A Guideway through the Land of Ghosts and Other Stories is a collection about ghosts, gods, and other monsters that hide in plain sight. Inspired by Chinese mythology and folktale, this collection consists of three novella-length pieces of fiction and one flash-fiction interlude all set in the same universe. The form is largely inspired by a Chinese classic called Shan Hai Jing, or as scholar Richard E. Strassberg translates the title, Guideways Through Mountains and Seas. Shan Hai Jing is what Strassberg calls a “cosmography” and was intended to depict the world as ancient people saw it, rife with strange creatures and mythological figures that weren’t separated from human affairs by any clear boundary. Aligning with the cosmographical form and ethos, these stories take transformations, crossing boundaries, and category-defying creatures as their subjects. They each follow a character from this universe on their individual journey, traveling with these students of the strange from seaside Californian towns to the land of the dead. Within each novella, forms such as lists and folktales intervene, drawing attention to the collection as a compiled document, and the collection’s final section, the appendices, pulls back to describe the characters’ universe more broadly.
","abstract_html":"<p><em>A Guideway through the Land of Ghosts and Other Stories</em> is a collection about ghosts, gods, and other monsters that hide in plain sight. Inspired by Chinese mythology and folktale, this collection consists of three novella-length pieces of fiction and one flash-fiction interlude all set in the same universe. The form is largely inspired by a Chinese classic called <em>Shan Hai Jing,</em> or as scholar Richard E. Strassberg translates the title, <em>Guideways Through Mountains and Seas</em>. <em>Shan Hai Jing</em> is what Strassberg calls a “cosmography” and was intended to depict the world as ancient people saw it, rife with strange creatures and mythological figures that weren’t separated from human affairs by any clear boundary. Aligning with the cosmographical form and ethos, these stories take transformations, crossing boundaries, and category-defying creatures as their subjects. They each follow a character from this universe on their individual journey, traveling with these students of the strange from seaside Californian towns to the land of the dead. Within each novella, forms such as lists and folktales intervene, drawing attention to the collection as a compiled document, and the collection’s final section, the appendices, pulls back to describe the characters’ universe more broadly.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Bauman, Audrey"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Master of Fine Arts","degree_level":"Thesis","degree_discipline":"English","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Jennifer A. Howard"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2021,"date_issued":"2021-05-01T07:00:00Z","date_published":"2021-05-01T07:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T03:24:38Z","subjects":["Creative Writing","Fiction"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://commons.nmu.edu/theses/666","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Jennifer A. Howard"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Bauman, Audrey"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2031-03-30T07:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["English"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Master of Fine Arts"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Creative Writing","Fiction"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://commons.nmu.edu/theses/666"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["A Guideway through the Land of Ghosts and Other Stories is a collection about ghosts, gods, and other monsters that hide in plain sight. Inspired by Chinese mythology and folktale, this collection consists of three novella-length pieces of fiction and one flash-fiction interlude all set in the same universe. The form is largely inspired by a Chinese classic called Shan Hai Jing, or as scholar Richard E. Strassberg translates the title, Guideways Through Mountains and Seas. Shan Hai Jing is what Strassberg calls a “cosmography” and was intended to depict the world as ancient people saw it, rife with strange creatures and mythological figures that weren’t separated from human affairs by any clear boundary. Aligning with the cosmographical form and ethos, these stories take transformations, crossing boundaries, and category-defying creatures as their subjects. They each follow a character from this universe on their individual journey, traveling with these students of the strange from seaside Californian towns to the land of the dead. Within each novella, forms such as lists and folktales intervene, drawing attention to the collection as a compiled document, and the collection’s final section, the appendices, pulls back to describe the characters’ universe more broadly.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["A GUIDEWAY THROUGH THE LAND OF GHOSTS AND OTHER STORIES"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Jennifer A. Howard"],"dc:creator":["Bauman, Audrey"],"dc:date.available":["2031-03-30T07:00:00Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["A Guideway through the Land of Ghosts and Other Stories is a collection about ghosts, gods, and other monsters that hide in plain sight. Inspired by Chinese mythology and folktale, this collection consists of three novella-length pieces of fiction and one flash-fiction interlude all set in the same universe. The form is largely inspired by a Chinese classic called Shan Hai Jing, or as scholar Richard E. Strassberg translates the title, Guideways Through Mountains and Seas. Shan Hai Jing is what Strassberg calls a “cosmography” and was intended to depict the world as ancient people saw it, rife with strange creatures and mythological figures that weren’t separated from human affairs by any clear boundary. Aligning with the cosmographical form and ethos, these stories take transformations, crossing boundaries, and category-defying creatures as their subjects. They each follow a character from this universe on their individual journey, traveling with these students of the strange from seaside Californian towns to the land of the dead. Within each novella, forms such as lists and folktales intervene, drawing attention to the collection as a compiled document, and the collection’s final section, the appendices, pulls back to describe the characters’ universe more broadly.
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