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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: 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: 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: (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: IMAGO DEI: STORIES.
Creator: Langevin, Benjamin, Poissant, David, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: Translated from Latin, Imago Dei means the image of God. In the very beginning of the Torah, the writer says that God created humanity in Their own image. According to the text, woven in the fabric of who we are is God. In a post-secular society, the concept of God brings a lot of weight and baggage. Which God are we talking about? Can God be talked about it? Is God or thinking about God even relevant anymore? Hasn't science taken care of it? What good can discussions on faith bring us? These...
Show moreTranslated from Latin, Imago Dei means the image of God. In the very beginning of the Torah, the writer says that God created humanity in Their own image. According to the text, woven in the fabric of who we are is God. In a post-secular society, the concept of God brings a lot of weight and baggage. Which God are we talking about? Can God be talked about it? Is God or thinking about God even relevant anymore? Hasn't science taken care of it? What good can discussions on faith bring us? These are the questions explored in Imago Dei: Stories. Within the collection is a story about a group of college students in the Bible belt struggling with sorting through emotions in the aftermath of their pastor's suicide. There's a husband search for grace and acceptance in the midst of a looming divorce and a dying father. Finally, there's a letter from a youth pastor who is publically accused of abusing a transgendered student. The collection was written under the guidance of Dr. David James Poissant with the help of Professors Laurie Uttich and Nathan Holic. In the directed readings portion of the program, I read Marilynne Robinson, Bret Lott, and Flannery O'Connor to get a better picture of faith and moral fiction. For craft guidance, I read works by Bret Anthony Johnston, Junot Diaz, David Foster Wallace, Vanessa Blakeslee, and John Henry Fleming.
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Date Issued: 2014
Identifier: CFH0004712, ucf:45403
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFH0004712

Title: BURIED IN THE DUST.
Creator: Farrell, Jessica, Kesler, Thomas, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: In July 2012, I left America for the first time to travel to Madurai, India, for a month-long journalism internship. The inspiration for the poetry in this work is deeply rooted in my experiences while in India, mentally, physically, and spiritually. Not knowing why I chose India to travel to for my first time abroad, I realized much later that I needed to be there in order to transition into the next stage of my life. I always wanted to experience what life was like without the amenities the...
Show moreIn July 2012, I left America for the first time to travel to Madurai, India, for a month-long journalism internship. The inspiration for the poetry in this work is deeply rooted in my experiences while in India, mentally, physically, and spiritually. Not knowing why I chose India to travel to for my first time abroad, I realized much later that I needed to be there in order to transition into the next stage of my life. I always wanted to experience what life was like without the amenities the Western world is accustomed to (hot showers, washers and dryers, reliable electricity, etc.). Through isolating myself from the familiar I woke up to a simpler, happier perspective on life. This isolation also stirred mixed emotions in me that I wasn't aware of until I began writing about the experience in these poems. The feeling of being watched by everyone was common and sometimes frightening or disturbing. This vulnerability was uncomfortable even though the experiences and realizations I had outweighed the negativity while I was in India. The intent of this thesis is to explore how I've grown and what I took from the trip while comparing my Indian experience to life before and after my visit. With unconventional structural elements, I set out to put life and movement on the page to represent the chaotic, beautiful India and the emotions that carried the weight of each poem. Just from one month of being surrounded by strangers who stared with stone eyes, a language I didn't understand and memories of a life I didn't miss as much as I thought I would, this thesis follows the imaginative perceptions of a sleeping person through her evolution into a waking life.
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Date Issued: 2013
Identifier: CFH0004390, ucf:44980
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFH0004390

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: Trauma.
Creator: Sokolowski, Thomas, Wolff, Jacob, Milanes, Cecilia, Poissant, David, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: This collection of stories explores the intersection of emotional and physical trauma. In the title story, a rookie EMT relives his brother's death while caring for a young patient who may be permanently paralyzed. (")The Rounds at Blanding(") follows a military policewoman at a National Guard training base who confronts a strangely determined trespasser as well as painful memories of her son's absentee father. Other stories, such as (")Men My Mother Loved,(") (")Watching Mr. Pete,(") and ("...
Show moreThis collection of stories explores the intersection of emotional and physical trauma. In the title story, a rookie EMT relives his brother's death while caring for a young patient who may be permanently paralyzed. (")The Rounds at Blanding(") follows a military policewoman at a National Guard training base who confronts a strangely determined trespasser as well as painful memories of her son's absentee father. Other stories, such as (")Men My Mother Loved,(") (")Watching Mr. Pete,(") and (")Fighting for Faran,(") consider trauma-as-heritage by asking young protagonists to navigate the loss, wounds, and abuse of their parents. In the collection, pain is presented as both stalker and trapper(-)pursuing its prey while also creating the obstacles that threaten their escape.
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Date Issued: 2019
Identifier: CFE0007533, ucf:52588
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0007533

