Schedule of Events

A Little to the Left is a collection of short and flash fiction that aims to elicit a paradoxical feeling of otherworldliness and familiarity in the reader through a set of varied but cohesive short stories. Inspired by the off-kilter nature of the magical realism genre and the punchy impact of shorter fiction as a form, A Little to the Left creates a world that is just that: ours, but a little bit in the wrong—or perhaps simply different—direction. With its concentration on voice and atmosphere and a commitment to witty humor in the face of strange and sometimes weighty subjects, this collection tackles the absurd with authenticity. Detailed imagery and repetition make constant appearances in this anthology, and contribute to the pulling in of the reader. Once drawn in, themes of connection, acceptance, and the wonderfully weird keep them engaged. Built on the reading of many stories that paved the way for it, A Little to the Left melds experimentations in form, structure, and style with the content of the work to achieve a sense of curiosity in its readers, leaving them with a sort of unsettled contentedness and content unsettledness. Ultimately, A Little to the Left crafts a compilation of strange yet authentic stories, with settings and characters that reflect the odder part of ourselves and our world back at us, and endings that let us know that—no matter how weird it gets—life has the capacity to turn out okay despite it all. 

The goal of this project is to create an engrossing world with a gothic style and an exciting story filled with mystery and action. The main motivation for this story consists of years of daydreaming and wanting to write a fantasy story. The story combines many personal interests, martial arts, sword combat, and mythology to create an engrossing story that maintains depth in its scenes. In addition, its creation consists of many storyboards and renditions to find the right beat for the plot. Many literary inspirations were also present, including Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy, Miyamoto Musashi by Eiji Yoshikawa, and the Fablehaven series by Brandon Mull. In a world inspired by Dante Alighieri’s interpretation of Hell in The Divine Comedy, a half-Angel, half-Demon named Belton Manus investigates the seedy underbelly of the current ruler of Hell known only as the Scarlet Prince. The setting, Cocytus, is a frozen lake at the bottom of the ninth circle of Hell controlled by the Scarlet Prince, as well as the Cocytus Justice Department. In the midst of this, attacks by tenebrous undead rear their head and Belton is sent to investigate. Alongside the pugilistic Belton, the story will also include interesting characters, such as mysterious necrologist Alister Chillingsworth and the prideful and armigerous William Lichtträger.

Psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross conceptualized and elaborated on the five stages of grief within her written work On Death and Dying. However, this work highlights the experience of the dying person who will soon pass away rather than those left behind after such a loss. Due to her ideas becoming skewed into the Western culture’s perspective of bereavement, her work cannot accurately be attributed to its modern attachment. 
Grief is dumbfounding in its ability to stain the fabric of our existences, and contains a vast spectrum of grieving experiences that far surpass Kübler-Ross’ five stages. Through both scholarly and creative sources, there may be an opportunity to dig hands-on in discovering what creates the grieving process. This opens up questions on creating the perspective of the griever. What makes up grief? What attachments force a persisting closeness to grief? What does society perceive grief as? 
More importantly, what comes next? What is the suggested goal of a person who has experienced and lives within the confinement of bereavement? Through the idea of “positive psychology” and a deeper understanding of identity and attachments to lost loved ones, we may suggest a path to moving forward for bereaved individuals. 
So, with this project, I wish to leave a suggestion for society to welcome grief into their lives in a positive light, and hope to normalize bereavement in order to forge a healthy path towards healing after loss.

Influenced by the ever looming fear of old age and memory loss, I conducted a series of interviews with my father in which he recounted stories of key moments in his life. These interviews were intended to keep a record of the stories he's told, and to make sure that what he has experienced will not be forgotten. Taking influence from the lyric essay and the experimental memoir genres, “Dust and Moonlight” is a collection of essays and short stories that resulted from the interviews, and draws inspiration from my father’s life and my own memories of him. The collection examines the intricacies of a father and son relationship, and further explores concepts such as fatherhood, love, and loss, and I also aim to demonstrate the numerous ways stories can be told. With the anxiety of memory loss and dementia as a whole framing the piece, I intend to accurately portray the difficulties endured by those experiencing the loss of a loved one, whether it be physically or mentally.

In 2020, American society experienced a mass uprising after the murder of George Floyd. The eight long minutes of Floyd’s murder, which was broadcast everywhere, documented the violence right before our eyes. Like many young members of my community, I found myself scrolling through social media to distract myself from the overwhelming reality of the state of our world. I came across a video of a Black man who asked, “Why can’t Black people have movies like Harry Potter? Why can’t we be the focal point of an adventure movie or book that doesn’t showcase our trauma?” These crucial questions caused me to think about the books that have shaped my life, including The Hunger Games, Percy Jackson, and The Perks of Being a Wallflower.  I realized I never saw myself in those novels. The more I discovered how much my community had been deprived of positive depictions of their experience, the more hope seemed like a discourteous joke. Or so I thought. Hope was restored when I created my own Black coming-of-age book club through California Lutheran University’s Community of Scholars for Black Lives program with high school students from Ventura County. This presentation explores the significance of using Black stories that showcase positive stories to unify adolescents of every background by showing the result of my Black coming-of-age Book Club from spring 2021.