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Title: Blood Moon.
Creator: Stephens, Brendan, Bartkevicius, Jocelyn, Poissant, David, Hubbard, Susan, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: Blood Moon is a collection of short stories that explore friendship, addiction, and punk subculture. Centered around a hardcore band called Dead Phoenix, the three members(-)Eliot, Noah, and Josh(-)go on tour, live in a punk house, and plunge headfirst into opioid addiction. The stories explore their lives before they played together in the band, while touring with the band, and after the band's controversial breakup. These stories attempt to show that music, identity, and temporary bonds...
Show moreBlood Moon is a collection of short stories that explore friendship, addiction, and punk subculture. Centered around a hardcore band called Dead Phoenix, the three members(-)Eliot, Noah, and Josh(-)go on tour, live in a punk house, and plunge headfirst into opioid addiction. The stories explore their lives before they played together in the band, while touring with the band, and after the band's controversial breakup. These stories attempt to show that music, identity, and temporary bonds forever alter the trajectory of a person's life.
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Date Issued: 2017
Identifier: CFE0006665, ucf:51216
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0006665

Title: Pebbles and Shards.
Creator: Kindle, Edith, Bartkevicius, Jocelyn, Uttich, Laurie, Rushin, Patrick, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: Pebbles and Shards is a collection of personal essays based on family relationships that focus upon motherhood, responsibility, and the complexity of love and loss. The essays explore how people cope with the inevitability of loss and how they move beyond that loss to find something meaningful, perhaps even beautiful. They reflect upon success and failure in the face of loss and how, either way, life goes on, heedless of people's desires and plans.The essays in Pebbles and Shards, while meant...
Show morePebbles and Shards is a collection of personal essays based on family relationships that focus upon motherhood, responsibility, and the complexity of love and loss. The essays explore how people cope with the inevitability of loss and how they move beyond that loss to find something meaningful, perhaps even beautiful. They reflect upon success and failure in the face of loss and how, either way, life goes on, heedless of people's desires and plans.The essays in Pebbles and Shards, while meant to stand alone, are thematically connected so that, read together, each story resonates with the others. In (")Promises,(") I explore the fear of watching my mother die of Alzheimer's disease. In related essays (")Frame by Frame(") and (")In Darkness,(") I focus on my mother's efforts to struggle with Alzheimer's and how, as an adopted daughter, I underwent a role-reversal and became the mother figure. Other essays, such as (")Heart of a Deadhead(") and (")Circus,(") consider the mothering impulse, especially the guilt and conflict that so often accompany my desire to nurture others. In attempting to support and strengthen those who seem (")weak,(") I have sometimes found that my own actions and thoughts underscore a deeper weakness in myself.As a collection, Pebbles and Shards contemplates the suffering and joy that is a family.
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Date Issued: 2013
Identifier: CFE0004704, ucf:49813
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0004704

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: Drops of Light in the Dark.
Creator: Urban, April, Neal, Mary, Hubbard, Susan, Bartkevicius, Jocelyn, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: The short stories in this collection focus on young individuals', especially women's, experience and development as they navigate personal relationships and search for a place in the world. Both longer stories and flash fiction are included, and stories are told in past and present tense, and from first, second, and third person point of view. However, the narration of all of these stories stays close to the characters' points of view, inhabiting their visceral experience. These stories take...
Show moreThe short stories in this collection focus on young individuals', especially women's, experience and development as they navigate personal relationships and search for a place in the world. Both longer stories and flash fiction are included, and stories are told in past and present tense, and from first, second, and third person point of view. However, the narration of all of these stories stays close to the characters' points of view, inhabiting their visceral experience. These stories take place in a variety of settings, including a beachside motel, college campuses, bars, and offices. All of these characters, though, struggle with questions of identity, intimacy, and purpose. These conflicts are revealed through the characters' interactions with others and reactions to their environments, especially focusing on the small details of ordinary events and settings. By depicting these characters' encounters with the everyday, their sense of self and experiences are shown, and thus the particularities of women's relationships with their selves, their bodies, and their relationships are represented. In addition to this collection of short stories, the Writing Life Essay in this thesis discusses my development as a writer, my aims, and the writers, such as Dylan Landis, Joy Williams, and Mary Gaitskill, who have influenced my work. A Reading List of influential works, including fiction, non-fiction, and poetry, follows.
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Date Issued: 2013
Identifier: CFE0004764, ucf:49766
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0004764