Title: Everyday Monsters: Stories.
Creator: Druckenmiller, Brian, Poissant, David, Thaxton, Terry, Roney, Lisa, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: These seven short stories explore characters either at war with themselves or living in a delusion, unaware that their skewed sense of self projects a subjective version of the universe. When one operates in a world that doesn't quite exist, their real world is destined to crumble, and, for many of these characters, the challenge is understanding the mirage's existence before it's too late. By slightly bending the parameters of reality as well as inviting these characters and conflicts into...
Show moreThese seven short stories explore characters either at war with themselves or living in a delusion, unaware that their skewed sense of self projects a subjective version of the universe. When one operates in a world that doesn't quite exist, their real world is destined to crumble, and, for many of these characters, the challenge is understanding the mirage's existence before it's too late. By slightly bending the parameters of reality as well as inviting these characters and conflicts into absurdity, Everyday Monsters offers wholly unique commentary on familiar struggles, including marriage, occupation, grief, destiny, and societal expectations.
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Date Issued: 2017
Identifier: CFE0006588, ucf:51305
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0006588

Title: Moving Water.
Creator: Arend, Alexandra, Thaxton, Terry, Poissant, David, Hubbard, Susan, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: Moving Water is a novella in which the characters must reckon with grief, time, the divine, and the mysterious bonds forged and broken with each other. Phoebe and her family come to terms with the death of Jason, Phoebe's older brother, and with themselves. Around them, the universe moves in ambivalent splendor, dying and being born anew.
Date Issued: 2017
Identifier: CFE0006558, ucf:51337
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0006558

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: 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: 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: 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: HUMANIZING TECHNICAL COMMUNICATION WITH METAPHOR.
Creator: McClure, Ashley, Jones, Dan, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: This thesis explores how metaphors can humanize a technical document and more effectively facilitate user comprehension. The frequent use of metaphor in technical communication reminds us that the discipline is highly creative and rhetorical. Theory demonstrates that a technical text involves interpretation and subjectivity during both its creation by the technical communicator and its application by the user. If employed carefully and skillfully, metaphor can be a powerful tool to ensure...
Show moreThis thesis explores how metaphors can humanize a technical document and more effectively facilitate user comprehension. The frequent use of metaphor in technical communication reminds us that the discipline is highly creative and rhetorical. Theory demonstrates that a technical text involves interpretation and subjectivity during both its creation by the technical communicator and its application by the user. If employed carefully and skillfully, metaphor can be a powerful tool to ensure users' needs are met during this process. The primary goal of technical communication is to convey information to an audience as clearly and efficiently as possible. Because of the often complex nature of technical content, users are likely to feel alienated, overwhelmed, or simply uninterested if the information presented seems exceedingly unfamiliar or complicated. If users experience any of these reactions, they are inclined to abandon the document, automatically rendering it unsuccessful. I identify metaphor as a means to curtail such an occurrence. Using examples from a variety of technical communication genres, I illustrate how metaphors can humanize a technical document by establishing a strong link between the document and its users.
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Date Issued: 2009
Identifier: CFE0002948, ucf:47979
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0002948

