Fiction Commons^™

Sticky Memories, Kat Townsend

Arrow Rock

No abstract provided.

Homecoming, Abigail Manis

Arrow Rock

No abstract provided.

Mule: Fifteen Autobiographical Tales, Nic Green

Creative Nonfiction MFA Theses

Abstract:

Mule: Fifteen Autobiographical Tales contains stories which are true except when they are not. Were this to be marketed by a publishing firm, it would be cataloged (for legal and expedient purposes) as fiction, like Kurt Vonnegut's highly autobiographical Timequake. I, also like Vonnegut, would protest that designation in the book’s introduction. Vonnegut called Timequake a “stew,” and I rather like that classification for Mule, which, like its author, is Southern. Mule, then, must be a bubbling gumbo built of truths, either of the strict or the spiritual variety. As the book's author, I trust readers …

Ghost, Julia Storch

Chamisa: A Journal of Literary, Performance, and Visual Arts of New Mexico and the Greater Southwest

A short reflection from the perspective of a ghost town.

Gato Negro, Tecolote Floreado, Rosalee Montoya

Chamisa: A Journal of Literary, Performance, and Visual Arts of New Mexico and the Greater Southwest

–Era una época insólita, una época de inseguridad y una época de inquietud. Así comenzó un cuento que me contó mi abuela, Refugio, una mañana cuando era pequeña. Me dijo que, en el año 1929, comenzaron a pasar algunos incidentes extraños en Nuevo Méjico alrededor de los pueblitos de Pastura, la Pintada y hasta en partes tan lejos como en Los Montoya. Para los habitantes del llano del medio, estos eventos no tenían buena explicación según decían los que vivían allí. Siempre había permaneció la tranquilidad, paz y amistad en todo el llano. Al principio, nadie puso mucha atención cuando …

To The Studio, In The Studio, Home, Miquel R. Veldkamp

Theses and Dissertations

A curated series of poems and mini essays that reflect on personal life, politics, art history, folklore, science, identity and race. It addresses the questions that inform my work, and echoes its ethos of play, exploration, curiosity, vulnerability.

Let's Sing For Your Granma, Shelli L. Rottschafer Phd

Chamisa: A Journal of Literary, Performance, and Visual Arts of New Mexico and the Greater Southwest

"Let's Sing For Your Granma" is a short story based in Gallup, NM. It concerns a family living on the Navajo Reservation and how they deal with the matriarch's diagnosis of COVID.

Forgotten Things: A Historian's Tale, Mary Jackson

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Projects

Forgotten Things: A Historian’s Tale is a story of a post-human world where magic and creatures of lore have taken sovereignty over the land, following the adventures of Aster, a small flower elf whose job is to travel and document the residual traces of humanity. Every crumbling building, decaying record, and seemingly useless bauble of humanity tells a story, one that Aster is trying to find the conclusion to. One day, rumors start to circulate. Whispers that there might still be humans hidden away somewhere. Aster is thrilled about this, hoping that she might be able to talk with a …

Love Bug Bite, Macklin Luke

Diamond Line Undergraduate Literary Magazine

Macklin is a sophomore gearing towards an interdisciplinary degree, with focus in Chinese, film, and creative writing. She enjoys reading and writing poetry, and her favorite poet is Charles Bukowski. In her free time, she likes to practice writing, pet her cat, Chichi, and watch too many animated movies.

Letter From The Editors, Diamond Line Editors

Diamond Line Undergraduate Literary Magazine

No abstract provided.

Diamond Line - Spring 2021, Diamond Line Editors

Diamond Line Undergraduate Literary Magazine

No abstract provided.

To Be Haunted: A Collection Of Short Stories, Kallye Smith

Honors Theses

This thesis is a work of collected pieces of fiction that seek to explore what it means to be haunted. By exploring the concept of ghosts, the pieces in this collection attempt to take a fresh approach to the traditional paranormal story.

Satori 2021, Caitlyn Salinas, Jacelyn Schley, Megan Haldorson, Carly Weber, Megan Martin, Amanda Gade, Shannon Laurance, Miranda Templeton, Ryanne Mikunda, Jay Lee, Emily Venné, Cheyenne Halberg, David Som, Xandra Okori

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 2021 editors are Andrew Sitter, Cheyenne Halberg, Kaela Appicelli, Meghan Haldorson, and Xandra Okori. The Satori 2021 faculty advisor is Dr. Delta Eddy, Professor of English.

