Mothers of Sparta is a collection of thirteen personal essays that examine place—knowing one’s place, and finding one’s place in the world. The narrative arc chronicles the narrator’s childhood, young adulthood, marriage and child rearing years, ultimately encompassing the difficulties of raising a child who, due to brain damage, faces an uncertain future. As the narrator grows older, place shifts from a concrete knowledge of the physical world around her, to learning her place within gendered and regional social constructs, and defining her place through roles such as wife, mother, student and writer. These essays are diverse in style. Woven throughout is a theme of violence, weighted with visceral language: the violence of accident and death, the violence that occurs in nature and in domestic spaces, and the violence that often goes unnoticed because we live in a violent world.

<p> Leo is a collection of short stories linked by the character, Leo. The stories follow Leo through different times, settings, and episodes in his life. In this collection, in the quest to understand the meaning of the self and individual, Leo attempts to learn the difference between good and bad and life and death. The stories feature odd family members, troubled relationships, and self-destructive coping mechanisms. Written in different narrative styles, the collection attempts&nbsp;to create a marriage between content and form with special attention to language. My stories hope to explore questions about cultural identity, emotional stability, and loss of innocence. </p>

<p> <i>Less Lonely: Intersections of the Unintentionally Objective </i> is an assemblage of poems from 2012 to 2016 and an accompanying methodology. The poetry reflects a willingness to explore the liminal space between observation and emotion. The vehicle for this exploration is language. Language is the conduit by which the poet is able to bring together seemingly disparate images and moments of time through an unintentional objectivity of cognition. Although the poems vary in form and overall aesthetic, they are unified by a desire to connect with the reader. The essay that precedes the poetry is a statement of poetics that utilizes a personal narrative to examine the many influences on my work.</p>

<p> <i>Young Ones</i> is a collection of short stories about young adult narrators navigating interpersonal relationships. In this collection, both males and females living in the Pacific Northwest interact with family, friends, and lovers. Through these interactions, they come to discover aspects of themselves at crucial moments in their lives. Many of these stories are less concerned with plot and more concerned with inner truths about relationships and selves. These revelations occur through epiphanies at the end of the stories, and the settings help provide subtext. It is my hope that these stories provide further depth to the young adult genre.</p>

The Junction Box, a collection of poems situated primarily in small Appalachian towns, examines the largely-anonymous and downtrodden locals residing there. This narrative follows a speaker's travels as he investigates and attempts to reconcile inheritance, place, and exile. In spite of frequent and intimate encounters with violence and poverty, The Junction Box ultimately reaches toward a sense of redemption and dignity.

<p> This thesis is a viable novel in progress, and the culmination of nearly a year of writing and many revisions throughout. It tells the tale of the dark side, of murder and mayhem and all things noir, set against a seedy Las Vegas backdrop, somewhere in time between 1987- 1997. </p><p> Our novel begins when all hell breaks lose as Kasey, a twenty-something dancer, finds herself caught up in the aftermath of the unexpected murder of a good friend and fellow dancer, and the unwieldy demands of a shady boss and club owner. Her and her friends risk everything as they try to unravel the drama, and her world gets even more complicated when her uncle, an ex-con from Indiana, shows up looking for all kinds of trouble. The drama escalates as the body count rises and Kasey and friends risk everything, trying to unravel the pieces and stay in one piece while doing it. </p><p> Enjoy!</p>

Masters of Fine Arts Creative Writing Poetry Thesis

These are poems by BJ Soloy.

<p> <i>Poetry as a Museum</i> is a two-part collection of poems that reveals different subject matter from the poet&rsquo;s view of the world. The first part deals with family and the juxtapositions of life in the United States and Vietnam. The second part is focused on the poet, her voice, and lens outside of family. Both parts cohere as a collection around the idea of a poetry museum, one that curates the various stories, memories, experiences, and interests of family and poet, in Vietnam and the United States. Moreover, the poems rely on their strangeness in image as well as structure. </p>

<p> <i>Queered</i> is a collection of short stories revolving around issues of queer identity, both contemporary and historical, that reflect the diversity of the LGBTQIA community and the relational dynamics of those associated with such labels. In their own way, these stories seek to shine a light on what is not talked about, those left behind, and the aftermath of truth. Although <i> Queered</i> takes on a myriad of topics and roles from gay parents to gay children, virgins to prostitutes, minorities to pedophiles, it is worth noting this collection functions in a limited capacity and does not presume to cover or represent all facets related to the LGBTQIA community. The language is vivid and highly characterized, written in strong consideration of the character&rsquo;s own thoughts and kept accurate to time and region. Plot is secondary to character, always. It is my sincere hope that conversations in writing become conversations in life, that exposure breeds awareness, awareness fosters change, and change engenders acceptance.</p>