MFA 2019
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Browsing MFA 2019 by Subject "Short stories"
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Item Diary of a Dead Girl: Thing, I Saw Before Becoming a Woman(MFA in Creative Writing, The University of Tampa, 2019-06-13) Crespo, MichelleA selection of micro-fictions unveiling the truth of human nature through loss, abuse, secrecy, obsession, and the innate urge to kill.Item Dismount(The University of Tampa, 2019-01-03) Calderon, AramisDismount is a linked short story collection about five Marine veterans of Operation Iraqi Freedom who returned to America, but never went home. Each character is on a road, weighed down by their combat load, and yet they march on. This work examines their lives antebellum, during a combat deployment overseas, and the time afterwards reintegrating into society after the Corps.Item Most Accidents Occur in the Home: Stories(MFA in Creative Writing, The University of Tampa, 2019-06-13) Bird, TracyMost Accidents Occur in the Home is a collection of a dozen loosely linked stories that focus on family life and the damage we do to those who are closest to us, intentionally and unintentionally. In a dark, realistic style, stories are, in turns, hopeless and hopeful, devastating and humorous. Links between stories are predominantly implicit and thematic, and include motherhood, gender, friendship, violence, money, obligation, the parent/child bond, revenge, and the power of love to heal. Recurring motifs, including dogs, music, and pop-culture references, strengthen the ties between the stories and anchor them in time and place. In settings as varied as the U.S./Mexico border, Salt Lake City, Utah, and the coast of Virginia, and ranging in time from 1944 to the present day, the characters in these stories grapple with violence and redemption, exile and homecoming, abandonment and forgiveness. In a long-term care facility, a character contemplates the right reasons to commit murder. A middle-aged woman weighs the burden of her mother’s declining health. A grandmother gifts her small granddaughter an image to strengthen and guide her in the future. A jealous mother callously teaches her child racism. An unthinking girl makes a decision that will change a friend’s life forever. Mothers commit acts of great selfishness and selfless love. Children navigate the world without guidance. Sibling bonds are non-existent. Parents come and go with casual disregard. Violence—both subtle and direct—suffuses all of these relationships and ultimately raises the question: What is the meaning of family?Item Phosphoria(The University of Tampa, 2019-01-03) Phelps, MichaelPhosphoria is a short story collection consisting of nine stories with the common themes of alienation and marginalization, often but not always a product of the characters’ own efforts and ennui. The majority of the action in these stories happens in and around Mulberry, a small rural community in Central Florida with a depressed phosphate industry, low education standards, and a general sense of malaise, unconquerable and unchanging despite the buried desires of the characters. The actual community of Phosphoria was a small mining encampment located approximately seven miles from Mulberry, the evidence of which is still visible today. The area is very rural. The goal of the author was to write quiet, character-driven stories. Protagonists are usually given an opportunity to affect their circumstances through choice, and while they often justify their negative actions, there is usually an awareness of moral failure by the end of each narrative. While many of the subjects are of a dark or negative nature, it is his desire that, whenever possible, they be read as hopeful if not always positive. Hence the final story, intended as an optimistic (if wobbly) look into the future of one of the native sons of Mulberry. The author would like to express his deep appreciation to the residents of the town of Mulberry, several of whom were integral to the construction of this manuscript.