Department of English

Creative Thesis: Screen Memory is a short story collection that fuses the science fiction and bildungsroman genres in a near-future Los Angeles. Focusing on the experience of young adult girls, these four short stories uncover the way technology encroaches on the mind, as well as what nostalgia feeds on in a new world. While the protagonists do not know each other, the stories are linked by their setting in LA, a city that grows older throughout the span of the collection. A hookup in Hollywood brings back memories of a former friend. A young reseller runs into a ghost in a fire-scarred Bel Air. A teenager gets attached to a strange online forum. A new work-from-home technology might free humans from their day job—at a cost. Screen Memory explores the fluid ways the mind filters time as it dwells inside, moves through, and looks back on adolescence.