Date of Graduation
2015
Document Type
MFA Creative Writing Thesis
Degree Type
MFA
College
Eberly College of Arts and Sciences
Department
English
Committee Chair
James Harms
Committee Co-Chair
Adam Komisaruk
Committee Member
Mary Ann Samyn
Abstract
A Census of Ghosts is a collection of poetry that explores personal biography by moving into imagined space and challenging narrative structures. The through line of the collection is the death of the speaker's niece, set in interludes between each section of the book. These poems act as way-points that disrupt as well as place the reader and speaker. Their placement mimics the continuing to experience of grief throughout the speaker's life: sudden but expected. They serve as grounding moments, and emotional keystones the other poems may be seen in the light of, but stray away from a purely narrative structure.
Recommended Citation
Nuttall, Patric, "A Census of Ghosts" (2015). Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports. 7115.
https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd/7115
Embargo Reason
Permanent Embargo – MFA Creative Writing