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Title: We Are the Asteroid.
Creator: Davis, Sloane, Roney, Lisa, Rushin, Pat, Uttich, Laurie, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: We Are the Asteroid is a collection of personal essays concerned with the power of erasure and manipulation of chronology that comes with writing. It both acknowledges and participates in the fact that nonfiction writers become unstuck in time, whether they want to or not, traveling between ages, rearranging the order of events into the stories they tell. The collection centers on a few traumatic events in the narrator's life, and it explores the ways in which she deals with those events...
Show moreWe Are the Asteroid is a collection of personal essays concerned with the power of erasure and manipulation of chronology that comes with writing. It both acknowledges and participates in the fact that nonfiction writers become unstuck in time, whether they want to or not, traveling between ages, rearranging the order of events into the stories they tell. The collection centers on a few traumatic events in the narrator's life, and it explores the ways in which she deals with those events through her writing. The writer utilizes various structural techniques, such as the segmented form, to play with the idea that the placement of events in a story can affect the emotions attached to those memories. In this way, the writer looks at the power that writing has over illness, violent relationships, and even death. Exploring topics as wide-ranging as infertility, inauthentic grief, and sacrifice, the collection resolutely returns to the idea that the nonfiction writer is in control of, and therefore charged with, the responsibility of making beautiful even the saddest of memories. We Are the Asteroid serves both as a wish to go back and an acknowledgement that we must, despite our abilities and tools as a writer to dwell, continue moving forward.
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Date Issued: 2014
Identifier: CFE0005477, ucf:50346
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0005477

Title: Heavy Hit Me.
Creator: Basques, Shauna, Roney, Lisa, Thaxton, Terry, Bartkevicius, Jocelyn, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: Heavy Hit Me is a memoir series linking obesity to sexual desire and its corresponding fear, linking fantasy to the lived loneliness of a girl too distrusting of her own body and attractions to live outside her own head. Told through essay, found letters, and shifting points of view, Heavy Hit Me explores the breadth of its protagonist's chosen isolation. It shows how the many itches of insecurity craft a young woman never challenged to really know and love herself(-)until now.
Date Issued: 2017
Identifier: CFE0006932, ucf:51678
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0006932

Title: MILD TO MODERATELY SEVERE.
Creator: Valencia, Julian, Thaxton, Terry, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: Mild to Moderately Severe is an episodic memoir of a boy coming of age as a latch-key kid, living with a working single mother and partly raising himself, as a hearing impaired and depressed young adult, learning to navigate the culture with a strategy of faking it, as a nomad with seven mailing addresses before turning ten. It is an examination of accidental and cultivated loneliness, a narrative of a boy and later a man who is too adept at adapting to different environments, a reflection on...
Show moreMild to Moderately Severe is an episodic memoir of a boy coming of age as a latch-key kid, living with a working single mother and partly raising himself, as a hearing impaired and depressed young adult, learning to navigate the culture with a strategy of faking it, as a nomad with seven mailing addresses before turning ten. It is an examination of accidental and cultivated loneliness, a narrative of a boy and later a man who is too adept at adapting to different environments, a reflection on relationships and popularity and a need for attention and love that clashes with a need to walk through unfamiliar neighborhoods alone. "Mild to moderately severe" is a diagnosed level of my hearing impairment. It is also the level of clinical depression I'm supposed to have been suffering since I was a preteen. It is also an answer to the question, "How was your day?"
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Date Issued: 2011
Identifier: CFE0003749, ucf:48770
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0003749

