Department of English

My honors thesis is a collection of short stories that follow a threaded theme of girlhood and coming of age in the post-modern period. Each story takes a deep dive into the social, emotional, and romantic challenges that accompany gender, race, and sexuality with a focus on the maternal and paternal familial bond (specifically from the Black American perspective). The poems focus on mental health struggles while the prose navigates the internal and external pressures of time, identity, belonging, and what is ultimately demanded of characters as they grow.