Graduate Defense: Hannah Phillips

Thesis Information

Title: Thanks For Watching

Program: Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing

Advisor: Anna Caritj, M.F.A., Theatre, Film, and Creative Writing

Committee Members: Mitch Wieland, M.F.A., Theatre, Film, and Creative Writing and Nicole Cullen, M.F.A., Creative Writing

Abstract

These novel pages follow Dani, a twenty-seven year-old middle school para whose life is uprooted when her high school best friend Gia—now a famous YouTuber—reappears, seeking refuge from her abusive, highly public marriage. As Dani finds herself pulled into Gia’s online world, the key witness in a trial by social media, she struggles to make peace with her own buried past, as well as the devastating role Gia played in it. The novel explores a wide range of complicated relationships, both mended and torn apart at the hands of our modern Internet era, and asks: can we really forgive in a world where the truth feels both instantly accessible and farther away than ever? These pages represent approximately the first half of a full draft, which I intend to query to literary agents upon completion.