Title: BIRTH OF A MOTHER.
Creator: Curran, Ashley, Bartkevicius, Jocelyn, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: Birth of a Mother is a memoir that tells the story of how my unplanned pregnancy helps me to transform from a damaged adolescent into an empowered mother. Using a first person, present tense narrative, I relive the nine months leading up to the unmedicated home birth of my first child, exploring the conflicts I faced over my obesity, over having no job and no place to call home, and over developing a relationship with a man who was not the baby's father. Weaving in past tense vignettes, I...
Show moreBirth of a Mother is a memoir that tells the story of how my unplanned pregnancy helps me to transform from a damaged adolescent into an empowered mother. Using a first person, present tense narrative, I relive the nine months leading up to the unmedicated home birth of my first child, exploring the conflicts I faced over my obesity, over having no job and no place to call home, and over developing a relationship with a man who was not the baby's father. Weaving in past tense vignettes, I attempt to show how I prepared myself for impending motherhood by reflecting on my mother's short, violent life and the abuse I suffered at her hands; the effect of losing my mother at the age of twelve and my quest to find someone to fill her role throughout my adolescence; my experiences with faith, from Christianity, to Buddhism, to Atheism, to Paganism; and by struggling to heal the emotional scars left over from suffering childhood abuse, and multiple rapes as a teenager. As I uncover parallels between my mother's life and my own, I come to a new understanding of the mental illness that seems prevalent in my family, of the causes and triggers of my personal flaws, and of methods that I can use to become for my child the mother I always wanted for myself.
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Date Issued: 2011
Identifier: CFE0003996, ucf:48667
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0003996

Title: Antipodes: Ways to See the World.
Creator: Sallee, Brenda, Neal, Mary, Bartkevicius, Jocelyn, Poissant, David, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: This thesis is an examination of the geographical oddities of my past, the process of transitioning between worlds, and the kinds of relationships that survive those transitions. In a world where I can fly from Atlanta to Beijing non-stop in fifteen hours, I sometimes convince myself that geography no longer matters. I was born in the tropics, raised in the arctic, and became a dual citizen of the same two countries twice. I could distinguish gunshots from fireworks by age five and have...
Show moreThis thesis is an examination of the geographical oddities of my past, the process of transitioning between worlds, and the kinds of relationships that survive those transitions. In a world where I can fly from Atlanta to Beijing non-stop in fifteen hours, I sometimes convince myself that geography no longer matters. I was born in the tropics, raised in the arctic, and became a dual citizen of the same two countries twice. I could distinguish gunshots from fireworks by age five and have ridden the Trans-Siberian Railroad in both directions. I have milked a water buffalo and played Tchaikovsky's piano and been interrogated by a Maoist by firelight on the top of a mountain at the far western edge of the earth. I have seen the Louvre and the Hermitage and the highest point in Iowa and The Pit, the outhouse that connects directly to Hell. I sometimes believe I can go anywhere. See anything. Befriend anyone. But I deceive myself. Some places are so far away, it takes years to settle, to adjust, to reach a level of familiarity where the world outside your window, and the people in that world, no longer shock you. I have seldom stayed that long.The transient life does not get easier, but you can get better at it. I have gotten better at it. Distance is a matter of perspective and convenience and desire. The farther two places, or two people, or two lifestyles are from each other, the subtler and more intricate the connecting lines. My contentment and sanity and relationships depend upon deciphering those lines. This is the story of what I've learned.
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Date Issued: 2013
Identifier: CFE0004746, ucf:49765
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0004746

Title: (In)Tangible Things.
Creator: Skaryd, Ryan, Uttich, Laurie, Roney, Lisa, Thaxton, Terry, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: (In)Tangible Things is a collection of memoir essays and poems that examines loss, pain, and identity. Many pieces explore familial ties through separation, secrecy, and divorce, while other stories and poems observe the author's connection to drag culture, sexuality, eating disorders, and time itself. Using techniques such as framing devices, backwards storytelling, and delineated narrative, the author invites the reader to experience memories and moments from his past that show consistency...
Show more(In)Tangible Things is a collection of memoir essays and poems that examines loss, pain, and identity. Many pieces explore familial ties through separation, secrecy, and divorce, while other stories and poems observe the author's connection to drag culture, sexuality, eating disorders, and time itself. Using techniques such as framing devices, backwards storytelling, and delineated narrative, the author invites the reader to experience memories and moments from his past that show consistency and change, betrayal and forgiveness.
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Date Issued: 2017
Identifier: CFE0006661, ucf:51215
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0006661

