This thesis is a collection of six short stories and a novella. These works follow sons, fathers, loners, and families as they must confront what haunts them. In "Brainbarn," a boy whose parents left him at a young age tries to rid himself of the memory of killing a horse by forcing himself on his cousin. In "Scavengers," a father guides his family of disparate parts on a hike in attempt to bring them together, but he instead comes face to face with what he actually wants his family to be like. In "Haruspices," shepherds disrupt an ancient burial practice with dire consequences. "Cenotaph" is about a son who, after his father dies, learns how to properly bury his father, and the memory of his father, through beekeeping. "Wands" is about two cousins who struggle over a lost fiddle. And "Dispatches from a Future Norwegian Futurist" follows a single survivor of a future plague whose job is to dispose of the bodies until he learns he is soon to be replaced in this position by a thing called Prometheus. The novella, entitled The Re-Enactors, follows a father and son--Brinkley and Drift--who, six months after the mother's sudden death from an antique Civil War weapon accident, find themselves riding on top of a train through South Carolina. Through the course of leaping off the train, hiking through a swamp, and confronting a violent mob in the countryside, Brinkley and Drift also confront each other concerning the mother's mysterious death and how they themselves must keep their family together.

In 1985, 66 school districts filed a suit against the Kentucky Department of Education accusing the system of inequitable spending practices. In 1990, the Supreme Court declared the entire educational program unconstitutional, resulting in the Kentucky Education Reform Act or KERA. This new reform movement brought a plethora of changes to school districts across the state including its mode of assessment. KERA introduced new avenues of measuring student progress using writing as the main vehicle to assess content and communication skills. Unfortunately, the majority of Kentucky's high schools showed little improvement in this tested area with only 34% of high schools reaching proficiency in the past twenty years of KERA's existence. In 2009, Kentucky passed into law Senate Bill 1, voiding the previous assessment but increasing the focus on on-demand writing for five grades rather than the three required by KERA. Preempting this new reform was the adoption of the Common Core Standards, which also includes a focus on writing. This consistent attention to writing assessment, and data identifying writing as a major weakness across the Commonwealth, prompted the impetus to examine four schools that achieve high scores in on-demand writing assessment. This qualitative investigation employed a case study design to research these four sites, which represented four different geographic locations in the state. Data sources included observations, interviews, document analysis, and fieldnotes to explore these schools through an interpretivist lens. The collected data were entered into qualitative research software to enable collective coding resulting in distinct categories and resulting themes. Three themes evolved in this cross-case analysis: curriculum, learning culture, and motivation. Teachers from these schools use similar classroom strategies and the learning environments reflect corresponding characteristics. Each school addressed student motivation differently, but the analogous perception of inducing intrinsic and extrinsic student engagement in writing occurred in all four schools. The implications of these results could be overwhelmingly positive as schools seek suggestions to improve writing scores. The findings from this investigation are relevant to the time and may serve as an impetus to improve writing instruction.

Please note: creative writing theses are permanently embargoed in OpenBU. No public access is forecasted for these. To request private access, please click on the locked Download file link and fill out the appropriate web form. / Short stories / 2031-01-01T00:00:00Z

It is arguable that memories are one of the most important aspects of the human mind. It is through memory that we are able to learn, to make decisions, to evolve. Michael Jacob Kahana (2012) suggests that “our memories define who we are, and our ability to learn and make new memories determines who we become” (Kahana, 2012, p.13). It has also been a topic by several literary authors in their works, such as James Joyce, Virginia Woolf and Antonio Lobo Antunes. This thesis approaches the subject of memories by researching theories and notions regarding the functions of memory and how memories are processed. It embodies the combination of research and practice, where the research into theoretical materials is used in order to develop a collection of short stories. This thesis has the main objective of approaching the practical side of creative writing with thorough background research in theories of human memory, linking all the short stories through the overarching theme of memory and the creative practice, delivering a consistent and unique approach to the field of Creative Writing. That is, these short stories are interpretations of the research through creative endeavour, and aim to explore these theories through the developed narratives. With each story, there is an accompanying critical commentary which describes the creative process and the theoretical approaches that influenced each of them, as well as the literary influences that informed the development of each story.

