English Language and Literature ETDs

Publication Date

8-17-2011

Abstract

My dissertation consists of poetry and two non-fiction essays written during my enrollment in the Creative Writing Master of Fine Arts program at the University of New Mexico. The manuscript begins with an essay detailing the moment in my life when I started to write again, after a writer\u201fs block that lasted fifteen years, from 1980-1995. The following sections of poetry deal with issues that I consider to be main themes throughout my entire body of work: race and class. I specifically explore what it is like to be Latino and working-class at a time when the depressed economy has led to a loss of jobs not seen since the Great Depression of the 1930s. I give the reader my thoughts and feelings during these times of fear and racial divide, with the hope of shedding light on the common stake we all share as human beings. I close with an essay about the childhood memories I have growing up with a parent who was an addict, and how I came to realize my bitter feelings of abandonment were not the total summation of the relationship I had with my father.

Degree Name

MFA Creative Writing

Level of Degree

Masters

Department Name

English

First Committee Member (Chair)

Warner, Sharon Oard

Second Committee Member

Mueller, Dan

Third Committee Member

Romero, Levi

Fourth Committee Member

Gomez, Laura

Fifth Committee Member

Mares, E.A. 'Tony'

Language

English

Keywords

American poetry--21st century, American essays--21st century, Race in literature, Social classes in literature

Document Type

Dissertation

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Available for download on Thursday, December 17, 2099

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