Barbara Z. Harper '58 University Fellows Endowed Fund

Although the United States of America has long been considered a powerhouse for regional storytelling through the genres of Wild Westerns and Southern Gothic fiction, novels written about Appalachia, like most media that covers the area, have struggled to have a strong foothold in the larger mainstream media.

This summer, my project focused on testing the boundaries between genre fiction and literature. I revised 200 pages of my fantasy novel, Song of the White Dove, with the intention of understanding how far traditional plot formulas, tropes, and archetypes can be challenged and blended with literary techniques. I learned about methods to create a piece of writing that walks a middle ground between elusive, subtextual literature and traditional genre fiction, in a way that captures the best of both, crafting a work of art without losing the attention of wider audiences.

What is the role of natural world in times of chaos? When, if ever, do we shed the trivialities of human behavior? In the beginning of a parodic post-apocalyptic fiction piece, characters explore what it means to be part of a community after losing everything and how far one can exploit others before compromising their integrity. This project attempts to push the boundaries of conventional fiction forms and investigate the creative process of writing long form fiction compared to short form fiction, and will be presented during the Festival of Scholarship in April 2025. 

The goal of my project was to write short stories serving as psychological portraits of individuals coming of age, with a thematic focus on familial independence and socioeconomic mobility. Throughout this project, I gained insight on the drafting process and how to use such processes to produce psychologically rich characters. For each of the two stories produced, I wrote three separate drafts, each with a distinct title and focus.

During the duration of her fellowship, Sam read and analyzed six of Shakespeare’s Roman and Greek plays. She also researched a variety of methodologies including, feminism, new historicism, and marxism. Her research into various methodologies showed her a variety of critical methods from which to approach writing her article, so that she could combine them to create her own unique methodology.