Title: Escape Artist.
Creator: Mujica, Alejandro, Rushin, Patrick, Bartkevicius, Jocelyn, Neal, Mary, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: My thesis, Escape Artist, is a composite novel written as a fictitious memoir, similar in style to Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried, that describes my experiences between the years 2001 and 2011. During that time I went through Marine Corps Boot Camp, became a military police officer, patrolled Yuma, AZ, was sent to Iraq for a seven-month tour as a security detail just before the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom, and made it back home four years later. The novel also looks into my...
Show moreMy thesis, Escape Artist, is a composite novel written as a fictitious memoir, similar in style to Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried, that describes my experiences between the years 2001 and 2011. During that time I went through Marine Corps Boot Camp, became a military police officer, patrolled Yuma, AZ, was sent to Iraq for a seven-month tour as a security detail just before the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom, and made it back home four years later. The novel also looks into my struggles with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder symptoms, how they affected the people around me, and what I've been trying to do to remedy them (or ignore them).
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Date Issued: 2012
Identifier: CFE0004788, ucf:49732
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0004788

Title: Preventable Conditions.
Creator: Wight, William, Milanes, Cecilia, Poissant, David, Bartkevicius, Jocelyn, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: Preventable Conditions is a collection of literary short stories intended to explore themes of familial communication, complementary dysfunctions, and the degree to which we all try to cope with our own mistakes. The first five stories in the collection are related, while the last three stand alone. Each of the stories before (")Fair Grounds(") is told from the perspective of a different member of the Powell family, a fictional clan from Marietta, Georgia.The Powell family stories largely...
Show morePreventable Conditions is a collection of literary short stories intended to explore themes of familial communication, complementary dysfunctions, and the degree to which we all try to cope with our own mistakes. The first five stories in the collection are related, while the last three stand alone. Each of the stories before (")Fair Grounds(") is told from the perspective of a different member of the Powell family, a fictional clan from Marietta, Georgia.The Powell family stories largely adhere to the basic conventions of realism, while the three remaining pieces somewhat strain those boundaries.
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Date Issued: 2013
Identifier: CFE0004773, ucf:49798
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0004773

Title: Mirrors and Vanities.
Creator: Salas, Leslie, Rushin, Patrick, Poissant, David, Bartkevicius, Jocelyn, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: "Mirrors and Vanities" is a multi-modal collection which showcases the diversity of working in long and short storytelling forms. Featured in this thesis are fiction, nonfiction, graphic narrative, and screenplay.Using unconventional approaches to storytelling in order to achieve emotional resonance with the audience while maintaining high standards for craft, these stories and essays explore the costs inherent to the subtle nuances of interpersonal relationships. The fiction focuses on the...
Show more"Mirrors and Vanities" is a multi-modal collection which showcases the diversity of working in long and short storytelling forms. Featured in this thesis are fiction, nonfiction, graphic narrative, and screenplay.Using unconventional approaches to storytelling in order to achieve emotional resonance with the audience while maintaining high standards for craft, these stories and essays explore the costs inherent to the subtle nuances of interpersonal relationships. The fiction focuses on the complications of characters keeping secrets. A husband discovers the truth behind his wife's miscarriage. A girl visits her fianc(&)#233; in purgatory. A boy crosses a line and loses his best friend. Meanwhile, the nonfiction centers on self-discovery and gender roles associated with power struggles. A schizophrenic threatens to ruin my mother's wedding. I rediscover my relationship with my father through food writing. Sword-work teaches me to fail and succeed at making martial art. The title work of the thesis is a collaged story highlighting the tribulations of a physicist fixated on recovering his lost love by manipulating the multiverse. The multi-modal format implicates the nebulosity of physics theories and how different aspects of the narrative can be presented in various formats to best suit the nature of the storytelling.Through the interactions of characters in mundane and extraordinary circumstances, the works in this thesis examine the consequences of choice, the contrast between reality and expectation, coming of age, and the Truth of narrative.
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Date Issued: 2013
Identifier: CFE0004745, ucf:49789
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0004745

