1st Student's Major
English
1st Student's College
Arts and Humanities
Students' Professional Biography
Marissa Hansen graduated in May 2006 with a bachelor's degree in Creative Writing and a minor in Anthropology. She was an editor for the Student Literary Arts Magazine, reviewed books for the Corresponder, was published in the Blue Earth Review, and intered in the MSU Media Relations Department as the Internal Communications editor. She was also a founding member and vice president of the RSO Writers in the Dark.
Mentor's Name
Richard Robbins
Mentor's Email Address
richard.robbins@mnsu.edu
Mentor's Department
English
Mentor's College
Arts and Humanities
Other Mentors
Tyler Corbett
Abstract
Marissa Hansen's short story Small Town Changes, excerpt was written as part of a creative writing group using the theme of Where we Live. For our project, group members explored the theme Where We Live in its varied interpretations through fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. For my project, the theme Where We Live was addressed through creative nonfiction. I wanted to explore my own value as a writer, to myself and to my peers. The piece I wrote was influenced by my vision of personal events in my own life as well as the objective view of my narrator and her interpretation of the landscape I placed her in. As a creative writing theme, Where We Live suggests landscape, or physical, geographical location. As well, in a figurative sense the theme implies a current state of the world, or cultural view of specific/general world events. Also, Where We Live carries a state of mind quality, such as community or individual consciousness. As creative writers, by focusing on our theme and approaching the project from these different angles, we were able to examine our own lives and stories to achieve an objective view of the “landscape” in which we live. My goal was to produce a story that would challenge the narrator’s individual consciousness as well as my ability as a writer to create said challenges. As an additional challenge, our group has placed within each piece a series of reoccurring objects that unify our individual pieces. We attained our goals through observation, discussion, research, and workshop. Hoping that others gain from our awareness, we plan to present our writing at the conference, individually.
Recommended Citation
Hansen, Marissa
(2006)
"Small Town Changes, excerpt,"
Journal of Undergraduate Research at Minnesota State University, Mankato: Vol. 6, Article 8.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.56816/2378-6949.1115
Available at:
https://cornerstone.lib.mnsu.edu/jur/vol6/iss1/8
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