Date of Award
5-2024
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Fine Arts (MFA)
Department
English
First Advisor
Natalie Lima
Second Advisor
Bryan Furuness
Abstract
Coffins and Conditioner is part one of a modern fantasy story follows a latine, nonbinary hairdresser named Mura Saiz whose entire clientele consists of supernatural entities like werewolves, vampires, and fae. When a fight breaks out in their salon and catches the attention of a new surveillance program meant to destroy those very same supernatural entities, Mura realizes that they must give up their own peace of mind and physical safety to protect their clients. During their journey, Mura must learn how to juggle the secrets they keep within the salon with their now-suspicious chosen family while also making time for the strange vampire that saved them during the initial fight at the salon. Will they be able to keep an entire population safe from an ill-informed government? Or will the life Mura has built for theirself crumble beneath them?
Fantasy, namely urban fantasy, is often severely lacking when it comes to representation. The goal of Coffins and Conditioner is to both tell a compelling and exciting story while including the queerness that is often shunned from this genre. Queer young adults deserve to see themselves in stories as much as anyone else, and Coffins and Conditioner is another step in normalizing that for a wider audience.
Recommended Citation
Scott, Mackenzie, "Coffins and Conditioner" (2024). Graduate Thesis Collection. 552.
https://digitalcommons.butler.edu/grtheses/552