Fiction Commons^™

Creating Project Contrast: A Video Game Exploring Consciousness And Qualia, Pierce Papke

Honors Projects

Project Contrast is a video game that explores how the unique traits inherent to video games might engage reflective player responses to qualitative experience. Project Contrast does this through suspension of disbelief, avatar projection, presence, player agency in storytelling, visual perception, functional gameplay, and art. Considering the difficulty in researching qualitative experience due to its subjectivity and circular explanations, I created Project Contrast not to analyze qualia, though that was my original hope. I instead created Project Contrast as an avenue for player self-reflection and learning about qualitative experience. While video games might be just code and art on a …

The Dark House And Its Inhabitants, Emily Bielski

MFA in Illustration & Visual Culture

From the inception of the genre, Gothic horror has been fixated on the domestic space in distress. This essay explores domestic archetypes and roles of the Gothic novel, serving as a “tour of the house”, analyzing the iconography of the dark castle, and how it externalizes and exacerbates the fears and behaviors of its inhabitants. The power dynamic of the household is starkly divided by the expectations and authority of masculine and feminine figures. In turn the “house” becomes a vehicle for the anxieties of the inhabitants—both experienced and inflicted—regarding gender, sexuality, isolation, and abuse. Exploration of the visual and …

Legends Of Light: Crafting Middle Grade Fantasy In The Tradition Of Catholic Philosophy And Medieval Visual Culture, Bernadette Lamb

MFA in Illustration & Visual Culture

This essay promotes the writing and illustrating of middle grade literature that mirrors the wonder-inducing experiences of leafing through an illuminated manuscript and stepping into a Gothic cathedral. An examination of Catholic medieval visual culture moves into a discussion on its underlying philosophy and theology, which are profoundly centered on relational healing and the dignity of the human person. Christian writers including St. Pope John Paul II, C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Josef Pieper, Madeline L’Engle, Dr. Bob Schuchts, Makoto Fujimura, and Andrew Peterson inform an exploration of mercy, forgiveness, and love as self-gift in the context of illustration and storytelling …

Satori 2023, Madeline Schonitzer, Izabella Setla, Briana Strohbehn, Emily Venné, Madison Grove, Keaton Riebel, Catherine Fruzyna, Esther Stoy, Willow Swinbank, Arin Hendrickson, Brianna Strohbehn, Page Sutton, Augusta Drenckhahn, Patricia Corbera, Madi Bonebright, Savannah Egger, Danica Kilibarda, Tyler Janssen, Lily Gruenhagen, Beth L. Halleck, Daniel Schulz, Emma Rabehl

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 2023 editors are Gabriel Hathaway, Van Herman, Madeline Schonitzer, Brianna Strohbehn, Page Sutton, Willow Swinbank, and Emily Venné. The Satori 2023 faculty advisor is Dr. Jim Armstrong, Professor of English.

Visual Development For Wellspring, Jane Frances Anderson

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The primary focus of this thesis is the study of visual development for worldbuilding, starting with creative writing and documentation and translating the written content into visual concepts in both 2D and 3D. This project includes an original narrative, setting, and characters and explores aspects of the visual development pipeline. The content below contains work in visual research, 2D character design, 3D character sculpting, 3D printing and assembly, hard-surface modeling, matte-painting, illustration, compositing, and heavy creative writing.

The Siren Of San Francisco, Emily Gage

Whittier Scholars Program

The Siren of San Francisco is a story I have been interested in telling for the longest time focusing on the coming of age of the main character, Mia, and how she deals with change through gaining the power of shapeshifting. A lot of the graphic novel explores the relationships between Mia, her mom, and her close friends and how her relationships with them change during this transitional period.

The driving force behind this story was my enduring interest in relationships, identity, feminism, and how people can shape the people around them, including themselves. I approached this particular story from …

Celebrations 2023, University Of Mississippi Writing Project, University Of Mississippi. Office Of Pre-College Programs

Celebrations: A Literary Magazine

No abstract provided.

Saga Vol.86 / 2022-23, Carly Davis, Blake Traylor

SAGA Art & Literary Magazine

No abstract provided.

The Lantern, 2022-2023, Kate Isabel Foley, Jenna Lozzi, Emily Gurganus, Elliot Cetinski, Juliana Valerio, Morgan Grabowski, Laura Bradley, Elliott Hannam, Catherine Stump, Tyler Ways, Alessandra Armour, Emily Bradigan, Erin Corcoran, Leo Cox, Olivia Cross, Connor Donovan, Tatiana Kent, Andrew Kmett, Olivia Negro, Miles D. Noecker, Leo Quinn, Emilia Reed, Ryan Savage, Ze'ev Shaheen, Amy Smith, Vanessa Worley, Aurora Mckee, Evan Chartock, Matilda Dumaine, Sharon Gearhart, Yemu Huang, Sophie K. Louis, Mairead Mcdermott, Jordan Ulsh, Mattie Young, Emilio De Sousa, Sarah Fales, Owen Fazzini, Georgia Gardner, Christopher Gerrow, Jonny Gherman, Keegan Mcgowan, David Mccauley, Madeline O'Connor, Hannah Conley

The Lantern Literary Magazines, 1933 to Present

The Genie and the Scotsman • Taxi Driver Savior Complex • Midnight Waltz • Eulogy of Caution • Don't cry over spilled milk!! • I am the spider • The Lamb • The Witch and the Shepherd • Nostalgia • In the Summer I Want Light • I Am (Not) • Thanatophobia • We're not children anymore • Hamlet's Fool • Lemon • the last two people in the world • Amongst Chaos (what captivated me) • How About Now, Billy Joel • Bug Trap • Spring, Musser Hall, Room 219 • Time's Denial • A Song of History • …

The Messenger 2023

The Messenger

No abstract provided.