Title: Road Stories.
Creator: Mindar, Louis, Rushin, Pat, Bartkevicius, Jocelyn, Poissant, David, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: Road Stories is a collection of three novellas that explore the pull, allure, sanctuary, serendipity, and adventure of life on the open road. The novellas examine how for some, the road holds the promise of a new day, an improved life, a better opportunity, or a deeper love; while for others, it is nothing more than an assortment of jumbled blue lines on a map. In Tierra del Fuego, a man takes to the road to figure out how to deal with the grief and sense of betrayal he feels following the...
Show moreRoad Stories is a collection of three novellas that explore the pull, allure, sanctuary, serendipity, and adventure of life on the open road. The novellas examine how for some, the road holds the promise of a new day, an improved life, a better opportunity, or a deeper love; while for others, it is nothing more than an assortment of jumbled blue lines on a map. In Tierra del Fuego, a man takes to the road to figure out how to deal with the grief and sense of betrayal he feels following the death of his wife.Lake of the Falls involves a decades-long dispute between a father and son who take to the road and come to realize that home is not always where you live.In Back on the Road, three recent college graduates set off on a road trip inspired by Kerouac's On the Road to celebrate the end of their college years and lament the imminent approach of adulthood, only to learn that their lives are soon going to take vastly different paths.
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Date Issued: 2015
Identifier: CFE0005670, ucf:50194
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0005670

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: Ascending Mango Hill.
Creator: Camueiras, Lorri, Poissant, David, Bartkevicius, Jocelyn, Neal, Mary, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: Ascending Mango Hill is a collection of work that represents me. The intention is to connect with readers by depicting protagonists who are unable to fit in, a theme most readers can relate to. Many times the protagonist must find the courage to confront a situation rather than remain quiet. The collection is separated into two sections: The Essays and The Short Stories. The essays detail my own experiences at being an outsider while exploring the topics of family and personal growth. In the...
Show moreAscending Mango Hill is a collection of work that represents me. The intention is to connect with readers by depicting protagonists who are unable to fit in, a theme most readers can relate to. Many times the protagonist must find the courage to confront a situation rather than remain quiet. The collection is separated into two sections: The Essays and The Short Stories. The essays detail my own experiences at being an outsider while exploring the topics of family and personal growth. In the stories, characters must overcome unresolved childhood issues, recognize unhealthy relationships, and decide when to set off on new journeys. I bring the sections together by using my travel experiences as the setting for several stories. Aspects of who I am show up in the stories through character motivation and characterization. Ultimately, Ascending Mango Hill is a reflection of the girl I was, the woman I hoped to be, and the woman I have become.
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Date Issued: 2015
Identifier: CFE0005585, ucf:50266
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0005585

Title: Sunset View.
Creator: Armstrong, Danielle, Hubbard, Susan, Bartkevicius, Jocelyn, Rushin, Pat, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: Sunset View is a linked collection of short fiction that explores the dynamics of dysfunctional families. Characters in this collection have been affected by the neglect, absence, or death of their family members and friends. They search for recognition and love as they try to find their place in life. Some turn to animals or fleeting relationships to fill this void. Others attempt suicide or simply disappear. The characters are in denial, unsure how to deal with grief, and often make...
Show moreSunset View is a linked collection of short fiction that explores the dynamics of dysfunctional families. Characters in this collection have been affected by the neglect, absence, or death of their family members and friends. They search for recognition and love as they try to find their place in life. Some turn to animals or fleeting relationships to fill this void. Others attempt suicide or simply disappear. The characters are in denial, unsure how to deal with grief, and often make decisions that alienate them from the friends and family they do have. Set in northeast Tennessee and named after a local trailer park, the collection creates a portrait of Candace Annette, a young woman who struggles to come of age and distance herself from the only life she's ever known.
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Date Issued: 2015
Identifier: CFE0005573, ucf:50237
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0005573

