University of South Carolina Scholar Commons Theses and Dissertations 5-8-2015 Maybe Mermaids and Robots Are Lonely: 40 Stories and a Novella Matthew ogF arty University of South Carolina - Columbia Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd Part of the Fiction Commons Recommended Citation Fogarty, M.(2015). Maybe Mermaids and Robots Are Lonely: 40 Stories and a Novella. (Master's thesis). Retrieved from https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd/3061 This Open Access Thesis is brought to you by Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. MAYBE MERMAIDS AND ROBOTS ARE LONELY 40 STORIES AND A NOVELLA by Matthew Fogarty Bachelor of Arts University of Michigan, 2001 Juris Doctorate Loyola Law School, Los Angeles, 2006 Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing College of Arts and Sciences University of South Carolina 2015 Accepted by: David Bajo, Director of Thesis Elise Blackwell, Reader Ed Madden, Reader J. Alexander Ogden, Reader Lacy Ford, Vice Provost and Dean of Graduate Studies © Copyright by Matthew Fogarty, 2015 All Rights Reserved. !ii ABSTRACT Maybe Mermaids and Robots are Lonely comprises 40 stories and a novella all set in or around Detroit and featuring figures that have become almost legendary in American culture. Stories in the collection range in form from a more traditional, if quirky, realism to a somewhat more ethereal or slipstream or magical realism. In the title story, for example, we meet a pair of star-crossed lovers, a robot and a mermaid, who must find a way to bridge their different worlds.