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

Available for download on Saturday, March 20, 2224

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