Current Search: Fiction -- Literary (x)
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- Title
- Press Anywhere: Stories.
- Creator
-
Barnes, Brendon, Poissant, David, Hubbard, Susan, Kesler, Thomas, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
Press Anywhere is a collection of short stories that depicts the various inadequacies of the third millennium male. Each story concerns a man, a boy, or a family on the cusp of change. These characters, burdened by their family tragedies, try to shake off their histories and renew themselves. But, in one way or another, home always finds them. Set in a shared universe, some characters appear in multiple stories, including one boy who dreams of an unlikely superhero to save him from an abusive...
Show morePress Anywhere is a collection of short stories that depicts the various inadequacies of the third millennium male. Each story concerns a man, a boy, or a family on the cusp of change. These characters, burdened by their family tragedies, try to shake off their histories and renew themselves. But, in one way or another, home always finds them. Set in a shared universe, some characters appear in multiple stories, including one boy who dreams of an unlikely superhero to save him from an abusive sibling, and a man determined to outlive a family curse.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2014
- Identifier
- CFE0005129, ucf:50712
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0005129
- Title
- The Former Lives of Buildings.
- Creator
-
Duvall-Francisco, Bethany, Poissant, David, Uttich, Laurie, Hubbard, Susan, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
The Former Lives of Buildings is a novel about thirty-one-year-old architect Adelle Corey. Adelle is a woman in denial. A nightmare figure called the Baron steals memories of her closest relationships and most poignant experiences. He hides the memories in Adelle's dreams, where he reconstructs them into buildings. The only way she can recover the memories is by cutting or tattooing these buildings into her skin. Adelle uses notebooks, mnemonic devices, and academic trivia to keep track of...
Show moreThe Former Lives of Buildings is a novel about thirty-one-year-old architect Adelle Corey. Adelle is a woman in denial. A nightmare figure called the Baron steals memories of her closest relationships and most poignant experiences. He hides the memories in Adelle's dreams, where he reconstructs them into buildings. The only way she can recover the memories is by cutting or tattooing these buildings into her skin. Adelle uses notebooks, mnemonic devices, and academic trivia to keep track of her daily routines. The novel takes place in contemporary times and opens in the burn unit of Bridgeport Hospital, Connecticut, where Adelle has been recovering for two months. She does not remember her stay prior to the opening day of the story, but she retains her memories from this day forward. Adelle's parents, her husband, and the mysterious woman Celesse St. Armand, who has been given charge over her care, refuse to allow Adelle to see her six-year-old son, Ben, until she can recover the missing days. Adelle suspects that something has happened to Ben. She seeks the help of Sam, her tattoo artist, to recover memories. The search uncovers painful truths about Adelle's childhood and marriage, ultimately forcing her to face that the Baron is a device she created to protect herself, not an outside force acting upon her. Adelle goes from a lonely, untrusting existence to a willingness to form deep friendships. She gains the capacity to face the whole truth instead of selecting only the comfortable parts. She does not find her son in any of the buildings. However, confronting the experiences hidden there gives her the strength to accept that she has passed her memory problems on to her son, who has not been able to remember his family since the fire. Although their marriage does not survive, Adelle and De learn to work together as parents.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2013
- Identifier
- CFE0004676, ucf:49853
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0004676
- Title
- Last Kind Word.
- Creator
-
Richardson, Dianne, Poissant, David, Hubbard, Susan, Rushin, Patrick, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
Last Kind Word is a novel that explores the ways people seek control and power in the face of the unknowable. Set in the fictional town of Thorpe, South Carolina, the story follows four main characters(-)Donna Neese, Melissa Burnside, Anthony Washington, and Jill McManus(-)struggling in the aftermath of biracial teenager Micah Burnside's disappearance. They search for a replacement for the lost connection to Micah and for a sense of control at a time when their lives seem to lack it, when...
