Creative Writing Commons^™

Worldbuilding A Place For The Deaf: An Encyclopedic Approach To Writing Inclusive Narratives, Frederick Scott

Undergraduate University Honors Capstones

This honors capstone project centered on existing deaf literature sets the stage for further storytelling projects using creative worldbuilding details written in an encyclopedic informational text. Across a fledgling life spent reading hearing fiction, a shortage of deaf literature has not gone unnoticed. To start addressing this shortage, this project collects necessary information to support further writings/publications of deaf literature. A review of American Signed Language and deaf/disabled representation in literary format shows that various strategies are employed to represent the language and people within their culture. The review identified examples of unique or distinct approaches used for various characters' …

Database: A Poetry Collection, Lara Dominique D. Solante

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Poets wield their pens to respond to various societal or cultural stimuli—including politics, art, science, and more. Today, artificial intelligence (AI) is an exponential development that has become a leading topic of discussion. This project, titled Database, is a collection of poems that interrogates the tensions that exist between humanity and technology through the use of modern imagery, such as robots and virtual reality. These poems also examine the once distinct markers of humanity that characterized classical poetry, including emotion and sensory experiences, and reframes them within a contemporary context, giving technology and artificial consciousness a voice. Although this collection …

Thoughts, Lately, Thomas L. Reid

Theses

Swift changes in government occur through several avenues. One option involves quick decisive action that entails violence. These set of poems exhibit a reaction to suddenly changing political and social structures in America during the second term of a divisive executive administration. Alongside this change—the author’s personal experiences as queer individual in a historic area of the deep South.

To The True North In Us All, Tara St. Clair

Quill & Scope

No abstract provided.

Man's Conceit, Ahmed Al-Samak

Quill & Scope

No abstract provided.

Palliative Care And The Art Of Listening, Elisheva Eisenberg

Quill & Scope

No abstract provided.

For Whom The Bell Tolls, Christopher Liz

Quill & Scope

This poem was written after reflecting on time spent working in hospitals and medical environments both stateside and while deployed. In these spaces, alarms are constant—bells, monitors, and vibrating alerts competing for attention. Over time, the noise becomes familiar, and clinicians often struggle with what is known as alarm fatigue, where the urgency of each signal begins to dull. In that quiet realization, I found myself asking a simple question: who are these alarms for? The poem explores that moment of awareness and the effort to reconnect the sound of the bell with the life behind it.

The Tortoise, Alexa Gail Colinco

Quill & Scope

For my grandfather, Dr. Joel R. Colinco (1928-2017). The first physician in his family. A man who provided free medical care to all and who continues to do so through the Colinco Medical Mission Outreach. The 2009 Senior Poet Laureate of South Carolina. A deacon and choir director in the Philippines. A painter, tennis player, fisherman, crossword addict, gardener, and so much more. Eternally honored to be guided by his legacy and ethics. (Pang, we'll play Scrabble again in heaven, and I promise I'll spell neighbor correctly this time.)

Bearing, Christopher Liz

Quill & Scope

“Bearing” reflects on a moment of moral conflict in a combat environment, where training, survival and duty to care collide. In high-risk settings, medical service members are taught repeatedly that even in chaos, they must remain grounded; the instinct to run toward danger is tempered by the responsibility to preserve life, including their own, as a vital part of the team’s ability to continue care. The poem explores the tension between action and restraint, and the enduring weight carried when outcomes are uncertain and choices are final. In medicine, these moments become part of the cross we carry—quiet, often unseen, …

Caladrius: Creating A Playable Game Via A Multimedia Experience, Isabelle Morgan Brookshire

Whittier Scholars Program

Caladrius: Creating a Playable Game via a Multimedia Experience hones in on making an experience through different forms of media to represent a game. If this project was fully funded and done, it would be a video game on Steam with an art exhibition, small poetry book, and novel accompanied with it. It would even have a show, a soundtrack, and merch. But at this level, it was to make an experience for my audience that they could experience whether or not they enjoyed video games as a concept. I wanted them to enjoy 'playing' within a physical exhibition and …

The Machinery Of Division, Ethan D. Ernst

Honors Capstones

This single chapter of a future fictional work follows the protagonist, Grace Scott, as her twenty-first birthday approaches, yet things are not as they seem. In this world, alien creatures known as the Marauders have forced humanity to hide within fortified cities, while all children are at risk of mutating into these monsters and eventually losing their minds. This risk is guaranteed to disappear after reaching the age of twenty-one, making it the most celebrated birthday for every society on Earth. As this grand day arrives for Grace, however, strange events occur that indicate that the world may be about …

How To Fail At Faith, Olivia R. Bacon

Honors Theses

How to Fail at Faith tells the story of Ruth, a girl in middle school who begins to doubt her faith in the Christian God. With these doubts come existential questions, fear, and, most strangely, a voice that narrates Ruth’s everyday activities inside her head. Ruth is scared this voice means she is only a character inside a story, but is even more scared to tell her parents about her internal struggles. As Ruth grapples with her faith, this “narrator” becomes a tangible support amid uncertainties. Ruth surrenders to trusting God after fighting her doubts, and discovers that her mysterious …

Badlands And Bison, Andrew Ressler

The Cicadian

“Badlands and Bison” is a fragmentary travel-fiction hybrid set in the mythic badlands of North Dakota. It merges reportage with invention, parody with elegy: a narrator half pilgrim, half comedian drifts from piano keys to prairie herds, searching for sincerity in a landscape that resists it. The form bends between essay and story, using humor, lyric observation, and shifting registers to question how we mythologize place.