Title: These Romantic Dreams in Our Heads.
Creator: Ironman, Sean, Uttich, Laurie, Bartkevicius, Jocelyn, Poissant, David, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: These Romantic Dreams in Our Heads is a collection of linked essays that study how key relationships in the narrator's life intersect. The essays attempt to show the complicated nature of relationships and how multiple lives are affected by one's decisions. Taking place over two years, the relationships in focus involve the narrator's parents, his girlfriend, and his dog. The essays deal with themes of manhood, parenthood, gender roles, religion, and memory. The characters deal with...
Show moreThese Romantic Dreams in Our Heads is a collection of linked essays that study how key relationships in the narrator's life intersect. The essays attempt to show the complicated nature of relationships and how multiple lives are affected by one's decisions. Taking place over two years, the relationships in focus involve the narrator's parents, his girlfriend, and his dog. The essays deal with themes of manhood, parenthood, gender roles, religion, and memory. The characters deal with discovering their limitations and searching for a balance between responsibility for others and responsibility for their own lives.
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Date Issued: 2014
Identifier: CFE0005510, ucf:50355
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0005510

Title: Growing Up Village.
Creator: Kauffman Malemute, Carlee, Roney, Lisa, Bartkevicius, Jocelyn, Shults, Katherine, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: Growing Up Village is a collection of essays about life in an Alaskan Native village. Ranging in time from early childhood to late twenties, the stories examine how home and place influence the narrator's identity, what the narrator learns from the people around her, and how events, both minor and major, can impact and change a life. Ultimately, this collection of essays explores themes of home, family, culture, loss, courage, and community.
Date Issued: 2014
Identifier: CFE0005356, ucf:50482
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0005356

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: A Look to Burst the Brightest Neon Hearts: Attempts.
Creator: Fershtman, Eric, Poissant, David, Thaxton, Terry, Bartkevicius, Jocelyn, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: A Look to Burst the Brightest Neon Hearts is an inquiry, via constellation of stories diffuse in structure and subject matter, into the various (and really weird) phenomena comprising contemporary American existence. Cumulatively, the stories seek to: (1) kick up, like bottom feeders searching biogenous sediment, an underlying value system, and (2) explore how language both breastfeeds and like, weans this value system(-)e.g., what dark matter is it that tethers bromances to reality TV?...
Show moreA Look to Burst the Brightest Neon Hearts is an inquiry, via constellation of stories diffuse in structure and subject matter, into the various (and really weird) phenomena comprising contemporary American existence. Cumulatively, the stories seek to: (1) kick up, like bottom feeders searching biogenous sediment, an underlying value system, and (2) explore how language both breastfeeds and like, weans this value system(-)e.g., what dark matter is it that tethers bromances to reality TV? Quantum mechanics to pop music? How can a country be responsible for both the world's highest incarceration rates, and OKCupid? These stories also explore various American conceptions and embodiments of love, plotting out a strange attractor of cultural reflection and refraction.
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Date Issued: 2014
Identifier: CFE0005492, ucf:50331
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0005492

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: Dangerous Instincts: A Collection of Poetry.
Creator: Holt, Kirsten, Nwakanma, Obi, Bartkevicius, Jocelyn, Riegel, Katherine, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: Dangerous Instincts is a collection of poems unified thematically by recurring and interstitial questions of the wilderness, the natural sciences - particularly astrophysics - the occult, and the mythic universe. These poems explore the mystical implications of the natural world and its meaning in the aesthetic consciousness, particularly in a highly secular century. Implied is the poet's self-discovery and search for the divine. The collection emerges, not simply as interpretation, but a...
Show moreDangerous Instincts is a collection of poems unified thematically by recurring and interstitial questions of the wilderness, the natural sciences - particularly astrophysics - the occult, and the mythic universe. These poems explore the mystical implications of the natural world and its meaning in the aesthetic consciousness, particularly in a highly secular century. Implied is the poet's self-discovery and search for the divine. The collection emerges, not simply as interpretation, but a means of coming to terms with the fear of and compulsion to question the universe, and through those questions find illumination in the ordinariness of lived life and in the mystery and magic of complex phenomena. As a whole, the work is largely lyrical; occasionally it calls upon forms such as the villanelle and ekphrasis as deliberate formal poetic experiments. Sometimes the images are familiar recreations of creation myths and forest fires, and sometimes they range into as private and esoteric a realm as occult rituals, Scottish fairytale, and quantum entanglement.Dangerous Instincts is divided into five sections that explore the physical realm in terms of distances: from outward to inward, from heights to depths, and from beyond the speaker's understanding to intrinsically self-reflexive poems written to amplify my notion that at the heart of poetry is myth.
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Date Issued: 2013
Identifier: CFE0004691, ucf:49869
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0004691

