Feel Better Soon: Collected Short Stories

The stories in this collection were written from 2018-2021. They are fictional works designed to explore what happens when the mundane meets the extraordinary. Though the characters and their situations are works of the imagination, I attempted to create them as realistically as possible. By writing this way, these stories show the human behavior behind the choices we make and the limitations of our control. This theory is evident in “Feel Better Soon,” in which the narrator is a child with a failing body. No adult present takes her problem seriously, and her powerlessness becomes evident. Similarly, “The Neighbor” portrays a man who is harassed by a woman in the apartment next door. The harassments escalate, his control wanes, and he, too, is confronted with his lack of control. Finally, “Being” presents the clearest picture of helplessness, in which a man considers his life as he falls from a balcony at a baseball game. These themes and others permeate this collection and are intended to be explored in novel and engaging ways. Through these stories, I found that the control we have over any situation often ends at our own fingertips, and sometimes earlier. The choices made when a typically uneventful life becomes challenged by an extraordinary situation is what makes a story worth telling.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.F.A. (Master of Fine Arts)

Level thesis:degree_level

Masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Creative Writing and Media Arts (UMKC)

Grantor

University of Missouri--Kansas City

Year dc:date.issued

2021

Author dc:creator

• Olsen, Caleb

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Hodgen, Christie, 1974-

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/10355/84174

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:mospace.umsystem.edu:10355/84174