Title: What We Hide.
Creator: Bowcott, Ashley, Thaxton, Terry, Bartkevicius, Jocelyn, Uttich, Laurie, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: What We Hide is a collection of memoir essays that explores the themes of mystery and deception in personal relationships, specifically within familial and romantic ones. Though the essays in the collection explore the decades from early in the narrator's childhood through her move to Florida for graduate school, the narrator's keen discernment of the world around her and her curiosity for what experiences shape a person's character remain constant. Many essays explore the extent of her...
Show moreWhat We Hide is a collection of memoir essays that explores the themes of mystery and deception in personal relationships, specifically within familial and romantic ones. Though the essays in the collection explore the decades from early in the narrator's childhood through her move to Florida for graduate school, the narrator's keen discernment of the world around her and her curiosity for what experiences shape a person's character remain constant. Many essays explore the extent of her father's alcoholism and the consequences of it, as well as the narrator's obsession over the possible sources of his addictions. Other essays examine the narrator's relationships with men beginning when she enters high school and question the extent to which her strained relationship with her father both excuses and/or explains the way she deceives and allows herself to be deceived in these relationships. What We Hide is endlessly implicating and looks for the accountability of these situations from all sources. The narrator delves into the sneakiness of her parents' courtship, the accusations that become commonplace during their divorce, the ways in which the narrator lies to family, friends, and boyfriends for her own selfish motives, and how each of these experiences shapes subsequent ones.What We Hide uses personal experience, emails, and newspaper articles to demonstrate the vulnerability, contradictions, and complications that are inherent in all of us as humans and how these weaknesses manifest themselves in the relationships with those we are closest with.
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Date Issued: 2015
Identifier: CFE0005582, ucf:50240
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0005582

Title: TOURIST TRAP: ON BEING RAISED IN AWARD-WINNING SAND.
Creator: Carson, Catherine, Roney, Lisa, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: The literary essays in this collection explore the relationships between mind, body, and environment as the narrator explores Orlando, her beachfront hometown of Sarasota, and other "tourist traps." The traditional and experimental essays here question how residents make popular vacation destinations their own and how much trust one can put in strangers, neighbors, city planners, theme-park designers, and lovers. Dance floors, hybrid bikes, flying elephants, swing sets, and swimming pools...
Show moreThe literary essays in this collection explore the relationships between mind, body, and environment as the narrator explores Orlando, her beachfront hometown of Sarasota, and other "tourist traps." The traditional and experimental essays here question how residents make popular vacation destinations their own and how much trust one can put in strangers, neighbors, city planners, theme-park designers, and lovers. Dance floors, hybrid bikes, flying elephants, swing sets, and swimming pools fill these pages. Worries spiral like disco lights on dance floors, and cultural forces press down with the constant pressure of pedal strokes. With the embodiment of place comes connection between environment and activity; music, buildings, landscape, and physical activity heighten the relationship between personal identity and place. Everything moves, but the appeal of tourist traps remains constant.
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Date Issued: 2007
Identifier: CFE0001895, ucf:47383
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0001895

Title: A CRIMSON TRAIL.
Creator: McGill, Caitlin, Neal, Mary Darlin', University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: Willing to overstep literary conventions in order to ensure that meaning and purpose reign over structure, cross-genre writing works to push boundaries of genre and tear down the walls of limitation. This cross-genre thesis aims to test literary restrictions of structure and style and, as literary endeavors often do, to rattle our existence. In this thesis, nonfiction and fiction work together to drive meaning to the surface of the page, meaning that is universal in the individual stories as...
Show moreWilling to overstep literary conventions in order to ensure that meaning and purpose reign over structure, cross-genre writing works to push boundaries of genre and tear down the walls of limitation. This cross-genre thesis aims to test literary restrictions of structure and style and, as literary endeavors often do, to rattle our existence. In this thesis, nonfiction and fiction work together to drive meaning to the surface of the page, meaning that is universal in the individual stories as well as in the human experience. Although some characters are fictional and some real, they often intersect, their journeys and discoveries merging into one. The many voices of this thesis, while diverse, speak to similar themes and meaning. The main character of "Silhouettes," a homosexual male who yearns to find his identity away from the place he once called home, experiences feelings of abandonment and loss. The narrator of "A Crimson Trail" longs to uncovers truths about her uncle's suicide and endures similar feelings of loss. "Abandoned Laurels" explores a complex mother-daughter relationship and wades through themes of mourning, regret, and shame. The remaining stories explore similar themes, including those of longing, death, and familial relationships. Shorter pieces are scattered amongst longer works and supplement themes developed in the thesis. Each section contributes to the characters' longing for identity, recovery, and understanding of the past. These related characters and their stories - both real and fictional - merge in a collective endeavor to sift through loss, explore the past, and, most importantly, find identity and hope in the future amidst the rubble of the present.
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Date Issued: 2012
Identifier: CFH0004165, ucf:44814
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFH0004165

