ORCID

https://orcid.org/ 0009-0005-6214-571X

Keywords

poetry, fiction, speculative, literary, mental health, novella

Abstract

Lost Things is a novella that explores sexuality, family, and mental illness. When Pearl drops out of college following a crisis in mental health, she returns to Sunnyside, Florida, where she does not belong. Pearl’s queerness and inability to meet her mother’s harsh expectations render her an outsider in her own home. However, Pearl finds solace and companionship in Saint Anthony, a goldfish her little sister won at the school fair. Pearl and Saint Anthony devolve into mutual obsession: Pearl, with the beached blue whale that washes up a mile from her home, and Saint Anthony with the ocean. Pearl’s plans for suicide are stalled as she plots to see the whale, resolve the fragmented relationship with her first love, and confront a family secret that has haunted her since childhood. Over the course of a single summer week, Pearl must face the presumed predestination of her death and the reality of a world that may not be finished with her yet.

Completion Date

2025

Semester

Spring

Committee Chair

Schwartz, David

Degree

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

College

College of Arts and Humanities

Department

English

Identifier

DP0029289

Document Type

Dissertation/Thesis

Campus Location

Orlando (Main) Campus

Subjects

Loss (Psychology) in literature; Psychological fiction, Trinidadian and Tobagonian (English); Sexual minorities' writings, English; Beaches in literature; Fishes in literature

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