Date of Award

Spring 5-6-2021

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Fine Arts (MFA)

Department

English

First Advisor

Peter Selgin

Second Advisor

Jason Allen

Abstract

Abstract:

Mule: Fifteen Autobiographical Tales contains stories which are true except when they are not. Were this to be marketed by a publishing firm, it would be cataloged (for legal and expedient purposes) as fiction, like Kurt Vonnegut's highly autobiographical Timequake. I, also like Vonnegut, would protest that designation in the book’s introduction. Vonnegut called Timequake a “stew,” and I rather like that classification for Mule, which, like its author, is Southern. Mule, then, must be a bubbling gumbo built of truths, either of the strict or the spiritual variety. As the book's author, I trust readers to gauge for themselves which is which.

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