Birdhouses

Date of Award

Winter 2025

Project Type

Thesis

Departments (Collect)

Writing

Degree Name

Master of Fine Arts

First Advisor

Thomas Payne

Abstract

Birdhouses is the first half of a novel project. The book is written in split perspective, with dual protagonists. The first, Leslie Finch, is a lesbian woodworker who has shut herself off from the world for many years as a reaction of trauma suffered in her childhood and early adulthood. The second, Jack Russo, is a fifteen-year-old transgender boy who is struggling with his sudden removal from his home after his mother, Leslie’s sister, is taken into custody. Leslie takes him in and the two of them form a complex bond that they continue to grow, explore and chafe against as the book goes on. While Leslie begins this novel sheltered and numb to the world around her, her adventures in parenting a complicated young person open her up to new experiences and challenges. In a parallel arc, Jack begins this novel overwhelmed by his home life and experiences with bigotry and domestic violence, but as he spends time with his aunt, he is able to accept support and love from her. This novel explores themes of gender and sexual identity, queer community in rural areas, unconventional familial love and breaking cycles of violence caused by generational trauma. It questions what it takes to make a family and what it takes to make a life that these characters can be comfortable living.

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