Date of Award

5-31-2022

Document Type

Campus Access Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Fine Arts (MFA)

Department

English/Creative Writing

First Advisor

John Fulton

Second Advisor

Jennifer Haigh

Third Advisor

Brittany Peterson

Abstract

GO WEST is a collection of short stories that are not only set in the American West—several of them are set in the town of Grand Junction in western Colorado—but also that explore the idea of “west” as a symbol: west as moving on, west as healing, west as the unknown. These stories are meant to take a more positive look at the American West and the people who populate it than many stories of the West that have come before. In “Canned Peaches, or The Real World Goes Like,” a woman learns more about her grandfather’s suicide in order to begin her healing journey. A young woman finds a friend in difficult times in “This Story Ends in the Emergency Room.” And siblings are reunited in order to lay their father to rest in “Sunset Point.” None of these stories could be set anywhere else, however, since their settings are just as particularized as the people within. These are stories of the American West.

Comments

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