Graduate Defense: Desmond Fuller

Thesis Information

Title: August in the Dog Moon: A Craft Conversation on a Novel in Progress

Program: Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing

Advisor: Brady Udall, MFA, Theater, Film, and Creative Writing

Committee Members: Mitchell Wieland, MFA, Theater, Film, and Creative Writing, Mary Lowry, MFA, Theater, Film, and Creative Writing, and Nicole Cullen, MFA, Theater, Film, and Creative Writing

Abstract

This thesis consists of a 205 page excerpt of a novel in progress. August in the Dog Moon depicts a story about the strange, beautiful, and frightening things we find while exploring the liminal perspective in wild, and abandoned places.
In constructing a long-form narrative, this thesis attempts to demonstrate the interworking of multiple narrators through a close third-person narration shared between three primary characters, two supporting characters, transcriptions of found recordings, and several chapters from an omniscient perspective. The intention being to explore the narrative of place through various perspectives and experiences. The accumulating effect being one of panoramic storytelling, increased instances of dramatic irony, and a wholistic proposal for empathy from the reader for all the presented characters.

This multi-perspective coming-of-age novel follows three high-schoolers as they navigate frustrations of youth, broken homes, and secrets in their small Oregon town. When a car accident strands them far from home and help, they forge bonds of friendship in the face of surviving in the wilderness together. With elements that draw from works such as of Bud Smith’s Teenager, Carson McCullers’ The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, and Jean Craighead George’s My Side of The Mountain, August in the Dog Moon strives to present a Northwestern Gothic of modern youth.