<p> <i>The Leaving Symphony: Musicality and Voice in the Poetry of Trauma, Addiction, and Redemption</i> represents two years of my critical and creative writing while attending the California State University, Long Beach M.F.A. in Creative Writing program. Evident in the poems of this manuscript, my major themes include trauma, addiction, and personal redemption, all through the intimate lens of my family and myself. Crucial to my writing is the evolution of those struggles, seen in the organization of the poems in this thesis. The methodological essay at the beginning of this project details my process and influences, followed by a full-length collection of poetry. My poetry is highly musical thanks to the inspiration of both my musician father and several writers, such as Sylvia Plath and Dean Young; my work also possesses a distinctive voice that took me decades to find, especially as a poet. This thesis documents that growth and eventual catharsis in writing. </p><p>

<p> <i>POISON</i> is a collection of loosely interrelated short stories chronicling one family&rsquo;s struggles with drugs, alcohol, poverty, gang affiliation, death, disease, and depravity in Los Angeles, California. Most of the stories are set in the 1990s, and channel the trends of the decade, especially those specific to LA. The chronology of the collection is scattered, the dates and details inconsistent or conflicting. POISON aims to emphasize the imperfect nature of memory, the ways in which recollection at once dictates our lives as well as dismantles it. The collection is accompanied by a fictional family tree and a nonfictional photo album containing real photographs of the semi-fictionalized characters depicted throughout the stories. While the photos may display a sense of contentment, when coupled with the collection&rsquo;s content, the reader may begin to interrogate the ways in which memory severely skews reality.</p><p>

<p> <i>The Daily Special</i> is a collection of seven short stories written during my Master of Fine Arts for Creative Writing career at California State University, Long Beach. The stories are linked thematically through a relation of food to a character&rsquo;s psyche in order to exemplify characterizations or conflicts. The element of food is either mundane or centered; however, all the stories respond with the emotion of fear that later results in an act of acceptance. The fear stems from two outcomes, not fitting in or losing something of value. The characters have to face their fears and accept their current situations in order to move forward.</p><p>

Magister Artium - MA (English) / Visklippie and other Cape Town stories is a collection of short stories, inspired by my experiences having grown up in the 1960s and 1970s in Cape Town. This is a fictional work that, however, uses memory and oral history as the main sources for the stories told. I have conceived my project in the context of South African short stories from the mid-twentieth century, a very significant part of our literary history, since it encapsulates the volatile years of Apartheid. Unlike most of the writing of this period, my stories will try to highlight individual experiences, especially female subjectivity. My fictional engagement is also narrowed down by region since I will focus more on the short stories which emerge out of and represent Cape Town. This collection will aim to reflect the diverse voices of the people who have lived in divided communities in Cape Town. The stories will cover the period from the 1960s to contemporary times. They will be stories told from the perspective of children and women, but a few will be focalised through marginal male characters. The collection will be grounded in local community experience and centre on family relationships where there is triumph over political and personal adversity. The voices that emanate from these stories are seldom represented despite the great diversity in South African literature. These voices will sometimes emanate from the perspective of individuals condemned and ostracised by the same people dispossessed by Apartheid. The stories will aim for individual perspectives, complex interior explorations, ironies and paradoxes that will reveal fleeting connections and triumphs despite adversity.

No description available.

The Blue Highway is a collection of eleven literary short stories and ten miniature that depict men in trouble, searching for a code to live by. The miniatures are repressed memories, appearing suddenly like the tips of ice bergs and act as stepping stones (tension bridges) between the larger works. The stories begin at the end with "Time Out", the story of Frank, a down and out homeless vet at the end of his rope. Then we begin the journey along "The Blue Highway" with Danny and his gang of teenage bandits, taking themselves to Disney World to see if they can recapture their lost dream. On our journey we will meet Mark, the ex-killer, an old Cuban fisherman who will not give up his honor, a young man on a way to a war who discovers a fantastic treasure, a soldier on his way home again, two MP's who nearly kill the wrong man, we will spend a night on an African savannah with wild hyenas and finally, meet a grandfather who discovers the one gift which might save his family. The same gift which might save Frank as well.