IN FRONT OF THEM ALL: A MEMOIR IN ESSAYS

Abstract

This Creative Nonfiction MFA Thesis is a book-length work told in three acts. The first three essays explore the narrator’s adolescence and young adulthood in Hawaii, South Korea, and online with focus placed upon the body and on terror. The second act, “Movement,” details the writer’s upbringing and childhood through a series of interconnected flash essays. The third and final act, consisting of two essays, follows the narrator’s reach toward safety as a young adult living in Northern Colorado. This thesis is introduced by a prologue, which positions the narrator in the process of self-reflection. Holistically, this thesis endeavors to understand the relationships between trauma, safety, and community, as well as how each of these concepts has resisted definition for much of the writer’s life.