Creative Writing Portfolio 

Welcome to my Creative Writing portfolio. This portfolio showcases my creative writing in a variety of forms, including poetry, fiction, and non-fiction. 

Forms of Poetry: Final Portfolio ​

​Summary
​For this final portfolio, I was tasked with revising my poems written throughout the semester and compiling them into a final portfolio. I provided the original version next to the revised one and explained why I made the changes I did. I focused on experimenting with the forms of my poems and the content, figurative language, and literary devices in my pieces. I focused on re-crafting my poems into something much greater, and overall, this final portfolio helped me to create a well-rounded portfolio of my work whilst honing my craft in poetry.
​Reflection
​I've gained such a deep appreciation for poetry, and for how much I have grown as a poet. Prior to this class, I never had a published poem under my belt. Now, I have over 15 poetry publications. It's always so awkward to stumble back into your old writing and figure out how to rediscover how to turn it into something new. Reading poetry in order to learn how to write poetry, at times, also proved to be a challenge. I've felt encouraged to submit my poetry and other creative works for awards/contests, which could lead to better outcomes than just building a portfolio for myself. 

​Ways of Reading Literature: Close Reading Essay

​Summary
​For this essay, I was tasked to closely read Edgar Allan Poe's piece titled 'The Black Cat' and make an argument for the text. I focused on how madness and negative emotions are portrayed as unreliable throughout the work, contextualizing quotations to support my thesis statement and performing a close reading. I focused on proving my thesis throughout, and in revising my old draft. This assignment allowed me to look at texts more carefully and to develop my critical thinking skills in proving a point throughout my essay. I've gained an excellent overview of how figurative language structures the piece and how I contextualize key quotes to prove my thesis.
​Reflection
I loved this assignment for how easy it was, given that I had closely read much of my previous coursework. This assignment exemplifies my ability as a writer to showcase my critical thinking skills and to construct an excellent argument. The good thing about any literary text is that you can make any argument you'd like with it, so long as you have proper quotations and evidence to exemplify your thesis. 

Writing the Love Poem: Final Portfolio

​Summary
For this final portfolio, I was tasked with creating a table of contents covering various topics in the love poetry I've written for this course, showcasing both my original poems and revised renditions. I've also written about my revision process, and how my poems count as love poems, and in love poetry, being present throughout my original/revised poems. I focused on defining love in my poems and portraying it through unusual conventions, in ways that love typically isn't portrayed in the "typical" love poem.
​Reflection
​I've found it captivating to think about where love poetry went in the 21st century, especially in how love is different for each person. I've found myself asking where love poems have gone in the 21st century, which has led me to ask other questions as I construct a sort of research project to explore this topic. I've loved this assignment and the class for how interesting and fun it was to write various love poems and revise them throughout the semester. Not only does this portfolio show how I construct figurative language, but it also shows how my creative works provide different interpretations of love.

Forms of Creative Non-Fiction: Response Assignment Collage

​Summary
For this class, I created a collage of all of the response assignments I was required to do throughout the semester. I was tasked with close reading, research, and careful deconstruction of the following eight texts. Then, for the other half of the assignment, I had to create my own non-fiction that was inspired by the experiences in the book and my own. I deconstructed these texts and close-read for quotations relevant to my arguments, and then I created my own non-fiction based on a mixture of these books and my own experiences. There were not many parameters for this series of assignments, as long as I created non-fiction contextualized by the personal essays, memoirs, and personal creative essays these texts contained.
Reflection
​I'm genuinely surprised by how many pages this portfolio is and how much I've analyzed, researched, and written for my creative non-fiction class. As an English major, I absolutely love writing. Often, I forget how much I'm actually writing, and evidenced by the number of pages I've created. I'm also very lucky that this class was so loose about how someone defines non-fiction. I love that these smaller assignments, in total 8, contribute to an overarching picture. I love how I was able to blend a personal creative essay, a memoir, and a critical analysis into a single piece of writing. Overall, I loved how loose this class was in its definition of non-fiction.