Remaking Divinity In Aldous Huxley’S Brave New World 2021, Sebastian Vignone

Master's Theses

Humanity is an experience. Shaped through both individual and collective encounters, we understand the self and the world around us as an amalgamation of interactions over the course of our lives. Arguably, one of the most common experiential archetypes is religion, and more specifically the relationship one has with a divine being as it has been framed by a religious institution. While the United States does not have an official religion, there is a host of people who refer to the U.S. as a “Christian nation,” and it is therefore irresponsible to elide the panoply of inequities that run through …

Castle Building: Contemporary Poetry And Flash Fiction From Appalachia, Sharolyn Shae Johnson

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Appalachian writing brings a voice to the region that is often obstructed or excluded by popular culture throughout the United States. Crowded with stereotypes, many stories of Appalachian culture are misconstrued or never heard at all. This makes the work of modern Appalachian writers especially significant. Perhaps one of the best ways to reach a broader audience of people in this fast-paced digital time is through shorter writings, and in this thesis I will be presenting my process of writing modern flash fiction and poetry and of sharing the truths of working class, Appalachian people.

The Dreams Of Metanoia: The Advent Foreigner: A Creative Thesis Based On A True Narrative Of The Forgotten American War Of Racist Imperialism, Zackary Keith

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This creative project’s ambition is to craft an original novel called The Dreams of Metanoia: The Advent Foreigner. The Dreams of Metanoia is initially influenced by The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, a true narrative by Rebecca Skloot. Henrietta and her family were subjected to Jim Crow scientific racism. Henrietta, a black woman with cervical cancer, had her cells removed and cultivated by John Hopkins doctors without any consent. The doctors discovered that Henrietta’s cells continued to divide relentlessly outside her body. They then sold them to other researchers without their knowledge. However, the gap in literature occurs within a …

Where Light Greets Night: A Modern Retelling Of "The Sea-Hare", Kelsie Peterson

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Set in the Pacific Northwest, this contemporary retelling of the Brothers Grimm’s traditional tale sees a tower as a lighthouse, a princess as a keeper, and suitors as candidates for her replacement. The critical introduction of this thesis discusses the idea of “telephoning the narrative” and establishes the importance of modern fairy retellings. With an in-depth examination of binaries within the traditional tale and how they are handled within the retelling, the introduction sets the stage for the way “Where Light Greets Night” works to blur such black and white ideas. This tale also seeks to question judgment and bias …

The Bannerlight Sanctuary, Sydney Anderson

Honors Projects

This is a fantasy novel about four heroes who are tasked with saving a city from a deadly threat just outside its walls. It's set in the Mesoamerican inspired land of Atrea and is led by a full cast of LGBT+ characters.

A Collection Of Misfits, Kayla Gates

Master's Theses

The following creative writing thesis, A Collection of Misfits, includes a critically informed introduction which places my works of fiction within the larger conversation of contemporary fiction. These short stories explore numerous ways in which characters fail to connect to the world around them. Characters falter with relationships, religion, and fitting in. The collection also explores how the use of humor works to bridge the fissure that can form around a character who fails to connect–creating a personal connection between reader and character. Taken in sum, these stories indicate that we, as humans, have a binding thread that intertwines …

The Portal Of Orion, Lauren Elizabeth Owens

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Portal of Orionis a science fiction novel that centers on Rigel Barnard, a novice inventor who has been in self-isolation for years after a failed college presentation caused his friend and work partner, Jericho Slate, to be transported into another universe. Rigel is currently trying to bring his friend back by recreating the device that went awry and sent Jericho into an unknown dimension. Along the way, Rigel teams up with Archer, a mysterious stranger he finds floating in space, and Lyra, a teenage girl with an interest in magical studies.They aim to help him as much as …

Word Into Idea: A Creative Writing Exercise, Stephen Fried

Open Educational Resources

This activity begins from an aleatory technique that creates a list of 104 associatively generated words to provide each participant with a field from which they improvise, first a free-form poem using twenty of the words and then an experimental prose piece that uses all 104 words. The poem is written as a workshop activity and optionally shared in a “poetry slam” segment, following which the prose piece is done as a home assignment. The activity takes 90-120 minutes. A version for synchronous online application is in development.

