Category: Creative Works

How the second person perspective utilizes distance as a way to tell traumatic stories, specifically from marginalized perspectives

Presenter(s): Hayley Schlueter—English

Faculty Mentor(s): Will Alden

Session 4: Let’s KIDD Around: KIDD Creative Writing Program

This project aims to understand the unique ways in which the second person perspective can be utilized for stories about trauma, and therefore, stories about marginalized identities and experiences—meaning people who experience some form of systemic oppression, such as women, people of color, and LGBTQ+ people . The second person often creates a sense of discomfort in the reader by calling direct attention to the reader, essentially forcing them to become a part of the story by inhabiting the “you” and the life of the story’s character . At the same time that the “you” creates this often uncomfortable intimacy, it also creates a sense of distance . My research explores the ways in which the second person perspective utilizes these seeming contradictions between intimacy and alienation, discomfort and distance, as a method for telling stories about trauma and identity through the examination of short stories such as Michael Cunningham’s “Mister Brother” and Kiese Laymon’s “You are the Second Person .” I am interested in the ways in which marginalized authors and characters, who already experience the world as deeply alienating, are able to use the second person as a way to emphasize and control that alienation .

Digital Infrastructure and Physical Displacement in Portland, Oregon.

Presenter(s): Marcella Rosen—Art and Technology

Faculty Mentor(s): David Rueter

Session 3: An Unprecedented Creative Work

In June 2018 the Portland City Council adopted Resolution 37371, which aims to implement programs that will transition Portland, OR, into a smart city . This thesis investigates Resolution 37371’s obscured relationship to large tech conglomerations such as Google and AT&T . It explores the financial incentives that drive corporations to hide their influence over the urban built environment, and the digital facades that are created in order to do so . Employing the work of contemporary artists such as Mishka Henner, Guy Debord, and Hito Steyerl, as well as contemporary theorists such as Shoshana Zuboff, Shannon Mattern, Maros Krivy and Orit Halpern . This thesis will build a framework for understanding the dangers of hidden profit-driven cybernetic urbanism that will inform better conceptualization of Resolution 37371, as well as contribute to the methodology of a web and video art piece that will be accessible and digitally circulatable .

What I Wanted to Say, But Couldn’t: Epistolary Poetry’s Effects on Access and Intimacy for Asian-American Diasporic Poets

Presenter(s): Katie Quines—Spatial Data Science, Geography

Faculty Mentor(s): Ariel Machell

Session 4: Let’s KIDD Around: KIDD Creative Writing Program

While much attention has been paid to the thematic similarities between poetic works produced by Asian-American writers, little commentary exists on why several Asian-American poets are partial to a particular poetic form: the epistolary poem, or a poem stylized as a letter . Contemporary poets ranging from Franny Choi to Ocean Vuong have produced several epistolary poems that discuss their perspectives on the experience of being part of the Asian diaspora . However, the epistolary form creates varied and distinct effects on themes common to diasporic writing, with some letter-poems giving authors access to voice and emotions that critique external, social structures, while some choose to address issues that exist internal to the Asian-American community . This project explores different benefits that the epistolary format confers upon poems written to address the experience of diaspora . By analyzing letter-poems from four Asian-American poets in relation to Marie Myuk-Ok’s theory that the epistolary poem functions as a means of giving minorities access to social critique, I argue that the letter-poems give access to more than pure critique . Rather, the epistolary format functions as a liminal space, which allows diasporic writers to both confront and come to terms with various forms of absence (racial equality and power, of knowledge of our own communities or histories, of physical separation from loved ones, etc .) . This project aims to help poets like myself, who write under the shadow of diaspora, understand the epistolary poem as a form that is ripe with potential for creating new understandings of identity .

Emery Owens Abstract

Presenter(s): Chelsea Pitarresi—Journalism, Cinema Studies

Faculty Mentor(s): Dan Cheung

Session 4: Let’s KIDD Around: KIDD Creative Writing Program

“Emery Owens” is a story of the liminal spaces of life; the peculiarity of the early stages of adulthood and adult relationships, when you have been given both the freedom and restrictions of an established adult, but have no idea how to take advantage of them . Max finds comfort in these in-betweens, and has difficulties moving to the next “big thing” his life has to offer . While adjusting to surprising annoyances in his new job at the bowling alley, Max leans on his brand-new relationship with Delilah for comfort . As the relationship progresses though, he finds himself not wanting to break the illusions of perfection that newness can offer relationships, and directs his anxieties towards Delilah’s unusual pet, Emery Owens . When I first started writing the story, I was focused purely on the strange dynamic between Max and Emery Owens and was writing with a very specific and dramatic ending in mind . However, as my writing came into shape, I found the real value of Max’s story in the smaller moments .