Forms of Creative Non-Fiction: Midterm

​Summary
For this midterm assignment, I was tasked with completing three steps. Firstly, I was tasked with exploring 3 course texts that resonated with my memoir idea and identifying the connections between those texts and my personal narrative. I had to highlight key themes, motifs, and symbols while connecting those with significant quotes and chapters. Additionally, I had to specify their significance to the memoir's theme, purpose, and form and style. I also noted the features of the memoir that the writer built or invented. For the second step of my midterm, I had to explain how the texts informed my understanding of personal narrative, memory, or identity. I discussed techniques and strategies that I admired and wanted to adopt or reject in my memoir. I had to write a 2-3 paragraph convergence statement that connected my personal story to the broader literary traditions and themes explored within the course texts and justify how my memoir contributes or dialogues with those. I also had to position my voice within a larger literary and cultural conversation. Finally, for the third step, I had to craft a narrative that was reflective, vivid, and grounded in my own experience, while demonstrating awareness of literary context.
Reflection
I've developed a deep love for crafting my memoir and for creating non-fiction overall. I feel that this midterm really helped me to define the non-fiction genre, which was one of the most important things I wanted to learn when I signed up for the course. The texts we read were a blend of personal essays, memoirs, and even some critical literary analysis, all woven into a single work by these writers. My favorite part of the assignment was creating my own memoir. I absolutely loved creating a narrative that was heartbreaking and tragic, and that I find very personal and vulnerable to put out into the world.

I'm also quite surprised by how lengthy this midterm is. I felt that for as much time as I spent with it, there would be way fewer words. I found it most challenging to connect my memoir to the ideas from the books we read in the semester. I was also under a lot of pressure to complete the text-mapping activity first, and then to craft my own memoir towards the end. I enjoyed expanding my knowledge of the non-fiction genre overall.​

Forms of Creative Non-Fiction: Final Assignment

​Summary
This final assignment is closely similar to my midterm assignment, excluding the fact that I had to make a blend of personal and critical essay, and a memoir for the third step of my final assignment. I won't be delving too deeply into the summary for this assignment, as it's the same as my midterm assignment above, though I spent much more time on it and thought more carefully about what I wanted to include in my essay.
Reflection
​I don't have much to say, other than the fact that this one was a bit more extensive than the last one, and that, I absolutely loved the fact that this final assignment asked me to do a blend of memoir, critical, and personal essay. I did find myself more attached to this assignment than I did to my midterm. I've grown more appreciation and love for the non-fiction realm because of this final assignment.

Introduction to Shakespeare: Personal Creative Essay

​Summary
For this assignment, I was asked to compile a personal creative essay on a Shakespeare play in relation to a topic of my choosing. For this essay, I chose to write a personal creative essay about one of my favorite albums by Lisa Germano, titled Geek the Girl. I put this album in conversation with William Shakespeare's play titled King Lear. This essay is very dark, nuanced, and disturbing. This showcases my personality as a writer and much of my writing style. I also included a trigger warning for this assignment, just to let you know. There was so much creativity in this assignment, and it was one of my favorite assignments this semester. There's so much that goes into this personal creative essay. I encourage you to read my essay above, if you wish.
Reflection
​This was one of my favorite assignments this semester. I created this essay on a linear path and cohesively put this album and play together in conversation, from the perspective of a diary of a madman who was besieged in psychological horror. I absolutely love writing in such a dark fashion; it's one of the reasons that I love writing. I love exploring the truths, horrors, and psychological discrepancies of day-to-day life. A lot of my writing, in general, incorporates dark, disturbing nuances. I find my personality to be ironically juxtaposed with the kinds of writing I compose. Overall, I loved how there were few to no parameters for this assignment, and I loved that I completed this entire essay in just a few days, with the album in my ears and a play in front of my eyes.

Introduction to Creative Writing Nonfiction: Final Portfolio

​Summary
For this final portfolio, I was tasked with revising three of my written projects over the semester (highlighting the changes I made from the original documents) and revising them into a final rendition. In addition, I created a revision statement for each of the three writing projects, and an additional close read of a course text and journal project based on the journal I've written in throughout the course of the semester. This showcases most of the work I have done for this class, and how it has sharpened my ability to write creative nonfiction.
Reflection
​By far, this was one of the most intimidating assignments in my college career. To revise these three pieces in addition to writing a completely new close read of a course text and a journal project, certainly proved to be challenging. I was shocked when I saw how many pages, I had completed and how many words this final portfolio ended up being. By far, this has been one of my favorite classes in my undergraduate career. The three projects surrounded some forms in fragmentary creative nonfiction such as an alphabet, zuihitsu, and contemporary issue research essay.