Graduate Studies

 

First Advisor

Stacey Waite

Second Advisor

Hope Wabuke

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

Committee Members

Jordan Soliz, Kwame Dawes

Department

English

Date of this Version

8-2025

Document Type

Dissertation

Citation

A dissertation presented to the Graduate College of the University of Nebraska in partial fulfillment of requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy

Major: English (Creative Writing)

Under the supervision of Professors Stacey Waite and Hope Wabuke

Lincoln, Nebraska, August 2025

Comments

Copyright 2025, Kate Gaskin. Used by permission

Abstract

Blood-Red and Flaming and True contains poems that explore the immense feelings of love and loss tied to the relationship between parent and child. They chronicle my experience raising a neurodivergent child, as well as undergoing infant loss and navigating a U.S. medical system that is renowned for putting women and people capable of giving birth—especially BIPOC—at greater risk than other countries with similar resources. Through poems that inhabit a variety of forms, I sift through grief and joy while attempting to tap into the sublime state that underlies extreme loss and love. Throughout, I investigate how lyric poetry is uniquely suited to help people process bereavement, which is an argument the poet Gregory Orr makes in his book Poetry as Survival. While grief is a unifying experience, it can also be isolating in a U.S. American cultural context, conferring a feeling of embarrassment to the bereaved. The poems of Blood-Red and Flaming and True intend to act as an antidote to the wordlessness of shame by showing how a family in crisis need not be portrayed as hopelessly fragmented or broken. Rather, through foregrounding attention to image and sound, as well as grounding these poems in the landscapes of coastal Florida, the floral lushness of Alabama, and the urban gardens of Omaha, Nebraska, I show how the speaker of these poems finds her way again after deep grief.

Advisors: Stacey Waite and Hope Wabuke

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