Where Light Is: a collection of short stories & The Definition of Snow: a chapbook

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Date
2011-04-19
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Publisher
Virginia Tech
Abstract

Where Light Is and The Definition of Snow are linked manuscripts in which a world is held in lyrical suspension. In the process of speaking alongside one another, the stories and poems in these collections explore the repercussions of grief, loss, and loneliness and how these are affected by relationships and gender dynamics. “A Feeling" gives voice to the female narrator’s sense of disembodiment in “Series of Doors." “Fishtails" and “At Watch" probe into the kind of complex familial relationships brought about through addiction and loss, just like the young girls’ relationships with their parents in “All Around Us" and “Vesuvian Summer." Throughout these collections, the genres are connected by form. Modes overlap, allowing lyric stories to speak alongside narrative poems. There is an attempt to fuse interior and exterior landscapes, a desire to rework memory, to hold on to something already acknowledged as being lost. These stories and poems meet in a space of simultaneous loneliness and illumination: where bad things are about to happen, but beauty is still insistent.

Description
Keywords
creative writing, free verse, poetry, lyric essay, fiction, short stories
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Collections