Abstract

This short fiction collection follows mostly Floridian characters pushed to their limits by subtle turmoil, the vicissitudes of life's normalcy from heartbreak to grief. The titular story, "Even the Fish Fly Away," sees a young woman from unfortunate roots reconciling her sense of home when her family visits her wealthy fiance's tropical island mansion. In "Caregiver," a man, haunted by the murder of his brother, revisits his decision to abandon his former partner to become a live-in caregiver to his dementia-afflicted mother. In stories like "Bones," "Frog at the Bottom of the Stairs," and "Daron's Gerunds," characters even struggle to pinpoint the causes of their pain, let alone how they feel about those causes. The complexity of subtle turmoil stems from its normalcy, that these problems are not unique but as commonplace as red lights and rainy days, catching the characters' tensions inconveniently between anticipated and devastating.

Notes

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Graduation Date

2020

Semester

Spring

Advisor

Poissant, David

Degree

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

College

College of Arts and Humanities

Department

English

Degree Program

Creative Writing

Format

application/pdf

Identifier

CFE0008007; DP0023147

URL

https://purls.library.ucf.edu/go/DP0023147

Language

English

Release Date

May 2025

Length of Campus-only Access

5 years

Access Status

Masters Thesis (Campus-only Access)

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Restricted to the UCF community until May 2025; it will then be open access.

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