The Blaze Inside a Gray Heart

Abstract

This thesis is a collection of prose and poetry I have written as a graduate student at both the College at Brockport, State University ofNew York and New College at Oxford University. Preceding the collection is an introduction which explores my influences, stylistic choices, and voices expressed throughout my work. This collection includes three short stories: two fiction, one creative non-fiction. While one tows the line between observing and living, another ventures through the world of prisoners on death row, and the last unearths the future of the death business. The poetry in this collection can be humorous and somber. They confront family, loss, social injustice, and death.