Show moreLast Kind Word is a novel that explores the ways people seek control and power in the face of the unknowable. Set in the fictional town of Thorpe, South Carolina, the story follows four main characters(-)Donna Neese, Melissa Burnside, Anthony Washington, and Jill McManus(-)struggling in the aftermath of biracial teenager Micah Burnside's disappearance. They search for a replacement for the lost connection to Micah and for a sense of control at a time when their lives seem to lack it, when other forces, be they people or circumstances or spirits, hold power over them. In the midst of this, the four of them must decide what life will look like going forward. In Thorpe, theories about what happened to Micah range from the plausible to the fantastical. Those closest to him have their own theories, too, although they are less inclined to share them with the gossip-hungry townspeople. Micah's mother Melissa, reeling from the equally mysterious loss of Micah's father Dan eighteen years earlier and the intense mood swings from her untreated bipolar disorder, is convinced that her son is alive, searching for his father in San Diego. Meanwhile, Micah's grandmother Donna believes that he is dead, murdered by Nick and Nathan Goff, Thorpe's not-so-secret meth dealers who come from a long line of rowdy and dangerous men. Jill, Micah's ex-girlfriend and a recent college drop-out, worries that a prank they played on a hoodoo practitioner is somehow to blame not only for the dissolution of their relationship, but also Micah's disappearance. Jill seeks the aid of a hoodoo conjurer to set things right in the spirit world and, hopefully, her life. Anthony is a black country and blues musician and small-time drug dealer. His work forces him into a tenuous and volatile friendship with the Goffs, one that could explode into anger and violence at any moment. Anthony also thinks the Goffs have something to do with Micah's disappearance, but he believes his friend is alive, just laying low after a lie leads to the Goffs' arrest. These four characters must grapple with long-standing feuds, secrets, and family discord as they try to solve the mystery of Micah's disappearance and come to grips with the possibility that he may never be found.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2014
- Identifier
- CFE0005238, ucf:50582
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0005238
- Title
- The Storm.
- Creator
-
Delemeester, Kara, Peynado, Brenda, Thaxton, Terry, Poissant, David, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
Set in a world where natural disasters start increasing in both intensity and frequency, this work examines what it means to be self-reliant when the world is falling apart. As the largest recorded hurricane heads for the eastern coast of the United States, Sierra Egan evacuates her Florida home with her boyfriend and makes her way toward safety(-)a shelter in Atlanta, Georgia. When Sierra and her boyfriend breakup and part ways along the evacuation route, Sierra assumes her history of self...
Show moreSet in a world where natural disasters start increasing in both intensity and frequency, this work examines what it means to be self-reliant when the world is falling apart. As the largest recorded hurricane heads for the eastern coast of the United States, Sierra Egan evacuates her Florida home with her boyfriend and makes her way toward safety(-)a shelter in Atlanta, Georgia. When Sierra and her boyfriend breakup and part ways along the evacuation route, Sierra assumes her history of self-reliance will work to her benefit. But an anti-government couple, a beach cult, a lonely storm chaser, an interdependent family, and a pregnancy call this into question, forcing Sierra to ask whether or not it's possible to survive a world like this alone.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2019
- Identifier
- CFE0007450, ucf:52733
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0007450
- Title
- Assisted Living: Stories.
- Creator
-
Swift, Donovan, Poissant, David, Peynado, Brenda, Milanes, Cecilia, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
Assisted Living is a collection of stories that explores themes of parenthood, brotherhood, old and new love, adultery, financial strife, and the many faces of loss. The collection offers different points of view, which allow the reader to experience these themes within varying lives and situations. For example, the eponymous (")Assisted Living(") is from the perspective of a pet-sitter at the brink of losing both her job and husband, while (")Holy Mother(") explores the point of view of a...
Show moreAssisted Living is a collection of stories that explores themes of parenthood, brotherhood, old and new love, adultery, financial strife, and the many faces of loss. The collection offers different points of view, which allow the reader to experience these themes within varying lives and situations. For example, the eponymous (")Assisted Living(") is from the perspective of a pet-sitter at the brink of losing both her job and husband, while (")Holy Mother(") explores the point of view of a wife coming to terms with her affair and the physical injury that has changed her husband. (")The World of Reptiles(") follows a father walking his son through a zoo before they receive his son's cancer test results, while (")Host(") follows two sons who discover their recently deceased mother believed in reincarnation before she died. Other stories explore characters stuck in relationships(-)both familial and romantic(-)that started bright, but curled toward the dark, leaving the characters feeling trapped by the ones they love. The collection as a whole seeks to explore people stuck between selves, people striving to be new and better, while failing and succeeding in ways big and small.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2019
- Identifier
- CFE0007537, ucf:52625
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0007537
- 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.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2013
- Identifier
- CFE0004773, ucf:49798
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0004773
- Title
- WIRES AND LIGHT.
- Creator
-
Inguanta, Ashley, Hubbard, Susan, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
Wires and Light is an experimental story cycle composed of fiction and hybrid pieces, which blend poetry, fiction and creative nonfiction together. The characters in these pieces are propelled by uncertainty and a strong desire to be connected to places, people. If these characters do find the connections they are searching for, most of these joining moments are fleeting. A girl, straight out of high school, misses her wonder boy, befriends a woman nearly a decade older, fists her in the...
