Master of Arts in English, Youngstown State University, 2012, Department of Languages

Carlini is a collection of four short fiction narratives that communicate the themes of loss, violence, and humanity in the lives of four men who belong to a hunting cabin in Western Pennsylvania. Each story explores the intimate connection between man and land in the tradition of Steinbeck and Hemingway. Each of the characters and their families all members of a specific Western Pennsylvania working-class seek to make sense of the world around them as well as the ghosts that inhabit their world. My goal in crafting these interconnected narratives is to provide a fictive account of masculine response to the aforementioned issues of loss, violence, and humanity within a contained geographic area.

Committee: Christopher Barzak M.F.A. (Advisor); William Greenway Ph.D. (Other); Steven Reese Ph.D. (Other) Subjects: Families and Family Life; Individual and Family Studies; Personal Relationships; Personality Psychology