English Language and Literature Commons^™

A Kaleidoscope Of Sentiments, Emily Hartman

English Senior Capstone

This is a Creative Writing portfolio with many different genres and themes.

Unmasked And Unprotected: An Autistic Poet's Journey Of Imperfect Confession, Cynthia Short

Theses and Dissertations

Cynthia Short’s thesis analyzes the consumption and contortion of neurodivergent experience across the clinical, personal, and artistic stages. Combining intersectional memoir with clinical research, traditional poetics, and spoken word experience, she weaves a first-person narrative of consumption and redefinition by systems that did not understand her. Yet, she argues that imperfect confession -done without self-knowledge, resources, or proper self-worth to resist consumption – still has its place. Her collection of twenty-nine self-authored poems serves as a testament to the growth her imperfect confession allowed, outlining her struggles with identity, clinical experimentation and economic survival in a world not meant for …

2026 Forces

Forces

Full issue of Forces, published March 2026.

Borrowed Mantles: Neoclassicism, Theology, And The Construction Of Authority In Phillis Wheatley-Peters, Zoe N. Lament

Honors Theses

This thesis examines how Phillis Wheatley-Peters established literary and intellectual authority within an eighteenth-century world that questioned both her authorship and her intellectual capability as an enslaved Black woman. Rather than focusing on the external validation provided by the prefatory materials to Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral (1773), this study argues that Wheatley-Peters constructs authority through the poetry itself. Specifically, it explores how her use of neoclassical poetic conventions alongside Christian theological language functions to establish credibility and strengthen her moral and intellectual arguments.

Through close readings of poems including "On Being Brought from Africa to America" and …

Pecan Grove Review Volume 23, St. Mary's University

Pecan Grove Review

Creative writings by students, faculty, and staff of the St. Mary's University community.

Lights And Shadows - 2026, University Of North Alabama

Lights and Shadows

Art and Literature Magazine

After All, Megan Russell

The Utah English Journal

After all the voices of the day have quieted down,

I think.

After all the pencils have been lost, some sharpened

to nubs, others scattered through the hall,

I wonder.

After all the paper has been crumpled and used up,

I ponder.

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 …

A Self-Reflective Destruction Of Humankind: A Christian Eco-Theological Reading Of W. B. Yeats’S “Second Coming”, Kehan Yang

Compass: An Undergraduate Journal of American Political Ideas

This essay proposes an innovative reading of W. B. Yeats’s poem “The Second Coming” through a lens of Christian Eco-theology as explained by Fr. Seán McDonagh in Pluriverse: A Post-Development Dictionary. It demonstrates how literature may efficiently bring topics of environmental protection, anti-war ideology, and theological allusion into integrity.

Neurodivergent Kintsugi, Jenée Stanfield

Ought: The Journal of Autistic Culture

Jenée Stanfield is a late-realized, neuroqueer woman living in the Pacific Northwest with her spouse and her dog. She received her MFA in Creative Writing from Pacific Lutheran University and is currently working towards a MS in Restorative Practices at the International Institute for Restorative Practices.

She has presented professional development workshops and conference sessions on topics related to neurodivergent community and neurodivergent-affirming restorative practices in higher education. She co-founded a neurodivergent staff and faculty community at the college where she works as an advisor.

Grendel's Mother Talks Back: Contemporary Women's Mythopoeic Revisions, Anna Smol

Mythopoeic Society Seminar Proceedings

"Grendel's Mother Talks Back: Contemporary Women's Mythopoeic Revisions" examines how twenty-first-century feminist adaptations and translations examine the significance and point of view of Grendel's Mother, a character from the Old English poem Beowulf. In contrast to past views of Beowulf, especially in J.R.R. Tolkien's influential essay on the poem, these women writers and scholars argue for the central role of Grendel's Mother and give voice to her story. The paper discusses the main features of these adaptations, covering topics of narrative voice, borderlands, violence, and motherhood, and generally questions the concept of monstrosity as applied to Grendel's Mother. The paper …

Ode To The Infomercial, Edward Wade

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

'Ode to the Infomercial' is a poetry collection in five sections which explores themes of contemporary American life, parenthood, and the media landscape. While primarily written in a narrative voice, the poetic approach is as diverse as the content. Interwoven throughout the collection is religious imagery and political posturing accompanied by healthy doses of self-criticism and humor.

Literary Networks Everywhere: An Analysis Of Literary Connections Across Time And Culture, Rachel Riffel

Journal of the Symposium of University Research and Creative Expression

Project Mentor(s): Katharine Whitcomb

This paper explores the concept of literary discourse as a networked form, using Caroline Levine’s theory of “networks” as expansive systems of meaning. Through the poetry of several postmodern poets and their texts such as Terrance Hayes’ American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin, Anne Carson’s The Beauty of the Husband, and Maggie Nelson’s Bluets, this essay analyzes how contemporary poets use intertextuality, historical references, and classical forms not as rigid structures but as connective nodes in a broader literary web. These texts illustrate how poetry continues to participate in an evolving cultural and literary …

The Dream In Which I Am A Widow, Paulette Bane

Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Endings Of Half-Lines In The Middle English Alliterative Joseph Of Arimathea, Ian Cornelius

