Defense Date
2024
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Fine Arts
Department
English
First Advisor
Clint McCown
Second Advisor
Jessica Hendry Nelson
Third Advisor
Sonja Livingston
Fourth Advisor
Gretchen Comba
Fifth Advisor
Catherine Ingrassia
Abstract
Wayfinding contains novel and memoir excerpts. The novel-in-progress follows divorced songwriter Cissy and her two pre-teen daughters after being forced to leave their condemned apartment building in Virginia Beach amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The youngest, Mini, flees to her recovering alcoholic father in Norfolk where he lives with his new wife. The oldest, Constance, tracks down Cissy’s birth mother online in North Carolina and receives an open-ended invitation for them to all visit her at an artists’ enclave in a small mill town. At stake is losing Mini to her ex if Cissy can’t regain her daughter's trust after forgetting to pick up both daughters from school. The novel challenges Cissy’s dedication to art-making within the confines and expectations of raising a family. The memoir-in-essays contains a prologue and four sample essays, each examining the urgency and legacy of art-making. The narrator grapples with the imperative to carve out the required emotional space in a race against time.
Rights
© Wendal E. Berry 2024
Is Part Of
VCU University Archives
Is Part Of
VCU Theses and Dissertations
Date of Submission
5-7-2024