Of Unknown Origin: A Collection of Nonfiction Essays and Poems
Date
2014-05-15
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MFA in Creative Writing, The University of Tampa
Abstract
In May 2003, Phoebe’s riding lesson is going as planned until, in a freak accident, the bridle is ripped off the horse’s face. The panicked horse takes off, forcing Phoebe to leap off his back. By October she is admitted to St. Joseph’s Hospital where it is discovered she is septic. This double trauma changes her world. She loses friends, violin, horses, health, and youth all while struggling to recognize her new self, find happiness in the pieces of her dreams, and maintain her spirit.
Of Unknown Origin is a collection of linked narrative nonfiction essays and poetry, which engages with themes of anger, loneliness, pain, grief, fragility, and surrender. Through an honest, thoughtful, and willing tone, the narrator and the reader examine past experiences—trying to find the story in what was once thought to be known only to learn that much of life is prefixed with un-. Together narrator and reader can wonder what it means to be of unknown origin.
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Keywords
Trauma, Creative nonfiction, Poetry, Essays, Grief, Surrender