Title: HALF-VIRGIN.
Creator: Pollack, Alexander, Bartkevicius, Jocelyn, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: Half-Virgin is a cross-genre collection of essays, short stories, and poems about the humor, pain, and occasional glory of journeying into adulthood but not quite getting there. The works in this collection seek to create a definition of a term, "half-virgin," that I coined in the process of writing this thesis. Among the possibilities explored are: an individual who embarks upon sexual activity for the first time and does not achieve orgasm; an individual who has reached orgasm through...
Show moreHalf-Virgin is a cross-genre collection of essays, short stories, and poems about the humor, pain, and occasional glory of journeying into adulthood but not quite getting there. The works in this collection seek to create a definition of a term, "half-virgin," that I coined in the process of writing this thesis. Among the possibilities explored are: an individual who embarks upon sexual activity for the first time and does not achieve orgasm; an individual who has reached orgasm through consensual sexual activity, but has remained uncertain about what he or she is doing; and the curious sensation of being half-child, half-adult. Ultimately, I believe, a "half-virgin" possesses all of these traits. One of the goals of the collection is to scramble the prototypical coming-of-age story into bits and parts and halves. Among the approaches included are earnest memoir (the real and metaphorical costumes a young couple wears on Halloween), character-driven fiction (the life story of Marlow, a college track star who ends up the unwitting inspiration for Super Mario Brothers), and narrative experiments (a tongue-in-cheek creative writing syllabus and a bullet pointed resume of sexual conquests). By exploring the untidy fragments in love, lust, and human connection in these works, Half-Virgin aspires to find wholeness through the jagged adventures of growing up.
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Date Issued: 2011
Identifier: CFE0003591, ucf:48921
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0003591

Title: The Prologue Past.
Creator: McKee, Raymond, Bartkevicius, Jocelyn, Rushin, Pat, Roney, Lisa, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: The Prologue Past is a collection of four essays and one novella which explore the past in different fashions. Memory, and the ability to reflect and find meaning in our experiences, is an important cornerstone of engaging the past. Memories are a true anomaly of how our inner-consciousness operates. With each day, the past facilitates a special part of our memory bank which we seldom have any control of. While the abilities of people to recall times, events, places, and experiences differ...
Show moreThe Prologue Past is a collection of four essays and one novella which explore the past in different fashions. Memory, and the ability to reflect and find meaning in our experiences, is an important cornerstone of engaging the past. Memories are a true anomaly of how our inner-consciousness operates. With each day, the past facilitates a special part of our memory bank which we seldom have any control of. While the abilities of people to recall times, events, places, and experiences differ largely in capacity, we all undoubtedly share universal traits in the manner in which we hold onto our memories. I'm personally fascinated by the notion of unreliable memory or the inability to recall a past event in a concrete moment in time. I'm equally intrigued by what's tied to our most vivid recollections of the past, involving adrenaline and emotion. My exploration of memory(-)and how it's ascertained and utilized(-)is based on certain moments in my life presented in these personal stories, which range from childhood endeavors to adult conquests, seemingly linked together through particular themes of fear, loss, and hope.
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Date Issued: 2014
Identifier: CFE0005530, ucf:50306
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0005530

