Buried in Polyester is a collection of essays in three parts loosely connected around the theme of the loss of my mother. Much like JoAnn Beard's The Boys of My My Youth, the essays hold up pieces of my life for inspection and puts them down again, not always with a sense of resolution. The subtext of the piece revolves around the search to put together the pieces of what my life was before and after my mother, and the transition from girlhood to adulthood with the absence of my mother. I hope also to explore how the self splits after a traumatic death, and the desperate attempt at recreation that takes the place of genuine mourning. The final three pieces are a trilogy exploring my father's deteriorating health and my attempts to connect with him while somehow recapturing the self that I lost. / Department of English