Abstract
“Coming Home” is a collection of creative nonfiction essays that explore what home can represent. The essays explore the importance of family and finding belonging in the midst of an ever-changing environment. The idea and reality of place is at the heart of the collection, in which I reflect on my personal experiences of growing up on a farm in Northeast Iowa. The essay “Emerald Green Beans” is a reflection on a visit to my grandmother’s home after receiving a suicidal phone call from her, and further exploring her memories of her now-vanished hometown of Eleanor, Iowa. In “When the Grass Speaks,” I weave natural science and my passion for my farm’s yard into an extended metaphor for the ongoing destruction of agricultural lands in the Midwest due to harmful farming practices. And my essay “Going Home” is an abstract reflection on the COVID-19 pandemic and the seasonal change of a small field buffer near my family’s farm. After studying essayists who hold differing views on the subject of place, paying heed to their subject and craft, I brought my own views on place to the page in drafts that were workshopped by my peers in the Advanced Writing Project class with Dr. Martin. Through those workshops, I was able to sharpen my craft, find my writer’s voice, and explore my particular place in the world.
Included in
"Coming Home": Writing Creative Nonfiction Essays
“Coming Home” is a collection of creative nonfiction essays that explore what home can represent. The essays explore the importance of family and finding belonging in the midst of an ever-changing environment. The idea and reality of place is at the heart of the collection, in which I reflect on my personal experiences of growing up on a farm in Northeast Iowa. The essay “Emerald Green Beans” is a reflection on a visit to my grandmother’s home after receiving a suicidal phone call from her, and further exploring her memories of her now-vanished hometown of Eleanor, Iowa. In “When the Grass Speaks,” I weave natural science and my passion for my farm’s yard into an extended metaphor for the ongoing destruction of agricultural lands in the Midwest due to harmful farming practices. And my essay “Going Home” is an abstract reflection on the COVID-19 pandemic and the seasonal change of a small field buffer near my family’s farm. After studying essayists who hold differing views on the subject of place, paying heed to their subject and craft, I brought my own views on place to the page in drafts that were workshopped by my peers in the Advanced Writing Project class with Dr. Martin. Through those workshops, I was able to sharpen my craft, find my writer’s voice, and explore my particular place in the world.