Title: Writes of Spring 2014: Fostering Creativity in Theatre, Education, and Leadership.
Creator: Hodson, Alexandra, Weaver, Earl, Wood, Vandy, Siegfried, Judi, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: Creativity is valued in many fields. In theatre, creativity celebrates the imaginative power of a theatrical experience. In theatre for young audiences (TYA), creativity is extended from the stage to the classroom, where theatre empowers learning through creative and imaginative teaching. Teaching artists and theatre makers in the field of theatre for young audiences utilize creativity as a means of connecting artistic and educational value. Through professional development and qualitative...
Show moreCreativity is valued in many fields. In theatre, creativity celebrates the imaginative power of a theatrical experience. In theatre for young audiences (TYA), creativity is extended from the stage to the classroom, where theatre empowers learning through creative and imaginative teaching. Teaching artists and theatre makers in the field of theatre for young audiences utilize creativity as a means of connecting artistic and educational value. Through professional development and qualitative research, this project demonstrates the importance of creativity and its role in the classroom and on stage.This study examines my role as Project Coordinator in Orlando Repertory Theatre's (The REP) Writes of Spring 2014 and the developments I add to enhance the educational and artistic value and project. Specifically, I survey the findings of selected students' submissions in a creative writing contest by developing and facilitating an arts integration professional development workshop for their teachers. By evaluating these findings I gain insight into the positive effect of enhancing creativity in public school classrooms.To project the value of creativity further, I apply a theoretical framework to my research. Specifically, I apply creative pedagogy, constructivism, and collective creativity to develop a fully-supported educational and artistic project. This project allows students to find writing inspiration through theatre, guides teachers to find clarity in new practices through creativity, and encourages artists to celebrate creativity in developing and producing new works.
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Date Issued: 2015
Identifier: CFE0005627, ucf:50209
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0005627

Title: LATCHKEY: A MEMOIR IN ESSAYS.
Creator: Pendleton, Nicole C, Uttich, Laurie, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: "Latchkey: A Memoir in Essays" is an essay collection that follows the narrator through her childhood as it relates to being raised a latchkey kid in the 1980s. The lack of published academic studies that follow children through their experience as latchkey kids and into adulthood leaves personal exploration as the primary means through which a child, specifically a young girl, can seek understanding as to how her view of the world develops. Each of the five essays explores issues of autonomy...
Show more"Latchkey: A Memoir in Essays" is an essay collection that follows the narrator through her childhood as it relates to being raised a latchkey kid in the 1980s. The lack of published academic studies that follow children through their experience as latchkey kids and into adulthood leaves personal exploration as the primary means through which a child, specifically a young girl, can seek understanding as to how her view of the world develops. Each of the five essays explores issues of autonomy, self-efficacy, sexuality, addiction, and familial bonds. It is through her reflection of specific events - the loss of a father to his addictions, caring for a mother in the early stages of dementia, recognizing the trauma of sexual abuse � that she gains a precarious understanding of how she perceives herself, the concept of unconditional love, and the world around her.
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Date Issued: 2019
Identifier: CFH2000460, ucf:45823
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFH2000460

Title: BROKEN OPEN.
Creator: Stannard, Taylor, Rushin, Pat, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: ABSTRACT Broken Open is a collection of short stories, four of which deal with culpability and the unexpected transformations that occur when blame, either unintended or deliberately invoked, is exposed and finally understood. The remaining two stories concern relationships that turn out to be gifts, as well as painful learning experiences. In "Other Living Creatures," one family contends with post traumatic stress disorder as another implodes following the death of a young soldier in Vietnam...
Show moreABSTRACT Broken Open is a collection of short stories, four of which deal with culpability and the unexpected transformations that occur when blame, either unintended or deliberately invoked, is exposed and finally understood. The remaining two stories concern relationships that turn out to be gifts, as well as painful learning experiences. In "Other Living Creatures," one family contends with post traumatic stress disorder as another implodes following the death of a young soldier in Vietnam. "Hunters" deals with the unconscious motivations that leave a father resentful and unable to forge a relationship with his son. In "Bardenbrook," an accidental death is the impetus for blame and, finally, forgiveness. Rage acts as a catalyst in "The Summoning," the story of a lesbian couple's struggle to accept the reality of breast cancer shortly before one of the partners undertakes a transformative journey as her death approaches. The two remaining stories in Broken Open deal with the protagonists finding their voices. In "Sunday Wars," a girl begins to think for herself, and in "Beyond the Parking Lot," a woman comes to terms with the restraints, self-imposed and otherwise, that have held her captive for most of her life. Each character in Broken Open struggles, perseveres, grows and, ultimately, flourishes. Despite sorrow, pain, and unexpected loss, being broken open leads them, as it does us all, if we let it, to the richest places within.
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Date Issued: 2007
Identifier: CFE0001552, ucf:47135
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0001552

