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ORCID
https://orcid.org/0009-0006-2620-1742
Document Type
Campus Access
Degree Program
English
Degree Type
Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.)
Year Degree Awarded
2024
Month Degree Awarded
February
Keywords
History, Ghosts, Emotional Portraiture, Horror, Speculative
DOI
https://doi.org/10.7275/36401015
Abstract
TESTIMONIALS, a novella and other stories, is set within the Bay Area — deep in the districts long removed from the municipal budget — and delves into the lives of men, women, and adolescents longing for acknowledgment, reinvention, and peace amongst the many spirits, past and present.
In ‘Yard Range,’ a woman finds a surrogate in her Senator’s child and wonders what it would take to change one man’s vote. ‘Body Known’ follows a masseuse treating clients whose bodies archive stories, songs, jokes, and confessions. In ‘Height Marks,’ an elder passes on survival tips to a nephew ostracized from the family. ‘Spirit Per Capita’ chronicles one woman's desperate search for the woman who changed her life. In ‘Autofiction,’ a man must negotiate the cruelest of requests: tell us a story.
And in the novella ‘The Snow,’ a child and a night janitor navigate the worst summer camp in San Francisco, where strange messes happen overnight, and where words must be stolen.
Utilizing first, second, and collective narrations, these stories explore lives not defined by victimhood or race but by irretrievable and fleeting choices, unforgivable compromises, and loyalty to one’s people and one’s self. Here, history doesn’t repeat: it echoes, couplets, and yearns for you.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.