Title: What You Leave Behind: A Collection of Travel Essays.
Creator: Bernath, Madison, Roney, Lisa, Neal, Mary, Bartkevicius, Jocelyn, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: (")What You Leave Behind(") is a collection of essays framed by the theme of travel. The essays seek to understand the changeability and the consistency of the self when exposed to new cultures and new environments. They also explore what travel tells us about varying world perspectives, and how much of those varying world perspectives people can hope to understand. Lastly, these true-life stories and ruminations explore how travel shapes relationships: familial, romantic, and platonic. At...
Show more(")What You Leave Behind(") is a collection of essays framed by the theme of travel. The essays seek to understand the changeability and the consistency of the self when exposed to new cultures and new environments. They also explore what travel tells us about varying world perspectives, and how much of those varying world perspectives people can hope to understand. Lastly, these true-life stories and ruminations explore how travel shapes relationships: familial, romantic, and platonic. At its core, this thesis strives to reveal how traveling can inform the way people understand themselves, the world around them, and the relationships they have with others, both at home and abroad.
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Date Issued: 2014
Identifier: CFE0005464, ucf:50398
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0005464

Title: Golden Years.
Creator: Malik, Sienna, Bartkevicius, Jocelyn, Stanfill, Mel, Thaxton, Terry, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: Golden Years is the culmination of the author's studies in Creative Nonfiction writing, with attention to hybrid forms of the genre, combined with her professional background in screenwriting, and research interests in nostalgia and cultural preservation in the modern age. In the collection of essays, the author blends established forms of Creative Nonfiction, such as the braided essay, with literary conventions borrowed from other forms of written communication, such as the screenplay (("...
Show moreGolden Years is the culmination of the author's studies in Creative Nonfiction writing, with attention to hybrid forms of the genre, combined with her professional background in screenwriting, and research interests in nostalgia and cultural preservation in the modern age. In the collection of essays, the author blends established forms of Creative Nonfiction, such as the braided essay, with literary conventions borrowed from other forms of written communication, such as the screenplay ((")You Must Remember This,(") (")Driver's Seat(")), the cookbook ((")Tip of my Tongue(")), a travel guide ((")A Trolley Runs Through It(")) and fabulist fiction ((")Selkie on the Shore(")). Through these hybrid forms, Golden Years explores the narrator's fascinations with music, cinema, and fashions of the past, with crafting the perfect pot of vegetarian chili, and with marine mammals. Through the blending of personal essay with cultural criticism, the author explores how these loves have shaped her relationship with the world around her.
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Date Issued: 2018
Identifier: CFE0007344, ucf:52128
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0007344

Title: POTENTIAL ENERGY.
Creator: Bull, Edward, Rushin, Pat, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: BULL, EDWARD. Potential Energy. (Under the direction of Pat Rushin.) Potential Energy is a collection of sixteen short stories. They range from the fictional to the autofictional to the entirely non-fictional. In all of them, characters both real and imagined struggle to live and define themselves in a world that is outside their control. They cope with the inevitability of loss, dangers both internal and external, and the passing of their own greatness. Some of these characters become lost...
Show moreBULL, EDWARD. Potential Energy. (Under the direction of Pat Rushin.) Potential Energy is a collection of sixteen short stories. They range from the fictional to the autofictional to the entirely non-fictional. In all of them, characters both real and imagined struggle to live and define themselves in a world that is outside their control. They cope with the inevitability of loss, dangers both internal and external, and the passing of their own greatness. Some of these characters become lost while others learn to embrace life on its own termsÃ‚Â--to accept Ã‚Â"without hope or expectation.Ã‚Â" More often, they are not lost or enlightened, but simply survive to continue on, still uncertain. Though all the stories in Potential Energy are stand-alone, they are thematically connected. The themes of family and identity are most prominent in Ã‚Â"Potential EnergyÃ‚Â" and Ã‚Â"Eulogy to Maria Mamani, Fire-Eater.Ã‚Â" Loss is confronted and the question of what comes next is asked in Ã‚Â"OystersÃ‚Â" and Ã‚Â"Slide.Ã‚Â" The conflict between fate and the need for control rises to the surface in Ã‚Â"Threshold,Ã‚Â" Ã‚Â"The Elizabeth Years,Ã‚Â" and the non-fiction story of Charles WhitmanÃ‚Â's deadly rampage in 1966, Ã‚Â"Seed.Ã‚Â" Themes of ambiguity, moral erosion, and literary exploitation appear in the non-fiction Ã‚Â"Bright and Loud and Then Gone,Ã‚Â" about a landlord burned alive in Chicago in 2008, and Ã‚Â"What It Might Have Been Like If We Had Been There,Ã‚Â" an apologetic for the writerÃ‚Â's right to write inspired by the 2007 Al Mutanabbi Street car-bombing in Baghdad, Iraq. Most importantly all the content of Potential Energy tells stories of people trying to hold on to what is good when, tragically, everything must eventually come to an end.
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Date Issued: 2010
Identifier: CFE0003148, ucf:48651
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0003148

