Schwartz, Jason

four sparks fall is a complex narrative, darting among symbols, languages, puzzles, and styles. There is the story of Susanna, our narrator, and there is a diary of May, Susanna's twin sister---a story within a story. To further complicate matters, both narratives are "interrupted" by May, who manifests an uncanny ability to project her thoughts into Susanna's mind. In a sense, both characters know and do not know what is happening, and their struggle to come to terms with multiple ways of "knowing" is manifested in the structure, which experiments with visual layout and language in new, interesting ways. This project began as an experiment in "organic writing": the process of writing without a direction or end in mind. One of my weaknesses as a writer is a tendency to "over-think" my work, and four sparks fall represents my attempt to address this issue.

2 Vietnams documents modern Vietnam through alternating chapters of collage fictions and images: "East-West Documentation," "Vietnam in the Twilight-Hour," "Correspondence," and "Confessional Archives." Although 2 Vietnams serves as a documentary-style account of the many Vietnams that exist and confront our American memory of Vietnam, each chapter contains social narratives that connect to each other forming larger, subtler narratives. "East-West Documentation" follows a fictional writer's experience living in Vietnam, conducting interviews and reading articles. "Vietnam in the Twilight-Hour" strings narrative poetry together with titles ranging from "Neocolonialism," "Love in Notations," to "SocialPolygrams." In addition to these poetic narratives are photographs that tell snapshot stories. "Correspondence" contains fictions such as "Think and It Will Happen," "StoryOptics," and "Flame of Life." Lastly, "Confessional Archives" contains images and non-fictional stories from veterans, both Vietnamese and American.

These nine fictions revolve around characters living in the borough of Queens, New York City in the early 1990's. The setting is a time when New York is suffering through major economic and social crises. The 1980's had been a time of decadence and over-indulgence, and the beginning of the next decade is forced to pay a large portion of the accrued debts. High crime rates and leaps in the cost of living have created tough living situations for young and old alike. During these years hope is a difficult thing to find. Saints & Heroes illustrates both that lack of hope and the destitution of the situation. But also the escapes people might find while enduring. The collection ultimately commemorates the everyday activities of individuals that simultaneously cripple and sustain the inhabitants of a city.

Autumn is a short story cycle set in contemporary times, primarily in a South Florida village, using the viewpoints of two main characters: Angie Frisby and Chatov Faulke. It offers an example of the short story cycle through repeated and developed characters, recurring themes, imagery, setting, and shifting points of view. It will employ closure strategies that present an image of the future for both Angie and Chat, implying continuation of the story and/or characters, and how they might go down a multiplicity of different roads. In its desire to remain ambiguous, the conflicts surrounding Angie's and Chat's relationship will never fully be solved, just presented accurately through their perception; an antithesis will be created through their ongoing thoughts of present conflict and juxtaposition of life and death, separation and reunion, the harmony of the natural world and the disharmony of their internal ones.

The short story cycle unifies autonomous stories to create a larger narrative. In a similar manner, a type of money group called Sous Sous, also known as a Hand, Box, Meeting, or Partner, unifies individuals in a communal endeavor that gives a larger purpose to the venture of saving. The stories in this collection comprise a short story cycle that is unified, in part, by its explication of Sous Sous, which is common in black communities in America and the Caribbean and believed to have origins in African culture. They share common characters and are also linked by a focus on money, materialism, or spirituality. Sequentially placed, most of the stories build on each other, creating a composite narrative.

Waking Up is an addiction novel that traces the decline of twentysomething Rabbit Reynolds. Rabbit has found a strategy for coping with her intense loneliness---anesthetic alcoholism. The novel is about her desperate need for approval, validation, and external measures of self-worth, and the ways in which that need manifests itself in substance abuse, self-mutilation, and hollow relationships. Waking Up opens with Rabbit's lowest point, then goes back in time to follow her descent and, finally, her first steps toward recovery.

One Track Mind is a world wherein characters, driven by their unique, individual sexualities, are both prey and companionship for each other. The resulting, incessant shifting between cooperation and competition comprises the dramatic action of the stories. However, more dramatic than much of the action are the stylistic shifts of narration---both within and among the stories. This diversity of narrative style, much more so than invocation of place-names, describes and defines the myriad landscapes of the world of One Track Mind: serene and absurd, lush and sparse, sincere and sardonic.

"Beautiful You", is a novel that embraces the life of a young woman at the peak of self-evolution. Her desire to attain the true sense of "beauty" leads her into the life of pageantry. As she journeys through the final three days of the Miss American Pageant, she sorts through episodes of her adolescence and present day situations to uncover the beauty of who she truly is. This tale of Jessica McBrie's life, allows us to feel the pains she has gone through, understand her thoughts and the thoughts of those she interacts with. Through her comical approach to disaster this novel encourages us all to evaluate who we really are and accept it, because, "only you can define the beautiful you."