Þorn: A Novel Excerpt Exploring Giantesses, Their Relation To Women's Bodily Expectations, And Patriarchal Control In The Literature Of Early Modern Britain And Contemporary America., Brady P Alexander

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

This thesis will analyze examples of women of size in the literature of the British Isles throughout history, focusing predominantly upon the Early Modern Period, and will create a fiction piece in response to such attitudes. I argue that one of the most clear ways to dissect contemporary cultural attitudes about powerful women and women who occupy more space than men is to examine giantesses and other examples of women of size within this period of literature. From this, a novel excerpt will be written from the perspective of a time-traveling woman of size who engages with these texts and …

Sweat, Cigs And A Ball Of Noise, Tyler Jacob Hughes

Graduate Thesis Collection

Corduroy Jones is contacted by a local promoter to reunite his band Streetwise Preacher. Over a three week span, Corduroy and his bandmates Tony and Johnny go through a series of events leading up to their Halloween Night reunion show.

Sometimes I Think I’M Going Crazy, Connor Kesslering

Graduate Thesis Collection

"Sometimes I Think I’m Going Crazy" is a short story collection containing three stories of more or less equal length. Each of three main characters face conflict that tests their resolve and ultimately forces them to reevaluate who they are as human beings. Stress helps people to grow and evolve and the protagonists in these stories are forced to face their greatest fears head on and (with varying degrees of success) come out the other end better for it. But not before going a little crazy in the process.

Todd In Eternity, E. J. Pettinger

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

This work represents the first significant portion of a novel in progress. It is a first-person narration following a teenage boy’s involvement with a modern-day prophet. The story examines the nature of visionary belief systems and the ways in which they can degrade a person’s connection to the everyday world. The bulk of the narrative is concerned with the protagonist’s struggle to escape the dark dream of the prophet and reconnect to the plain givenness of the world. The narrative explores the religious use of horror and glory as visionary elements, and the role of humor and affection in the …

The Starsplitters, Aurora Stone Mehlman

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

A mysterious letter summons Helen Starbird, and her granddaughter, Laramie, to a dying mill town on the shores of Lake Umbagog. Together, the two women—who leave vastly different lives mired in similarly hopeless ruts—return to the Northwoods. A New Hampshire fire tower where Helen posted during WWII, and the sight of a forbidden romance and life-altering tragedy, pivots from secret to obsession, and getting there progresses from dream to necessity. On the way, they confront private traumas, and volatile forces of prejudice, oppression, and environmental despoliation that have smoldered for centuries. Will they uncover festering family wounds, end the legacy …

Gift For Burning, Di Bei

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Growing up amid one-child policy in Beijing, Zhi-Nan is pursuing her PhD in Houston while living at a birth tourism house. She receives a text from her adopted cousin who has joined a monastery in Idaho. Convinced that her cousin is in a cult, Zhi-Nan starts a road trip with a white colleague to rescue her cousin from God.

Miracle, Gabrielle Sullivan

Honors College Theses

This original, speculative fiction novella follows Miracle Beckett, a young woman raised on a dying, climate-change ravaged Earth in an isolated religious cult. While she eventually escapes, she finds herself trapped in another deathtrap, abandoned by her crewmates on a spaceship that is rapidly running out of air. Struggling to reconcile her past with her present and her imminent death, Mira cannot avoid remembering everything she has tried to leave behind.

Engaging with sexual identity, religious trauma, and the difficulty found in reconciling the complexities of a left-behind existence, Miracle highlights the power of memory, friendship, and knowledge in guiding …

Fragmented Worlds, Fractured Families - Narrative Levels In Graphic Memoir, Henry Wilson Essman

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

This collection of creative writing explores the dynamics of parent-child relationships, as well as the way time can cause these roles to shift and reverse, bringing into question who has the right to tell another’s story. The individual pieces are both in the mediums of prose and graphic narrative, often focused on themes of family and trying to reconcile fractured perspectives. These works are introduced through an essay demonstrating how graphic narratives are uniquely situated to show narrative levels, and how narrative levels are key to showing the shifts in parent-child relationships and the way perspectives can differ while still …

The Gender Epidemic: Intersecting Disease, Gender, And Sexuality In A Graphic Novel, Autumn Cejer

All NMU Master's Theses

For my thesis, I wrote a graphic novel set in a world where certain people possess powers that society tries to suppress by viewing them as a disease. The story focuses on two super-powered individuals on opposite sides of the law who handle this oppression very differently. Although these characters would easily be able to overpower the non-powered people in charge, they are too afraid to do so. Internalized guilt from possessing abilities they did not ask for adds an additional layer of conflict, just as women and disabled persons are constantly made to feel like they should apologize for …