Title: LET THE CHILDREN COME TO ME.
Creator: Ramirez, Andrea, Bartkevicius, Jocelyn, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: My thesis, a collection of personal essays, explores my parents' affinity towards their native Colombia and how this connection to their homeland, through their faith and their customs, affected my definition of self. When I think about my parents' emigration from Colombia to the States, I picture the illustrations in the Bible I had as a child: the couple running from Sodom and Gomorra, running away from the place they had always known and holding on to each other. My parents, like...
Show moreMy thesis, a collection of personal essays, explores my parents' affinity towards their native Colombia and how this connection to their homeland, through their faith and their customs, affected my definition of self. When I think about my parents' emigration from Colombia to the States, I picture the illustrations in the Bible I had as a child: the couple running from Sodom and Gomorra, running away from the place they had always known and holding on to each other. My parents, like the couple in the Bible, were in the middle of nowhere when they first set foot on the cold, concrete streets of New York City. In the Bible, the man knew he was in a better place, the cities left behind him becoming more and more of a distant memory. The next picture showed a statue of salt in the shape of the woman. The woman had turned back. Shortly after they married in Colombia, my mother looked forward to a future in another country. She urged my father to seek a better life for them in the United States. My father was the one who couldn't help but look behind him, despite the consequences. The thesis chapters explore such issues as the consequences of leaving home; the impact of my father's incarceration upon his Catholic faith and upon the family; how travel to Colombia with my parents revealed new aspects of their personalities and beliefs; and my own efforts to understand and meditate upon my multicultural heritage and surroundings.
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Date Issued: 2007
Identifier: CFE0001866, ucf:47415
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0001866

Title: Stories I Told Myself: A Memoir.
Creator: Crimmins, Brian, Neal, Mary, Roney, Lisa, Uttich, Laurie, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: Stories I Told Myself: A Memoir explores the experience of growing up gay in the 1980s. It is one boy's journey toward self-acceptance set against the conservative backdrop of a rural community on California's central coast. The story illuminates the hunger for a life different than the one being lived, and the ever-present sense of being different exacerbated by bullying and unrequited love. It is a narrative of evolving identity, and includes cultural insights and societal context of the...
Show moreStories I Told Myself: A Memoir explores the experience of growing up gay in the 1980s. It is one boy's journey toward self-acceptance set against the conservative backdrop of a rural community on California's central coast. The story illuminates the hunger for a life different than the one being lived, and the ever-present sense of being different exacerbated by bullying and unrequited love. It is a narrative of evolving identity, and includes cultural insights and societal context of the time period. The author poses a fundamental question, (")How did I make it out of the 80's alive?(") and he explores the answer with poignant humor and self-examination. Mr. Crimmins shows that, beyond the constraints of time and place, the process of coming out remains an important and consistent element of the queer experience.
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Date Issued: 2014
Identifier: CFE0005152, ucf:50710
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0005152

