Storytelling has become a lost art in our society where artificial intelligence has made it convenient to communicate and automate tasks. However, despite these challenges, there are still old souls who continue to pursue these passions with the hopes of continuing to pass down these art forms with a humanistic touch. One of these individuals is Gillian Ruppel, who is pursuing an honors degree in English with an emphasis in Book arts.

Gillian Ruppel, ever since she could remember, loved telling stories. Since joining the Honors College, she was able to utilize both the surrounding community and the faculty resources, where she learned about Professor Michael Gills’ Novel Writing Workshop course.

“The most challenging part about writing is that it is more lonely than some other projects, especially with how long it takes. However, collaborating within the class was a nice medium between the two” said Gillian.

For Gillian’s thesis, she wrote a flash fiction novella in the theme of horror. The story is about a young woman who escapes an abusive relationship, and after this thrilling escape, she meets a creature who is not as monstrous as she had initially expected.

“This story discusses the theme of ambiguity teetering between the real and unreal allowing the audience to stay in suspense throughout the novel,” explained Gillian.

After graduating from the University of Utah, she hopes to continue her education and complete her master’s and PhD degrees. “In an idealistic world, I would love to have a career as an author; however, if this is not possible, I would be interested in returning to academia or to continue storytelling within video games,” said Gillian.

Learn more about Gillian’s research at the Honors Student Showcase on April 16th, from 4–7 PM at Kahlert Village!

Aspen Delis | Journalism Intern, University of Utah Honors College