

Engaged with the philosophies of Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Emmanuel Levinas, these poems pair subtly changing rhythms with shifting pronouns to engage questions about rhythm and alterity. Fragmented syntax and heavy enjambment draw attention to the …

Double, Double, Toils And Troubles: Analyzing The “Magical” Relationships Between University Leaders’ Personality Traits And Their Self-Efficacy In Leadership Situations, Fay Ludvine Boudreaux

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

This present study investigated the relationship between higher education leaders’ personality traits and their self-efficacy in leadership situations. A total of 151 leaders employed across the nine institutions within the University of Louisiana System completed a survey that prompted them to identify their personal values, traits, and skill sets, as derived from the online Pottermore quiz, the official Harry Potter Hogwarts House sorting instrument. This niche personality metric was chosen to cater to higher education’s evolving landscape, as it welcomes an influx of Millennials into leadership positions. Participants’ responses were eventually recoded to “sort” them into their respective Houses: Gryffindor, …

The Ate's Arrivial, Eliana Jolanda Alzate

A Midwestern Review: A Magazine of the Arts and Issues at DePauw University

Eliana Alzate is a Junior English Writing and Computer Science major at DePauw University. Her works explore the intersections of diasporic identity, political chaos, and artistic discovery. When she isn’t writing stories and poems, you can find Eliana filming vlogs and singing karaoke.

Window Light, Abigail Fathauer

A Midwestern Review: A Magazine of the Arts and Issues at DePauw University

"Abigail Fathauer is a Senior English Literature major with minors in Art History and World Literature. When she’s not writing papers or reading the next book on her TBR, she’s working at the local animal shelter and not shutting up about it. In another life, she was a medieval scribe."

Quantifying Forever, Raechel Meyers

A Midwestern Review: A Magazine of the Arts and Issues at DePauw University

Raechel Meyers is a first-year Anthropology major, Honor Scholar, and self-admitted overachiever. She is from Dayton, Ohio, and is guessing you may know someone with ties to there. That happens pretty often. She enjoys the stories of others, spicy food, commas, cats laying in sunny spots, and the color blue.

Fourth Of July, Eliana Jolanda Alzate

A Midwestern Review: A Magazine of the Arts and Issues at DePauw University

Eliana Alzate is a Junior English Writing and Computer Science major at DePauw University. Her works explore the intersections of diasporic identity, political chaos, and artistic discovery. When she isn’t writing stories and poems, you can find Eliana filming vlogs and singing karaoke.

Oaxaca Stories Along The Way, James E. Gaasch

Trade & Scholarly Monographs

View the world of a local photographer... a market vendor... a painter... an academic... all through the eyes of an author who has fallen in love. This is not the simple infatuation of fairy tales, but the real love that comes from appreciating the whole. It comes from the beauty of a city and the hearts of its populace...

She: The Shadow Self, Mya Bethers

All Graduate Reports and Creative Projects, Fall 2023 to Present

This multimodal poetry thesis explores the Female Shadow, an adaptation of Carl Jung’s concept of the Shadow that focuses on women’s experiences, through the themes of silence, abuse, and generational trauma. Incorporating multimodal forms such as video poetry and visual poetry alongside traditional print poetry, the collection mirrors the fragmented nature of trauma and the instability of memory. This collection draws from feminist theorists like Hélène Cixous, bell hooks, and Trinh T. Minh-ha, as well as poets engaging with Jungian concepts such as Sylvia Plath, Robert Bly, and Châtillon Coque. This work examines repression, voice, and the unconscious. Formally, it …

My Family’S Hands, Natalie Mckenzie

Gandy Dancer Archives

No abstract provided.

Syllabus Week, Jenna Curtis

Gandy Dancer Archives

No abstract provided.

The Supplicant, Julia Gartley

Gandy Dancer Archives

No abstract provided.

Canned Artichoke Hearts, Catie Mcguire

Gandy Dancer Archives

No abstract provided.

Anthropology Of An American War Veteran, Madelyn Teresa Robinson

Gandy Dancer Archives

No abstract provided.

This Body, This Place, Moon Khan

Gandy Dancer Archives

No abstract provided.

Cupid’S Eve; Cordoba Canaries, Liza Rindell

Gandy Dancer Archives

No abstract provided.

Porch Friendship, Grace O’Hanlon

Gandy Dancer Archives

No abstract provided.