Interpersonal relations

Overview "A Gospel in Thirds is a novel-length work of literary fiction set in a fictional southern Ohio town called Feeder in 2013. The story unfolds in three parts, each with a different lead character. Gloria Sánchez, a transplant to the town, is living with untreated cancer because the grandmother who raised her believes receiving medical treatment equates to lack of faith in God. Lula Brewer returns to Feeder after a romantic relationship with a fellow aspiring nun compromises her plan to enter...

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"'Summer Reverie' is about a young man's frustrating experience trying to reestablish a relationship with his first love. When he is forced to confront a harsh reality far short of his idealistic expectations, Simon's reason starts to fall apart." -- Abstract

Overview "'An Unmothered Daughter' is a short memoir about my mother, who I've been estranged from since I was 16. In the opening, I show how she suffered from drug and alcohol addiction since I was a kid, where she takes to her favorite bar. I try to define the characteristics of being a mom and a mother in chapter 2 by comparing the different woman my older brothers know. Sections 4,7 and 8 focus more on my life without her, while chapters 5,6 and 10 unpack my maternal family's dynamics. I...

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"This thesis project is a 40-page poetry manuscript written largely in free verse. The poems focus on relationships in all forms—family, friends, lovers—, gender issues, evangelical faith reckoning, and the natural world. Throughout the collection the speaker grapples with finding and exercising their voice." -- Abstract

Overview "'Care is an Incision' explores self-care and self-preservation in the event of a severing—what does it mean when a painful act, like letting someone go or undergoing surgery, are necessary for wellness and safety? In 2019, I was diagnosed with cancer and was left behind by someone I cared for very dearly. This manuscript experiments with form to push the boundaries of memory; I rely on the ghazal's repetition to mirror the obsessiveness of anxiety and the depression of sitting in what is...

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"'Checking Behavior' is a nonfiction collection of essays written by MFA student Anna Currell. The work is a collection of humorous essays about the writer's experience in therapy and relationship she forms with her therapist. After a breakup, the writer has trouble sleeping and seeks therapy to find out that she has something much bigger to learn about herself." -- Abstract

Overview "Deadweight Slump is a collection of short stories by Kā'ai Sutton Fernandez that explores the motif of isolation, specifically the ways that physical, emotional, and social isolation manifests through relationships particular to those in a guardianship. Part of the human experience is stepping up to help, assist, guide, or protect others, as well as being in need of guidance or protection. At the heart of each story in this collection is the relationship between those who need help and...

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"This thesis delves into the multifaceted concept of love by examining the various relationships the narrator has experienced throughout her life, while concurrently exploring the impact of those relationships on her body image. Drawing on personal narratives and reflections, this story divided into chapters aims to shed light on the intricate connection between love, selfperception, and body image." -- Abstract

Overview "Morel Season is a collection of gritty short stories by Coltt Winter Lepley that depict struggles new and old based around characters all subtly connected to the fictional area of Laurel County existing in the Appalachia region of the United States. Stories in this collection focus around the relationships and hard times of characters who are trying to navigate their way through the ash pile of the mythical American Dream, or at least what's offered to them from a region often overlooked,...

Overview "Notes of Happiness' is the workings of a novel. Within the novel, the year is 2022, and our young seventeen-year-old protagonist named August is looking back at her life in 2020 when coronavirus changed the world and herself entirely. Forced to move from Florida with her recently divorced mother Rachel to Massachusetts, August and Alice, August's younger sister, find themselves in an emotionally and physically abusive home. Tensions rise further while stuck at home, and August is determined...

Overview "'Only as Much as We Remember' is a collection of short stories about love and loss. Each one deals with mourning in a different form, whether it be for the passing of a loved one, the loss of a special relationship, or an illusion surrendered. Stories range from the mundane to the magical, from brief snapshots to longer, more complex narratives. Some are set in our current time period, others decades in the past; in one, an elderly woman travels back through time to relive a crucial passage...

Overview "Paths of Exploration is an immersive activity designed for the Salzburg Academy on Media & Global Change that provides students the opportunity to share their lived experiences with the program topic of digital media and engage with the diverse perspectives and knowledge present in their cohort. The activity involves personal reflection, conversation and collaboration, and it pursues the following broad objectives: to activate relationship-building among participants through...

Overview "Red Glare is set in Georgia in 1939. Three protagonists: Clementine Barnes, a Black, female physician recently graduated from medical school; Calvin Taylor, a white, baseball player who has moved from Pennsylvania for his first professional job in the minor leagues; and Jackson Bennet, a white sports reporter for the local newspaper. Due to racial discrimination, Clementine is forced to practice medicine in the back of the cafe run by her mother, who is also a traditional healer....

Overview "Resaturation explores the myriad of ways I confined and shrunk myself in various relationships throughout my life. In fourteen essays, I examine the conditioning of my self-censorship in my relationships with family, friends, roommates, lovers, and my own writing. Eventually, I'm able to understand the consequences of shrinking away parts of myself to accommodate others. Through this examination comes the freedom to celebrate and deliberate on my sexuality, queerness, polyamory, kinks,...

Overview "I found my way to my thesis topic by starting with a subject that constantly occupies space in my thoughts: impact. I was born with something I call "detrimental empathy." It is a condition in which I have so much empathy for the people and things around me that it impacts my ability to interact with the world. For example, I cannot read or watch the news because if I hear or see something sad, I will cry and obsess over it for days. When I'm driving, I brake for animals in the street no...

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"Tell Me About Yourself and Other Stories is a short story collection examining the construction of identity through relationships and choices. Spanning genre and form, these stories explore how pieces of the self are borrowed from experience and how people react to the weights of memory and outside perception. The collection is a blend of traditional short stories and flash fiction, of realism and hyperrealism, digging into both the discomfort and solace of human connection." -- Abstract

Overview "The Throats of Birds traverses adolescence, adulthood, relationships, and various cities to unpack how a life can be lived across borders, beyond both technical and emotional lines of demarcation. The collection centers a hybrid cultural experience that spans throughout the book, where the speaker is traveling on a journey that unfolds in three sections. In the first, the speaker charts her own intimate cartography of childhood and a coming-of-age narrative. In the second, the speaker...

Overview "Turn the Siren On is a collection of linked short stories that explores life in a small town and how living in such a place informs the relationships and connections one has with themselves as well as those around them. Each story examines some form of loss and how that changes and shapes the characters. Some of the stories attempt to show the ways in which loss can unravel a person and ripple through generations while others demonstrate how losing someone or something can open our eyes to...

Overview "It is hard for a lonely person to find a soul-touching relationship with another in this era of social media explosion and smartphone obsession, especially for a retro high school boy in China, who is experiencing the rebellious phase of his youth. He is alienated by other people and he is unwilling to open his mind to others. One day, when he captures an unforgettable smile on a young girl's face through his 35mm film camera, he decides to pick up the first cellphone in his life to chase...