Date of Award

Fall 12-2015

Degree Type

Masters Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

English

Committee Chair

Steven Barthelme

Committee Chair Department

English

Committee Member 2

Andrew Milward

Committee Member 2 Department

English

Committee Member 3

Martina Sciolino

Committee Member 3 Department

English

Abstract

These stories attempt to follow John Gardner’s instruction to create a dream that will engage the reader. Mirroring the goal that an author has to create a relationship with his audience, each story in turn focuses on emotional details that convey the characters’ feelings of isolation or, alternatively, inclusion in their communities. In the first story, a young man tries to recreate his father’s king cake. In the next, a middle school girl fixates on her relationship with her sister. Trying to recapture the memory of a lost daughter, a man searches for the perfect nectar snowball. A mom, then, comes to terms with her parenting skills after there is trouble at her son’s mother’s morning out daycare. Finally, a man tries to rebuild his relationship with his daughter by taking care of a fawn. Each main character yearns for a relationship, as I, the writer, hope to connect with the reader of these stories by crafting details whose emotional quality evoke the audience’s memory.

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