English: Faculty Publications and Other Works

The Middle English alliterative poem Joseph of Arimathea survives in a single copy, lacking verse lineation and the regular alliteration expected of this form. Several explanations have been advanced, but the poem has been treated with reserve: scholars and critics have been reluctant, perhaps, to attend closely to a text that has seemed unfinished, careless, or corrupt. The present study counters these impressions with a narrow metrical test. Joseph agrees very well with one of the ‘finer rules’ described in recent scholarship on alliterative metrics, namely the requirement that lines end with a trochaic constituent. Regular line endings support the …

Review: Pearl Verses The World, Rachel Schwedt

Ages 7-9

Caring, Coping, Family love, Individuality

Review: Moo, Rachel Schwedt

Ages 7-9

Cooperation, Coping, Courage, Ingenuity, Neighborliness, Perseverance, Respect, Responsibility

Review: We Are America, Rachel Schwedt, Janice Delong

Ages 10-12

Citizenship, Courage, Endurance, Ethnic pride, Hope, Inspiration, Leadership, Perseverance, Pride, Resolve, Sacrifice, Self-respect, Survival, Work ethic

Review: Swimming Upstream, Janice Delong, Rachel Schwedt

Ages 10-12

Caring, Coping, Diversity, Encouragement, Endurance, Friendship, Humor, Independence, Kindness, Perseverance, Resilience, Responsibility, Self-respect, Survival, Wisdom

Review: Rimshots: Basketball Pix, Rolls, And Rhythms, Janice Delong, Rachel Schwedt

Ages 10-12

Confidence, Competition, Cooperation, Craftsmanship, Determination, Discipline, Diversity, Encouragement, Endurance, Enthusiasm, Friendship, Hope, Humility, Humor, Initiative, Passion, Patience, Persistence, Pride, Resilience, Self-respect, Sharing, Work ethic

Review: Out Of The Dust, Rachel Schwedt, Janice Delong

Ages 10-12

Caring, Coping, Courage, Determination, Dignity, Endurance, Family love, Forgiveness, Hope, Persistence, Resilience, Resolve, Responsibility, Steadfastness, Strength, Survival, Trustworthiness, Work ethic

Review: My America: A Poetry Atlas Of The United States, Rachel Schwedt, Janice Delong

Ages 10-12

Appreciation of nature, Citizenship, Community, Diversity, Ethnic pride, Knowledge, Patriotism, Wonder

Review: Hand In Hand: An American History Through Poetry, Janice Delong, Rachel Schwedt

Ages 10-12

Ambition, Boldness, Citizenship, Coping, Courage, Dedication, Determination, Diversity, Endurance, Faith, Fearlessness, Hope, Independence, Initiative, Knowledge, Leadership, Patriotism, Persistence, Pride, Resolve, Sacrifice, Strength, Survival, Wonder, Work ethic

2025 Persimmon Creek - Full Journal, Beth Keefauver, Wayne C. Robbins

Persimmon Creek

Persimmon Creek runs through the Susan B. Jacobs Arboretum, an oasis of nature in the center of our dynamic and thriving campus community at the University of South Carolina Upstate. My colleague Wayne Robbins and I were recently tasked with bringing back the student-edited literary journal formerly known as Writer’s Inc. Dr. Marilyn Knight stood at the helm of Writer’s Inc. for nearly twenty years, and when she retired, the journal left with her. We thought it would be an opportune time to pay homage to the legacy of Writer’s Inc. by renaming and reimagining our home department’s literary journal. …

Tsenacommacah, Wylan Blair

Persimmon Creek

This poem is about the area that was once called Tsenacommacah, the Powhatan people, and the horrors of the centuries that followed 1607.

Kabul, A Memory Bittersweet, Medina Z. Mayar

Persimmon Creek

A free verse poem.

Diary Of An Old Soul By George Macdonald, Annotated Edition, Tiffany Brooke Martin

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

Book Review of Diary of an Old Soul by George MacDonald. Annotated edition with introd. and notes by Timothy Larsen. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press Academic, 2024.

We Have Always Lived In The Castle: A Cento, Julia Ferguson, Elizabeth Mam, Rachel Mugo, Kelsey Kagan

FUSION

This poem was created as part of a multimodal project for an American Literature class using the following prompt:

As a group, you will create a 100-line Cento poem based primarily on the book you chose. Individually, you should highlight and/or copy sentences and phrases that “speak” to you, that you find beautiful or intriguing, or that capture the elements of tone, style, message, mood and theme of your book. After you have each selected your 25-50 lines, you should add them to a group authored Google Doc. Then you can sort through the lines and decide which ones you …

A Mirror Of Us, Amber J. Chrones

FUSION

This is a project of empowerment. "A Mirror of Us" embraces patriarchal liberation, while celebrating divine femininity. Inspired by “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, this multimodal project aims to shatter conformist ideologies that are all too common.

This poem was created as part of a multimodal project for an American Literature class using the following prompt:

You are responding to literature using creative techniques in two phases. In the first phase, you will compose a 2-4 page piece of creative writing that includes a theme we’ve studied in the class that has significance to you. That creative writing …

Just A Memory, Shakila Arab

FUSION

This poem is a response to “I Felt a Funeral, in My Brain” by Emily Dickinson. It was written for a World Literature class using the following prompt:

You will imitate at least five elements of an original text we read this semester. Following your imitation, you will write a paragraph describing the five elements you imitated and how your imitation exemplifies the literary movement of the piece you are imitating.