Alexis McCauley Portfolio

An acerbic poem. A censure of misperceptions and the pain they cause. As well as a truthful, harsh peek into someone’s personal battle with cancer. The speaker is surrounded by those who dismiss her difficulties and minimize her sufferings because she reflects none of the drastic, physical changes they expect to see with cancer. Their insensitive remarks compel the speaker to counter their impressions with her realities. This piece started as a poetry class assignment at ASU that I later submitted to writing contest providing winners a chance to be published in a poetry anthology collected by Poet’s Choice, titled Cancer. This poem was one of three winners selected.

A troubling, yet gripping, first-person fictional accounting of post-partum psychosis. The newly delivered mother journals about her growing paranoia and her slipping grasp on reality, illustrating how dark and dangerous her thoughts become to herself and those closest to her. An original, short story selected for publication by Red Cedar Review. This issue, No. 54, was to be the last print issue so there was a record number of submissions competing for this special occasion. The story began as coursework for my intermediate fiction class at Arizona State University but became the turning point for my personal writing development. The story received such positive feedback that, for the first time ever, I believed my piece was accomplished enough to seek out its publication.

Through colorful images and reflective narration, this blog describes my personal adventures in the literary world. From my passionate discovery of storytelling to my struggles with learning creative writing, I bring readers along as my desire for reading and writing develops into something more than just a hobby. This multimedia, storytelling blog was a culmination of a semester long reflection on the key literacy experiences within my life that influenced my educational career path. It was important that the work involve a digital, multimodal elements that would appeal to a broad, online audience.

Heartbreaking statistics on euthanizations of homeless pets, uplifting accounts of pet fostering and adoptions, together with adorable images, create site content sure to keep visitors interested and returning for future updates. This mock multimedia website content for Seattle’s Animal Shelter was created for my Writing with Digital Media class assignment. Students were meant to analyze and ‘improve’ the content of a working website, whose niche matched my interests, using my own style, voice, and design concepts.

An emotional, flash fiction narrative about a single mother’s financial woes that is so visceral and realistic my professor approached me discretely with ASU’s Financial Service’s contact information; she thought I had written a personal experience and encouraged me to seek help for my money problems. This began as classwork for my degree and I wanted to illustrate that financial hardships are not a personal choice or brought on by laziness. I have begun to develop “Pharmacy Mother” into a longer piece because of all the positive feedback the story has received.

Offering a voice to an Alzheimer’s, this work takes readers on the psychological rollercoaster ride created by this disease, as it distorts all concepts of one’s reality. Internal dialogue illustrates how our narrator’s mind is playing tricks on her; leaving her trapped within old, established routines and behaviors that she acts out over and over unaware there is anything amiss. This short, creative non-fictional narrative is based on an Alzheimer’s patient I once cared for in a Memory Rehab unit. A nurse by profession for 20+ years, this woman continued to ‘work’ on our unit long after I left, stuck in her past as her Alzheimer’s slowly destroyed her brain cells. So many of my patients suffered in a similar fashion and left such a lasting impression a younger me, brand new to healthcare and the disease process in general, that I was compelled to write of their experience as I remember and envisioned it.

An interweaving of scathing dialogue and the narrator’s innermost reflections puts the reader front and center to all the drama and excitement of working a night in the ER. The scenes and location of the story are carefully created and involve even the most minute of details which establishes a true to life accounting for the audience A Reflective narrative I created for my Introduction to Writing Fiction class assignment. As with most of my creative writing works, this piece was inspired by my experiences working in healthcare; specifically (for this story) in a local Emergency Room. My personal involvement in this story was much deeper than my other work and I struggled to remain emotionally detached from this piece because of its long-lasting consequences. I needed to adequately portray my antagonist without revealing sensitive and personal information but remain respectful to him and his struggles.