Title: In Double Exile: A Memoir.
Creator: Beckwin, Deborah, Nwakanma, Obi, Roney, Lisa, Thaxton, Terry, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: In Double Exile: A Memoir examines the life of a family of Ghanaian immigrants and their journeys of acculturation, and the impact of the father's spiraling mental health issues on his family. Through the eyes of their daughter, this thesis briefly explores their lives on the right side of the Atlantic, as medical professionals, and then focuses on the life of their daughter born in America on the left side of the Atlantic. As novelist Georges Simenon has said, (")I am at home everywhere, and...
Show moreIn Double Exile: A Memoir examines the life of a family of Ghanaian immigrants and their journeys of acculturation, and the impact of the father's spiraling mental health issues on his family. Through the eyes of their daughter, this thesis briefly explores their lives on the right side of the Atlantic, as medical professionals, and then focuses on the life of their daughter born in America on the left side of the Atlantic. As novelist Georges Simenon has said, (")I am at home everywhere, and nowhere. I am never a stranger and I never quite belong.(") This memoir explores this tension between alienation and connection, as a second-generation immigrant grows up navigating between various cultures: to dominant American culture, evangelical Christian/Southern culture, African-American culture, and Ghanaian culture. In an attempt to understand the present, this thesis is a sankofa journey back into the author's history. Spanning over four decades, the memoir uncovers various exilic configurations: exiled from family, from ethnic heritage, from home, and from one's self.
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Date Issued: 2014
Identifier: CFE0005304, ucf:50529
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0005304

Title: Zora.
Creator: Tyrrell, Genevieve, Roney, Lisa, Rushin, Patrick, Scott, John, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: This mixed-media memoir uses a variety of forms from short epigrammatic essays to straightforward stories and graphic narratives to explore the author's coming-of-age experiences augmented by chronic illness. Trying to succeed in the film industry, romance, and family situations, the young female narrator navigates the often unexpected or disappointing consequences of having an autonomic nervous system disorder. Relationships between conflicting identities emerge(-)between healthy versus sick...
Show moreThis mixed-media memoir uses a variety of forms from short epigrammatic essays to straightforward stories and graphic narratives to explore the author's coming-of-age experiences augmented by chronic illness. Trying to succeed in the film industry, romance, and family situations, the young female narrator navigates the often unexpected or disappointing consequences of having an autonomic nervous system disorder. Relationships between conflicting identities emerge(-)between healthy versus sick self, projected/envisioned versus actual self, and tough versus vulnerable self(-)as the narrator journeys toward a more complete and accepting self-understanding.
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Date Issued: 2013
Identifier: CFE0004763, ucf:49777
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0004763

creative nonfiction (12)	+ -
memoir (11)	+ -
creative writing (6)	+ -
nonfiction (5)	+ -
essays (4)	+ -

Creative Nonfiction (2)	+ -
MFA (2)	+ -
coming-of-age (2)	+ -
fiction (2)	+ -
literary (2)	+ -
literary nonfiction (2)	+ -
poetry (2)	+ -
1980s (1)	+ -
African (1)	+ -
African-American (1)	+ -
Autonomic Nervous System disorder (1)	+ -
Christianity (1)	+ -
Creative Writing MFA (1)	+ -
Dysautonomia (1)	+ -
English Creative Writing Master of Arts Thesis Graduate Nonfiction Memoir Personal (1)	+ -
Fiction (1)	+ -
Florida (1)	+ -
Ghanaian (1)	+ -
LGBT (1)	+ -
Non-fiction (1)	+ -
Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (1)	+ -
alcoholism (1)	+ -
childhood (1)	+ -
chronic illness narrative (1)	+ -
coming of age (1)	+ -

ETD Collection (17)	+ -
Honors Collection (1)	+ -

University of Central Florida (18)	+ -
Bartkevicius, Jocelyn (9)	+ -
Roney, Lisa (9)	+ -
Thaxton, Terry (6)	+ -
Uttich, Laurie (4)	+ -

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