Document Type

Thesis

Degree

Master of Fine Arts

Major

Creative Writing

Date of Defense

3-5-2024

Graduate Advisor

John Dalton

Committee

John Dalton

Shane Seely

Katie Holtmeyer

Abstract

Radium Girls & Other Stories is a collection of short stories, flash fiction, and memoir that share a common style and portray overlapping themes. Quite a few of these pieces, “Radium Girls,” “The Culling,” and “Violence,” for example, deal with untraditional female characters and their place in a world made for men. In “Radium Girls” the women embrace their role as pretty fun things to look at. In “The Culling” and “Violence” they reject traditional gender roles and join the boys in their world to do what they want, when they want. Other pieces, like “Plutonium Party,” “Trashy Alchemy,” and “Personal Apocalypse,” contemplate the role of end times and how it plays into interpersonal relationships. Certain pieces, such as “The Culling” and “A Work of Fiction,” and “Modern Problems for Modern Readers” toy with the idea that they are stories – calling readers attention to this fact through a meta-voice. Almost all of these stories tackle alcoholism and partying.

Note: This thesis is under a author requested embargo until 2224, after which it will become available in accordance with end of expected copyright protection. This embargo year is intentional and not an error.

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Available for download on Sunday, April 11, 2224

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