All of these artifacts were written after my semester at NELP, and show varying degrees of asserting my own voice and learning to feel comfortable in it. The first three are creative writing pieces from my upper level writing (English 407) inside my major, and the last two are creative non-fiction pieces from English 325 and English 425. Click on the boxes next to the titles to read my writing.
The material for She. is from my experience and was originally written in the first person, but for this rendition I wanted to see how it would read in the third person as though I'm merely relating these experiences. While writing this piece I felt like this distance was more effective, but it comes at the expense of the authority I could bring if people understood that it was mine.
In Katrina I developed a persona through which to tell a story I didn't know personally, but had read about. The distance feels more appropriate here because it's not necessarily my story to tell. But the impulse to try to understand through creation, is in line with progress in my self assurance. It's a topic I wouldn't have touched before.
In Perfect Pecan Hands I channeled Toni Morison's voice, and utilized her characters and plot to create a new scene inspired by events in the book. This has the same impulse as Katrina, but relies more heavily on Morrison's prose style rather than my own.
Shameful Shitters was an essay I followed all the way through, even though I knew it would warrant weird stares and judgment. My self-assurance is clear both in my topic choice, and my writing follows suit.
I have always been interested in family dynamics, mine specifically, but haven't written about it explicitly because of its potential to complicate that dynamic and or harm it. In this piece I attempt to paint a portrait of us from my perspective, with the question of 'what do we do for the ones we love' in the back of my mind.
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