Patsy Sings For Me: Stories

This thesis begins with a critical introduction about the function of place in works of fiction and creative nonfiction. I use quotes from Joan Didion, Flannery O\u27Connor, Dorothy Allison, and others to support the idea that, though many hold to the belief that people are shaped by place, really it is people who prescribe meaning to landscape and location, not the other way around. Place is at the mercy of memory and language. After the critical introduction, you will find short stories, flash fiction, essay, short memoir, and flash nonfiction. These works were not written with a specific theme in mind, but the strongest thread throughout is certainly a sense of place and accompanying culture, particularly in my memoir piece, Empire Blue, which explores my parents\u27 relationship, its effects on me as a child moving from one military base to the next, and my reflections on those effects now