Title: TWO BLADES COME TOGETHER: STORIES.
Creator: Pursell, Mark, Leiby, Jeanne, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: This collection of seven short stories details the emotional triumphs and complications of characters whose lives are altered by issues of sexuality and disconnection. An adolescent girl feels her father slipping away from her and, in turn, willfully destroys the imaginary world of the boy she babysits; a speech therapist struggles to make headway with a young patient while finding himself unable to communicate with his ex-lover; a gay poet cheats on his boyfriend in a desperate attempt to...
Show moreThis collection of seven short stories details the emotional triumphs and complications of characters whose lives are altered by issues of sexuality and disconnection. An adolescent girl feels her father slipping away from her and, in turn, willfully destroys the imaginary world of the boy she babysits; a speech therapist struggles to make headway with a young patient while finding himself unable to communicate with his ex-lover; a gay poet cheats on his boyfriend in a desperate attempt to fuel his failing art. The dramatis personae of Two Blades Come Together is comprised of individuals who struggle towards grace and happiness but are thwarted by their inability to fit neatly into the lives of those they love. Several of the stories approach these issues through the framework of contemporary myth, exploring how fairy tales and the supernatural act upon the characters' relationships and the way they perceive their situations. The heroines of "Proof of Snow" and "The Pill Woman" are both affected by the unseen; one suffers under the strange influence of her brother even after his death, while the other must make a decision to uphold her fairy-tale world or dismantle it. In these stories, the tangibility of the supernatural is elusive and unproven, but the altered perceptions of the protagonists and their actions because of it are extremely real, with extremely real consequences. The collection also explores and tests the boundaries between poetry and fiction, pushing always towards language that is aesthetic and musical while not sacrificing the momentum and architecture of prose. Two Blades Come Together incorporates linguistic ideas from poets as varied as contemporary surrealists Laura Kasischke and Mary Ruefle to the grounded wryness of Tony Hoagland and Lynda Hull, weaving poetic language with narrative, hybridizing the qualities of fiction and poetry in an attempt to create a unique, musical vision of short fiction that is both functional and artful.
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Date Issued: 2007
Identifier: CFE0001976, ucf:47438
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0001976

Title: CONTACT.
Creator: Osbourne, Brittany, Jensen, Toni, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: ABSTRACT This fiction novel focuses on the Sankofa philosophy that we as human beings must learn from our past to better understand our current existence and future; however, sometimes we choose to ignore or suppress the past because remembering it may be too hurtful. When we forget what happened yesterday our outlook on today and tomorrow becomes distorted. Contact is a novel that attempts to explore how Ã‚Â"living in the nowÃ‚Â" alone becomes problematic...
Show moreABSTRACT This fiction novel focuses on the Sankofa philosophy that we as human beings must learn from our past to better understand our current existence and future; however, sometimes we choose to ignore or suppress the past because remembering it may be too hurtful. When we forget what happened yesterday our outlook on today and tomorrow becomes distorted. Contact is a novel that attempts to explore how Ã‚Â"living in the nowÃ‚Â" alone becomes problematic because the pastÃ‚Â--if not rememberedÃ‚Â--will come back to haunt you. The erasure of the line between Diasporic Africans and their African past is the primary theme explored. The writer deconstructs how living in the now is indeed living in the past because the past and present, in the life of Tufa, become one. Reincarnation serves as the vehicle to explore this theme. Tufa, known for her aberrant behavior, is the reincarnation Afua AtaÃƒÂ¡Ã‚Â--an Ashanti woman who survived the Maafa, or Transatlantic Slave Trade. Past love, hate, dishonor, rivalry, pain, and hope complicate the Ã‚Â"ordinarinessÃ‚Â" of TufaÃ‚Â's teenage life. The novel is divided into a prologue and eight chapters. The bulk of each chapter follows TufaÃ‚Â's current life and ends with a vignette told by five African women, one being Afua AtaÃƒÂ¡. Each vignette paints in broad strokes the landscape and historical moments of the Maafa. The present becomes complicated when traces of the Maafa seep into TufaÃ‚Â's life. Some of these traces are culturally specific rather than unique to Tufa. However, other traces are uniquely shaped by TufaÃ‚Â's former life. People from her past disrupt her current life by their presence. Their disruption takes many formsÃ‚Â--some of it brings pain and some of it brings joy. By reading TufaÃ‚Â's story, others may find the strength to confront their past when it makes contact with their present. Like Tufa, we must confront the pain in our past to experience its joy.
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Date Issued: 2010
Identifier: CFE0002987, ucf:47939
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0002987

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