The Weight Of The Unknown: Xenophobia In Lucía Puenzo’S Xxy, Daylen Motamed

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

This project examines how Lucía Puenzo’s film titled XXY critiques societal responses to unique identities (specifically intersex as an example), asking how xenophobia and normative gender expectations shape the marginalization of bodies that exist outside the binary. Situating the film within scholarship on queer adolescence and intersex representation, the analysis of this poster will argue that XXY exposes how institutions such as medicine and family reinforce harmful notions of “normalization.”

Drawing on close textual analysis of key scenes and engagement with critical sources, including Guillermo Olivera’s work on space and visibility and testimonies from intersex individuals, this study investigates how …

Cadencias, No. 2 (2013-2014)

Cadencias

The full issue of Cadencias from the 2013-2014 academic year, including the sections:

• Hojas breves: Recuerdos, anécdotas y visiones nuevas
• Tiempo de análisis
• Hispanic Studies: Celebraciones Festividades Eventos

After The Morning Light, Fiona Candland

English Honors Projects

One fall morning, Clarice, a woman in her mid-twenties, is getting ready for the day when she finds a black ground beetle crawling along her bedroom wall. The beetle consumes her, and throughout the day, Clarice undergoes a metamorphosis. Rendered in poetry and prose, After the Morning Light explores the cultivation of a self, questions the boundaries between humans and their environment, and portrays the fragile relationship between women and the act of being seen.

Harness The Darkness! Blackout Poetry And Drama Therapy For Systemic Existential Dread: A Proposed Methodology, Kerry Sullivan

Expressive Therapies Theses

This thesis explores the intersection of drama therapy and blackout poetry as a therapeutic intervention to address systemic existential dread (SED) among emerging adults. The proposed methodology is titled "Bringing Blackout Poetry to Life" and consists of five sessions designed to explore the participants’ SED and generate poetry, culminating in a public performance. By integrating elements from psychodrama and drama therapy with the therapeutic process of blackout poetry, the intervention intends to aid processing on all levels of the expressive therapies continuum (ETC), strengthen tolerance for uncertainty, and facilitate sustainable community action. This theoretical framework is supported by a wide-ranging …

Illustrated Children's Book: "The Adventures Of Mr. C", Anne-Marie Wadsworth, Joanne Whitcombe

Honors Capstones

"The Adventures of Mr. C" is a children's book written by Anne-Marie Wadsworth and her grandmother, Joanne Whitcombe. It was illustrated by Anne-Marie Wadsworth, 2026 NIU graduate, as her honor's capstone project. The book was presented at NIU's 2026 Visual Communication Senior Show on April 30th. It is a christian-inspired true story about an abandoned bird (Mr .C) that becomes part of Joanne's family. Mr C. flies away from his home and is lost for many months, until Joanne experiences a timely, unexpected miracle that only God and his angels can take credit for.

You Are Very Easy To Love, Ruby Tugeau '28

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

Ruby Tugeau is a sophomore at DePauw University majoring in Global Health and Women's & Gender Studies! She enjoys long hikes in the nature park, oldies music, and warm soup. Ruby's been writing all her life and wants to thank AMWR for allowing her to share her work!

Flying Fish, Chelsea Parsley '28

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

Chelsea Parsley is a sophomore Creative Writing major at DePauw University. She enjoys drawing, writing, singing, and accumulating obscure pieces of trivia.

Tuesday Evenings In Your Mother's Bathroom, Lexi Simpson '26

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

Lexi Simpson is a senior Psychology and English Writing double major, and a Malpas Scholar at DePauw University. She loves ceramics, writing, and road trips. Lexi is inspired by the stars, the ocean, and being outside. She enjoys reading and being with family and friends.

Would You Listen, If I Could Speak?, Jordan Heaviland '29

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

Jordan Heaviland is a first-year Creative Writing major and Prindle Scholar, with a keen interest in Philosophy. He primarily writes poetry and short-fiction. His favorite books are House of Leaves and Oryx and Crake. Jordan has previous publications in Muncie Voice, Perspicacity Magazine, and The Lavender Journal.

Retiro, Max Scoular

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

A collection of ten short stories in fulfillment of requirements for Master's Degree in Creative Writing at University of Texas El Paso.

Migration Myth, Catie Prospero Mcguire

Gandy Dancer Archives

No abstract provided.

Refusing The Hunt, Catie Prospero Mcguire

Gandy Dancer Archives

No abstract provided.

The World::The Living Room, Ella Singer

Gandy Dancer Archives

No abstract provided.

The Only Ode To Rockford, Giulyana Gamero

Gandy Dancer Archives

No abstract provided.

Eulogy, Giulyana Gamero

Gandy Dancer Archives

No abstract provided.

December Elegy, Ella Singer

Gandy Dancer Archives

No abstract provided.

The Tender Memento Mori, Giulyana Gamero

Gandy Dancer Archives

No abstract provided.