Title: Calamity of the White Picket.
Creator: Nagengast, Gabrielle, Bartkevicius, Jocelyn, Roney, Lisa, Rushin, Patrick, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: Calamity of the White Picket is a collection of essays that portray how perfection(-)whether a perfect image, perfect relationship, perfect friendship, or perfect family(-)becomes withered down, destroyed, and turned into something else. They explore how the idealized image of a family surrounded by a cute white picket fence is dismantled and rearranged through theft, addiction, and a disintegrated family. The essays explore drug addictions, childhood nostalgia, the relationship between...
Show moreCalamity of the White Picket is a collection of essays that portray how perfection(-)whether a perfect image, perfect relationship, perfect friendship, or perfect family(-)becomes withered down, destroyed, and turned into something else. They explore how the idealized image of a family surrounded by a cute white picket fence is dismantled and rearranged through theft, addiction, and a disintegrated family. The essays explore drug addictions, childhood nostalgia, the relationship between heritage and property, innocence, and a stolen best friend. The collection is a train ride of family problems, broken friendships, lying and stealing, and hidden secrets about love and sex. Through these essays, I let go of my versions of the white picket fence, and embrace the new and complicated life that replaces it, ultimately still trying to maintain happiness.
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Date Issued: 2014
Identifier: CFE0005219, ucf:50616
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0005219

Title: Woman of Dust: An Exodus.
Creator: Schultz, Lacey, Thaxton, Terry, Bartkevicius, Jocelyn, Uttich, Laurie, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: Woman of Dust: An Exodus is a collection of themed non-fiction experiences and stories with themes, characters, and ideas that coincide deliberately and verge on the cohesiveness of memoir. The overarching themes of this collection are womanhood and coming of age. The stories examine the ways in which childhood crushes, current relationships, parenting, religion, and pets influence the growth of a child into an adult, in this case, a girl into a woman. They take individual moments,...
Show moreWoman of Dust: An Exodus is a collection of themed non-fiction experiences and stories with themes, characters, and ideas that coincide deliberately and verge on the cohesiveness of memoir. The overarching themes of this collection are womanhood and coming of age. The stories examine the ways in which childhood crushes, current relationships, parenting, religion, and pets influence the growth of a child into an adult, in this case, a girl into a woman. They take individual moments, conversations, conventions, and thoughts and explore how they shaped the woman who now writes them. Stories range in content from how the standards of a southern Baptist church raised a girl who was afraid to date, drink, or kiss, about the role of God in the narrator's private life, to stories that explore how cartoon Disney prince crushes turn into crushing on neighbor boys and classmates, discovering the narrator's current conceptions of love as different from her early conceptions and questioning the ways in which those conceptions came into existence in the first place. These stories look at the domestic implications of religious life that dictate specific roles for women in a marriage relationship, and how the narrator interprets these implications in terms of her own love and pending marriage. Still other essays investigate how a mother's overbearing fear of sex, men, and drugs drove one daughter to be a small town porn star and drove the other to complete abstinence, how gender conventions shape a girl's mind, and how family life sometimes contradicts the same conventions. While the subject of each story is deeply feminine, revolving around a woman narrator and woman experiences, the content of these stories creates a very human experience, one outside the confines of gender. They are about one girl turned woman, from one perspective, and about one life, but they are mostly about being human, about growing, and about the ways in which humans grow.
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Date Issued: 2014
Identifier: CFE0005246, ucf:50607
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0005246

