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For my Fellowship this summer I produced and published a collection of four short fiction stories that explored the experience of a Romanian family as they immigrate to the U.S, assimilate, and grow apart as time passes. These stories were inspired by a piece I created for my advanced fiction class in the fall 2021 semester, as well as my own personal experience with my Romanian-American family. For research I spent the first part of my summer reading various books that encapsulated themes of multiple changing characters, time progression, connected collections of short stories, and family dynamics. In addition, with each story taking place in a different year, the first in 1993, the second in 1999, the third in 2007, and the fourth in 2017. I also researched each year for technology and pop culture to correctly set each story. Finally, I researched the specifics of immigration of Romanians to the U.S to greater detail than I ever had previously, learning where and when they immigrated and also when they did not. After this I wrote and revised my stories with my mentor Paul Graham, and also did some fun artwork for the online publications. Overall I was very happy with what I produced and found the experience of this fellowship invaluable.
links:
https://narratives.digital/narrative/lost-dog
https://narratives.digital/narrative/best-halloween-ever