English Language and Literature ETDs

Publication Date

Spring 5-16-2026

Abstract

In lush and lyrical language, this collection of poems traverses the speaker’s transformations through homecoming, crises both personal and global, and intimacy in dispersal. The speaker’s strategies of care and survival root, bloom and collide on a landscape of family stories, biblical parables, ghostly encounters, classroom frustrations and still aching memories. These poems touch on themes of failure, queerness, religion, survival, resistance and the discipline of hope, all while embracing an emotional commitment to tenderness and a reverence for connection. This dissertation is an emotional archive, and an invitation to know by weeping, laughing, loving, and remembering.

Degree Name

MFA Creative Writing

Level of Degree

Masters

Department Name

English

First Committee Member (Chair)

Lisa D. Chavez

Second Committee Member

Dr. Marisa P. Clark

Third Committee Member

Dr. Bernadine Hernández

Fourth Committee Member

Dr. Daisy Atterbury

Language

English

Keywords

Poetry, Queerness, Resistance, Survival

Document Type

Dissertation

Download

Available for download on Thursday, May 16, 2126

Share

COinS