Show moreWires and Light is an experimental story cycle composed of fiction and hybrid pieces, which blend poetry, fiction and creative nonfiction together. The characters in these pieces are propelled by uncertainty and a strong desire to be connected to places, people. If these characters do find the connections they are searching for, most of these joining moments are fleeting. A girl, straight out of high school, misses her wonder boy, befriends a woman nearly a decade older, fists her in the desert while California's on fire. A woman who dives horses off the Atlantic City Steel Pier is forced to leave her glamorous, dangerous career, which has been her entire life. The same woman meets a grieving mother years later on a train, wrestles with the idea of loving this woman, tries to understand the wall between them. A boy loses his virginity and has trouble understanding the power of his body. A young girl loses her blue horse, her best friend. Years later the same girl will deal with depression and self-mutilation, and will heal on her own. She will meet a child in a coffee shop and help her heal, too. These characters yearn for love, freedom and wholeness, and although the search is painful, they must learn to find happiness by accepting the presence of pain. These pieces are intended to show how pain affects the body, how wires can bind bodies and light can burn skin, but they don't have to. Wires can be used to collect love, keep it fastened and safe, like a guiding light.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2011
- Identifier
- CFE0003699, ucf:48830
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0003699
- 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.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2012
- Identifier
- CFH0004165, ucf:44814
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFH0004165
- Title
- A LONGER SPOON: A NOVEL.
- Creator
-
MacDonald, Elizabeth, Hubbard, Susan, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
The intent of this thesis is to create a novel-length narrative based around a premise conceived in a workshop setting. The novel, while containing elements of fantasy, will be character-driven and feature psychological character development as its primary goal. Lawrence Caligny, a young cook newly instated at a castle, is coerced by his mother, an infamous witch named Mallory, to concoct a sleeping potion for the country's crown prince, beckoning comparison to the "Sleeping Beauty" fairy...
Show moreThe intent of this thesis is to create a novel-length narrative based around a premise conceived in a workshop setting. The novel, while containing elements of fantasy, will be character-driven and feature psychological character development as its primary goal. Lawrence Caligny, a young cook newly instated at a castle, is coerced by his mother, an infamous witch named Mallory, to concoct a sleeping potion for the country's crown prince, beckoning comparison to the "Sleeping Beauty" fairy tale. As Lawrence prepares for his opportunity, he unwittingly befriends the prince and his sister and stumbles across an assassination plot. Being thoroughly inept at witchcraft himself, Lawrence fails to put the prince to sleep when he gets the chance, knocking out the entirety of the castle inhabitants and staff instead. The story concludes with the revival of those in the castle and Lawrence being fired from his (ignominious) position in the kitchens, but otherwise pardoned in acknowledgement of his help in stopping the assassination.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2014
- Identifier
- CFH0004611, ucf:45322
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFH0004611
- 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.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2018
- Identifier
- CFE0007344, ucf:52128
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0007344
- Title
- Finding Sundays: A Collection of Stories.
- Creator
-
Martin, Tamra, Neal, Mary, Hubbard, Susan, Thaxton, Terry, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
Finding Sundays: A Collection of Stories is a collection that explores the lives of people in the fictional town of Hickory Springs, Virginia. The title story (")Finding Sundays(") follows the life of Deacon Taylor and connects him to the characters around him in the proceeding pieces. These stories explore the lives of Deacon, his family, and his childhood friend, Sandra. The focus of this collection is not meant to be about spirituality or religion in general, although these exist as themes...
Show moreFinding Sundays: A Collection of Stories is a collection that explores the lives of people in the fictional town of Hickory Springs, Virginia. The title story (")Finding Sundays(") follows the life of Deacon Taylor and connects him to the characters around him in the proceeding pieces. These stories explore the lives of Deacon, his family, and his childhood friend, Sandra. The focus of this collection is not meant to be about spirituality or religion in general, although these exist as themes in the background of the stories. Instead, it is meant to look at how the lives of people connected through a church and a small town setting can affect them and lead them on different paths through the choices they make. Their personal struggles and challenges help them to either discover who they are or lose a piece of themselves in the process, which is especially true for Deacon. He is the character who appears as a child, as an adolescent, and as an adult. Self-discovery is not always peaceful or satisfying for him or any of the characters around him, and their individual journeys show this process and the different events that come from the choices they make. This collection focuses on how religious roots, friendships, and familial connections, or the lack of such bonds, affect the characters' own personal views and decisions as well as how they relate to those around them.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2012
- Identifier
- CFE0004408, ucf:49386
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0004408