Date

7-21-2026

Department

College of Arts and Sciences

Degree

Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing (MFA)

Chair

Karen Dodson

Keywords

Narrative Craft, Creative Nonfiction, Creative Writing

Disciplines

Arts and Humanities | Creative Writing

Abstract

What is this world without stories? Without truth and the sharing of knowledge for those that come after us? As a Christian, I see the Bible as the most influential narrative in my life and imagination. The Bible is filled with facts, lists and information we can verify, but that does not make it any less creative. How can one read the Bible and not see God’s creativity not only in creation, but in every word? Psalms 139: 13-15 states, “For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvelous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth” (The Holy Bible, 2006). There is none more creative than Him, but we all have His creativity bubbling within us.

Dr. Gene C. Fant, President of North Greenville University in Greenville, South Carolina, believes God is “an Author whose skill and grace imbue the broad range of the stories that we tell. There is a Father who gave us a story to help us understand our place in this world, a story that points back to Him” (xv). All of life is a story, and without being ready to tell our story we are not giving due credit to the Lord himself.

Beauty often lives in the tension between what is said and what is withheld, between memory and reflection. I learned that white space can hold meaning. Silence can speak. A fragmented structure can echo a fragmented life.

My aesthetic embraces the imperfect because human experience rarely behaves neatly. In my own work, I aim to shape chaos into coherence, not by imposing artificial resolutions, but by illuminating truth through juxtaposition and pattern. Meaning emerges not only from what happened but from how it is shaped on the page. As Kephart notes, an essay becomes “a house built from the scraps of memory” (Kephart 71). Beauty is found in the arrangement. Creative NonFiction is needed in this world; it is a way for us as people to share our struggles, our triumphs and our history with others. It is also a way for us to praise God for his great and wondrous work of creating us in His image. My chief aim with all of my writing is to glorify God and share his miraculous wonders with the world.

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