Dissertation Chapters Underway: 10,000 Shards, Or Opening And Activating Depth: Handicraft, Value, And The Work Of Art (Shards 00000-00001), Christopher Southward, Christopher Southward

Comparative Literature Faculty and Student Scholarship

Dissertation Chapters Underway: 10,000 Shards, Or Opening and Activating Depth: Handicraft, Value, and the Work of Art (Shards 00000-00001), Christopher Southward

Zephyrus, Western Kentucky University

Student Creative Writing

The fine arts magazine of Western Kentucky University at Bowling Green.

Inscape 2023, Morehead State University

Inscape: Art & Literary Magazine Archive

The 2023 edition of the Inscape: Literary and Art Magazine.

Soap Of Grass, Elton Tanaka

Landshark Literary Review

No abstract provided.

Selfish Dandelions, Elton Tanaka

Landshark Literary Review

No abstract provided.

John Green Doesn't Make Me Sick Anymore, Benjamin Tabor Jr.

Landshark Literary Review

No abstract provided.

Vomit On The Beach, Elton Tanaka

Landshark Literary Review

No abstract provided.

Transubstantiation, Benjamin Tabor Jr.

Landshark Literary Review

No abstract provided.

Contributors

Landshark Literary Review

No abstract provided.

Commonthought (2022), 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.

A Perfect Escape: Fantasy, Place And Narrative In Adolescence, Cydney Cherepak

MFA in Illustration & Visual Culture

This essay explores the realms of special places, the literary genre of fantasy, narrative, and comics. These topics are traversed alongside subjects of adolescence and the creation of stories for middle-grade readers. Framed with personal stories, as well as peaks into my process, I investigate these subjects through the lens of my own life and work, specifically my thesis project, a comic for middle-grade readers titled Beyond the Castle Walls. Beginning with adolescence in association with special places, I consider the work of developmental psychologists David Sobel and Edith Cobb as they pin-point the role of secret forts, nature, …

Meet Me In The Middle Ages: Engaging With Fantasy, Reality, And Collaborative World-Building, Amanda Greene

MFA in Illustration & Visual Culture

This critical essay accompanies and describes my thesis project, Medievalia Miscellany, a magazine for middle-grade readers which explores the world of medieval fantasy through art, comics, stories, and activities. Throughout the essay, I use my own term “archaeological upcycling” to discuss and explore a variety of relationships between ideas of parts and a whole. I then use it to characterize the way stories are created out of many different parts and how these parts help a reader to relate to both the world of the story and the world in which they live. I describe the genre of medieval fantasy …

Twisting Tales: A Guide To Fairytale Adaptation, Tori Forster

MFA in Illustration & Visual Culture

“Twisting Tales” is a guidebook examining fairytales and the realm of fairytale adaptation. To begin with, I define fairytales by expanding on Tolkien’s essay “On Fairy Stories”. By defining fairytales as abstracted tales set in the realm of Faerie, adaptations of fairytales become an avenue in which to explore world building and narrative, which fairytales naturally lend themselves to. The guidebook also explores more troubling tropes and trends in the fairytale, particularly those regarding women. Marcia K. Lieberman’s essay “Someday My Prince Will Come”critiques heroines in fairytales and serves as a dialogue for the role of the female protagonist in …

Sandstorm Spring 2022, Leslie Malland

Sandstorm: A Journal of Arts and Letters

Full Manuscript

A Letter About Philadelphia, Gracie Morrison

Diamond Line Undergraduate Literary Magazine

Gracie is an undergraduate student majoring in Environmental Soil and Water Science in the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food, and Life Sciences. She writes in her free time and is taking a creative writing course for fun. She wants to improve her writing so she can write plays and perform them in a puppet theatre using sock puppets. She also wants to write Christmas movies but has only written one so far. For now, she is planning to graduate after she completes her Honors thesis project regarding economic analysis of organic and conventional tomato weed management strategies.

Aspects Of Amelie, Allison Flory

Diamond Line Undergraduate Literary Magazine

Allison Flory (she/her) is a senior creative writing undergrad at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, where she resides with her partner and their two dogs. Her work “Ecology of Succession” has been featured in Issue #3 of The Diamond Line, where she has also worked as an editor. She also once wrote a 200 page novel about Clifford the Big Red Dog on loose leaf notebook paper, but she was 9 and is pretty sure this was copyright infringement.

Two People Sitting On The Edge Of The Universe Sharing A Sandwich, Bia Edwards

Diamond Line Undergraduate Literary Magazine

Bia is a senior creative writing major. She enjoys complicated and expensive iced lattes and taking her dog to the dog park. She loves reading and writing fiction as well as poetry and hopes to find a job involving both upon graduation.

The Girl With The Colorful Aura, Heather Jenkins

Diamond Line Undergraduate Literary Magazine

Heather Jenkins is studying psychology at the University of Arkansas. She plans on being an art therapist, combining her passion for art with the joy of helping others.

The Voyeur, Marie Gray

Diamond Line Undergraduate Literary Magazine

Marie Gray is a writer and poet studying English with a concentration in creative writing at the University of Arkansas, where she is about to complete a short fiction honors thesis. When she’s not reading or writing, she spends her time watching foreign films and playing ultimate frisbee.

An Unbothered Cat, David Moneymaker

Diamond Line Undergraduate Literary Magazine

David Moneymaker is a sophomore and bassist in a local rock n roll band. Minimalism is a primary inspiration for his creative endeavors.