Let My Work Speak: A Collection
Date Available
5-9-2024
Year of Publication
2024
Degree Name
Master of Fine Arts (MFA)
Document Type
Master's Thesis
College
Arts and Sciences
Department/School/Program
English
First Advisor
Crystal Wilkinson
Abstract
This is a blend of works both fiction and nonfiction The collection includes: a two chapter excerpt of a novel in progress, a braided/historical essay interrogating imperialism and privilege through the rise of NIKE shoes, and a lyric/mosaic essay that acts as the self-reflective quasi-memoir interrogating memory, aging and the impermanence of everything. The novel except is set in the city of Denver in a parallel reality. All characters and events are fictional. The story follows Outside, a Black man in his early thirties who has come to Denver by way of NYC. He’s there on sabbatical to write but is trapped when a supernatural occurrence cuts the city of Denver off from the rest of the world. The essays are rooted in history global and personal, factual and mis-remembered. All of it is my way of challenging and disrupting the ‘easy’ narratives we’ve become so accustomed to, particularly around: faith, morality, goodness, success, truth, self-awareness and the history we are taught versus lived experiences. And all of it is done in a conspicuously Black voice.
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.13023/etd.2024.140
Recommended Citation
Long, Julian, "Let My Work Speak: A Collection" (2024). Theses and Dissertations--English. 170.
https://uknowledge.uky.edu/english_etds/170
