In this collection of linked stories, four characters navigate space between selves they’ve been and those to come. Alice must invent an autonomous identity after her husband dies in a bike crash. As she casts about to populate a new life, a geographer, a violinist, and a clarinetist emerge at...
Ms. Miles is Missing—the beginning of a novel—is the story of a woman who, in her early thirties comes to realize that the life she is living is not the life she wants. She yearns for her lost childhood, and tries to come to terms with her mother’s death. Martha...
The five short stories included in this thesis depict characters who struggle as they try to balance their responsibilities to each other, and their own independent desires. Whether those desires include personal freedom, another relationship, or self-protection, these characters are at least minimally aware that obtaining what they most want...
The six stories within, "Still and Silent," "Cold Comfort," "The King of Porn," "Miscuts," "In Between," and "Renovations," are part of a work in progress. They attempt to show how the characters, although they may seem to struggle for independence from the family unit, are in fact strengthening the bonds...
As I began to explore the evocative nature of language, the creation of themes and images, and the rhythm and beauty of words that I feel must accompany meaning, I discovered that I had always seen and heard and felt the world as many of my characters do; in this...
My thesis is a collection of short stories in which I explore themes like loss, identity, and memory. The collection includes both short stories and short short stories, and through in-depth exploration of character and form, the stories here attempt to fit into a tradition of writers articulating the experiences...
Her Hair is an Open Hand is a collection of free verse poems exploring unity and division through the lens of myth and place. The collection is organized into three sections. The first reflects on division: alienation between the speaker and physical landscapes, isolation within romantic relationships, and the violation...
This collection of poetry explores faith and isolation while questioning the ability of language to adequately express subjective experience. Gustie has provided a deeply contemplative, though rarely completely serious, romp through the lives of others who, ultimately, are reflections of the self. The three sections of the collection establish a...
This thesis comprises a collection of six short stories written and developed in
the Creative Writing program at Oregon State University and particularly in fiction
workshops with Dr. Tracy Daugherty and Marjorie Sandor. These stories explore the
human condition, and human connections, in contemporary society. The characters
here are ordinary...
Recent conflicts in America concerning the environment (the harvesting of old growth timber in the Pacific Northwest, or the proposed opening of public lands in southern Utah to mining interests, for instance) have precipitated a personal examination of "historical others" (Jensen 64), individuals that possess very different sensibilities from a...