Stories

Various bits of non-graphic writing that I've done over the years . . . not recently updated, as these days my words rarely come without pictures.

Creative Writing
assorted fantasy stories, adaptations, autobiographical villanelles and fiction snippets, all by yours truly. well, except I've just cleaned out the bad, and wow but there's almost nothing left . . . I haven't been writing much lately. I really should.

Sea Change: Re-envisioning Andersen's "The Little Mermaid"- This is a collection of retellings of Han's Christian Andersen's "The Little Mermaid," done for my Fairy Tales & Gender class final project (sophomore year of college).
Story I: The Mermaid's Love
Story II: Lost
Story III: Meriel

Surfacing- a short story I wrote for my Short Story Writing workshop class. It's a rather serious little piece about an emotionally detached woman, and the events that lead to her beginning to shake off some of that detachment. It has issues, but I'm rather fond of the ocean imagery. Can you tell that I have a thing? Anyway, as I'm not entirely satisfied with this, I may revisit it at a later date, but here's what I have for now.

Apple - this story was an experiment. Everything in my Short Story Writing class (junior year of college) had been very serious, character-driven, traditional narrative, and oh so profound. Wanting to play and shake things up a bit, I took one of my poems and adapted it into a story that just takes one metaphor and extends it. I was surprised at how much character actually emerged when I was consciously trying NOT to focus on character development. Anyway, it's a fun little piece. Can you tell what it's about?

Battle of the Brothers- I wrote this little piece for my Senior AP English class in high school. It's an extra scene for Sophocles' Antigone, in which her two brothers meet on the battlefield for their final combat. It's rather melodramatic, but I think that fits. ^^

Essays
fairly self-explanatory. essays written for college classes.

The Thing Itself And Not The Myth: Searching For Reality Through Descents Into Tradition - this was written for my senior-year English seminar, Going To Hell In Modern Poetry, about a tradition of descents into hell (begun in Homer and Vergil) in, well, modern poetry. The essay is about two female poets, Adrienne Rich and Eavan Boland, and how they fit into this tradition (and thus the larger literary tradition as well) . . . by comparing each woman's "descent" poem to T.S. Eliot's "The Waste Land," I make a point for not singling female poets out to the point that they become isolated from the tradition to which they make valuable contributions. I won a department prize for this.

Poetry
a few random poems written at various times in my life. I haven't written any in ages, for some reason.

curlycue (June 2001) A poem written for my first love, and I still really like the imagery.

psyche (June 2002) A declaration of independence, of sorts, from the end of high school. Mythological references.

that last evening (November 2003) A quick little love poem.

mazed (February 2004) Girls in fairytales . . . this may be a specific reference to something, but you'll have to guess.

apples (February 2004) Another extended metaphor. Probably my favorite of my poems.

mare (August 2004) An altered version of "The Little Mermaid." Was published in Labrys, Smith College's literary magazine.