Where Things Thrive

by Curtis, Tiffany Love

Some of the main literary influences of my thesis include the works of Barry Hannah, Richard Ford, Flannery O?Connor, and Walker Percy. Barry Hannah, who not only focuses on the past but also manages to merge it with the present, influenced the way external factors shape my stories. Ford, on the other hand, who focuses on relationships and the private lives of couples, influenced the way I approach the internal aspects of my stories, while O?Connor influenced the inclusion of mass culture aspects such as advertising. Percy, though, influenced the way I structured the majority of my stories. Some of the main themes that emerge in my thesis include displacement, loss, and identity. Because my main literary influences do contain such different writing styles, I do not draw from their style as much as Hannah and Ford?s postmodern sensibilities and Percy?s structural approach.