Date of Award

Spring 2015

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Fine Arts (MFA)

Department

English

Program/Concentration

Creative Writing

Committee Director

Michael Pearson

Committee Member

Blake Bailey

Committee Member

Janet Peery

Call Number for Print

Special Collections; LD4331.E64 A74 2015

Abstract

FIRE DANCING, a collection of personal essays, tells the story of my experience with mental illness. The first section depicts my experience with my first bipolar episode, allowing the reader to experience the ups, downs and new worries with me as they unfold. The second section describes my childhood, my family life, and the hints of mental health problems around me, both in my family's behavior and my own. I show how anxiety, depression, mania and addiction all showed up at the holiday dinner table, the unspoken members of our family. The third section depicts my experience watching a lover's brain unravel, unable to help as his fractured mind can no longer make sense of reality. Throughout the work, I take a close look at why mental illness is kept so silent­ particularly in families-and why it is so important to start talking.

Rights

In Copyright. URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).

DOI

10.25777/fs6d-t213

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