Title: Land of Flowers.
Creator: Morrison, Michael, Hubbard, Susan, Bartkevicius, Jocelyn, Roney, Lisa, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: Land of Flowers is a collection of short fiction presenting a Florida that stands in counterpoint to the image the state holds in the national consciousness(-)an image of a backward region rife with rednecks, retirees, racists, and religious kooks. In contrast, these stories feature the natives, the tourists, the immigrants, and also the transplants who are drawn to this (")paradise(") with hopes of finding warmth, escape, and a new life that so often fails to materialize. Many of the...
Show moreLand of Flowers is a collection of short fiction presenting a Florida that stands in counterpoint to the image the state holds in the national consciousness(-)an image of a backward region rife with rednecks, retirees, racists, and religious kooks. In contrast, these stories feature the natives, the tourists, the immigrants, and also the transplants who are drawn to this (")paradise(") with hopes of finding warmth, escape, and a new life that so often fails to materialize. Many of the inhabitants of these stories are mired in a state of introspection. In the title piece, an early Spanish explorer contemplates his existence as well as that of God's. In another story, an actor/bartender considers how eking out a living at a luxurious resort has sapped his passion for the theater. In trying to save a family of doves, a father finds a metaphor for his role as protector and provider for his own family. Another story is about an old man dying in the palmetto brush who discovers comfort in a place far from a society that no longer suits him. Space and place are the threads that holds these stories together: place in regard to the topographical Florida, and space in regard to where the main characters are mentally. The true physical landscape of the territory that once extended as far west as New Orleans is depicted in many of the stories(-)a landscape shorn of condos, strip malls, and theme parks, a landscape that defines Florida as wild, open, raw, and primal in the best sense of the word. These stories of people, place, and space work against the stereotypes and toward a deeper understanding of Florida.
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Date Issued: 2014
Identifier: CFE0005216, ucf:50629
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0005216

fiction (12)	+ -
memoir (12)	+ -
creative nonfiction (7)	+ -
creative writing (6)	+ -
nonfiction (6)	+ -

essays (5)	+ -
relationships (4)	+ -
Fiction (3)	+ -
MFA (3)	+ -
loss (3)	+ -
short stories (3)	+ -
stories (3)	+ -
Creative Writing (2)	+ -
Florida (2)	+ -
Memoir (2)	+ -
Short fiction (2)	+ -
adoption (2)	+ -
alcoholism (2)	+ -
belonging (2)	+ -
collection (2)	+ -
coming of age (2)	+ -
family (2)	+ -
literary (2)	+ -
literary nonfiction (2)	+ -
magical realism (2)	+ -
memory (2)	+ -
mental illness (2)	+ -
military (2)	+ -
personal essay (2)	+ -
physics (2)	+ -

ETD Collection (39)	+ -
Honors Collection (1)	+ -

Bartkevicius, Jocelyn (40)	+ -
University of Central Florida (40)	+ -
Poissant, David (10)	+ -
Neal, Mary (8)	+ -
Roney, Lisa (8)	+ -

Rushin, Patrick (7)	+ -
Thaxton, Terry (6)	+ -
Hubbard, Susan (5)	+ -
Uttich, Laurie (5)	+ -
Milanes, Cecilia (3)	+ -
Rushin, Pat (3)	+ -
Armstrong, Danielle (1)	+ -
Baker, Pamela (1)	+ -
Basques, Shauna (1)	+ -
Bernath, Madison (1)	+ -
Bowcott, Ashley (1)	+ -
Camueiras, Lorri (1)	+ -
Chapman, Rachel (1)	+ -
Cobb, Rebecca (1)	+ -
Criswell, Jill (1)	+ -
Cummings, John (1)	+ -
Curran, Ashley (1)	+ -
Elgeness, Jaclyn (1)	+ -
Fershtman, Eric (1)	+ -
Harrington, Sherard (1)	+ -
Holic, Nathan (1)	+ -
Holt, Kirsten (1)	+ -
Ironman, Sean (1)	+ -
Jo, Iljeen (1)	+ -
Kauffman Malemute, Carlee (1)	+ -

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