Suspending Disbelief in the Unreal: The Craft of Magical Realism

Presenter(s): Sophia Mick—Humanities

Faculty Mentor(s): Will Alden

Session 4: Let’s KIDD Around: KIDD Creative Writing Program

How do you get a reader to happily believe that your character’s husband has turned into an ape? Or that your narrator has developed a concerning but largely unimportant ability to fly? Why? Magical realism is often distinguished from other literary genres with a definition, however malleable, along these lines: a realistic narrative with surreal elements . These surreal elements are what fascinate me . This essay explores, on the micro scale, how understatement and detail help craft the suspension of disbelief necessary in the creation of magical realism, and on a macro scale, what magical realism means, both the term itself and the implications it has for author and reader . My research is composed of a close analysis of the micro techniques in works by authors Aimee Bender, Joseph O’Neill and Karen Russell, analysis of craft essays by Russell and Alice Munro, and a brief look at some of my own writing through the lens of Bret Anthony Johnston’s “Don’t Write What You Know .” As a lover of the magically real, I intend to examine and explain the literary craft of convincing magical realism and hopefully, to grasp at some understanding of why anyone would, or should, write it at all .

A Lost Whisper: Recovering Vanessa Howard

Presenter(s): Lorelei Kelsey—English, Creative Writing

Session 4: Cultural Considerations—The Other

During my Spring term in 2019 at the University of Oregon I was assigned an archival assignment, I was to uncover a little known author of color . I elected to find a copy of a collection of poetry edited by June Jordan and Terri Bush, The Voice of the Children (1972) . I had heard that the kids who were included in the collection were from the intercity in Brooklyn, and that they were a part of a poetry workshop led by Jordan and Bush . I wasn’t aware how moving the work would end up being . After receiving the book I decided to highlight one of the students, Vanessa Howard . In this presentation I will be highlighting my journey through researching this book and reading some poetry . In doing so I hope to highlight the importance of poetry and freedom of expression .

Ecopoetry and Us

Presenter(s): Adeline Fecker—Biology

Co-Presenter(s): Nolan Kriska, Hailey O’Donnell

Faculty Mentor(s): Barbara Mossberg

Session 3: An Unprecedented Creative Work

“Ecopoetics” comes from the two greek roots: oikos, meaning family, property and house; and poiesis, meaning to make . Together, we understand ecopoetry as home making; a process of creation and compassion and belonging . In this time of quarantine, home making means even more as our physical and mental ecosystem changes . Last year, our team presented environmental awareness poetry with help from Oregon’s poet laureate Kim Stafford . We worked hard to immerse our audience and instil memorable value . We did this through maximizing the use of space, language, visuals and physical objects . This year we seek to inspire others to express themselves so that their long term emotional growth continues through the tragedy of a pandemic . Through poetry, we truly harness mindfulness and we interrogate the meaning of what it means to be healthy . We hope you join us on this poetic journey and construction project for an ecosystem of healing.

The Harp-Weaver and Other Poems: A Haunting Maternal Presence in Edna St. Vincent Millay’s Poetry

Presenter(s): Martha DeCosta—English (major) and Creative Writing (minor)

Faculty Mentor(s): Corbett Upton

Session 3: Beyond a Melody

The image of the ideal mother as a self-sacrificial caretaker for her children echoes in Edna St . Vincent Millay’s Pulitzer Prize winning poem “The Ballad of the Harp-Weaver”: “She sang as she worked, / And the harp-strings spoke; Her voice never faltered, / And the thread never broke .” Although deserving of its high praise and reception, this sentimental ballad’s appearance in The Harp-Weaver and Other Poems collection seems somewhat incongruous, given the nature with which Millay’s other poems explore the roles of motherhood . She depicts speakers who regard children, or the absence of children, with detachment and pity for their unsettled lives, reinforcing underlying anxiety or association with death and suffering . This volume deals with darker themes such as domestic violence, neglect, and imagined realities, embodying various forms of motherhood and not a traditional depiction of gentleness and love . Much of the excitement and the controversy surrounding Millay focuses on her bisexuality and compelling voice for the early twentieth century’s New Woman . However, critical lenses historically discuss her poetic themes in connection with her biographical background . They leave unexplored gaps in their research by minimalizing or overlooking her poetic representations of alternate women’s roles . To enhance and expand the larger and perhaps limited literary discourse about motherhood in The Harp-Weaver and Other Poems, I analyze Millay’s portrayal of a haunting maternal presence throughout this unique volume .