WORKS BY DALTON SIKES
MY PUBLISHED/FEATURED WORKS:
Short Stories
Another Glass
Where do our traumas go when we set out across the world on vacation? Even in a place as beautiful as Barcelona, a young woman finds herself haunted by a harrowing presence. A woman who seems to be more miserable than she. This chilling work explores notions of womanhood, self, autonomy, and the need for community.
(2024) Published in Inscape.
America's Child
In this piece of flash fiction, a twisted relationship between a girl and her family is revealed. This short and not-so-sweet story explores the horrors of what it means to be a woman in America.
(2023) Published in Chaotic Merge issue #6.
The Mirage
In my foreboding and explorative work, the life of an overlooked member of society is depicted to reform the minds of readers. This being spends its entire life serving humanity; however, humans actively threaten its very existence through various innocuous habits. The aim of this story is to make readers acknowledge their own complicity in global crises and to highlight parallels between notable figures and this unappreciated member of society. Throughout this story, you will learn the tale of a hardened hero who has always been on your side. The Mirage will be made apparent as this alienated figure is brought to the fore. Are you ready to confront it?
(2022) Presented at NW Undergrad Conference in the Humanities
Poetry
Portrait of Barcelona's Beauty
Arguably, this is one of the cheeriest pieces I've written in quite some time. It's an ode, a celebration, of a foreign place that welcomed me as if it were my home. Barcelona is a place I one day hope to return.
(2024) Published in The Heartland Review & Finalist for Joy Bale Boone Poetry Prize
Carcass
I've always feared losing my memories. That they'll evaporate, get carried off by the wind, or line my mind like bodies heaped up after some gruesome battle. In this poem, I view this issue through a real carcass I found on my own floors.
(2024) Published in Shift: A Journal of Literary Oddities issue #6
He Won't Leave
The unique form of a poem can allow it to transcend limitations of symbols within prose in fascinating ways. In this poem, I utilize a poem shaped like a humanoid figure wielding a knife to delve into the poet's experience grappling with demons, either real or imagined.
(2023) 3rd Place Recipient of Amy M. Young Award in Poetry
Into the Dark
In this hauntingly rhythmic poem, a horrifying encounter with an unknown threat forces the poet to flee for their life. Yet, the poem comments on how once you've gone "into the dark" escaping said darkness can result in what feels like a cyclical state of purgatory.
(2023) Published in The GroundUp and Wingless Dreamer
Game Nights
When the world is chaotic, escapism becomes a crucial tool to centering oneself. In this poem, I explore how having weekly game nights with my friends made college life and a global pandemic bearable while providing me a new outlook on life.
(2022) Published in Wingless Dreamer's Midsummer's Eve Poetry Anthology
Fossils of Us
In this poem, I combine my hobby of fossil collecting with a message about how men mask their insecurities through hobbies. These stanzas seek to raise awareness and encourage self-love within the reader, because self-hatred is already rampant among all humans who fail to appreciate the beauty within their bones.
(2022) Finalist for Amy M. Young Award in Poetry
Living an Illusion
In this poem, I illustrate the dangers of assimilation culture through depicting a student's struggle with distinguishing themself from a manufactured identity that they've created in order to be accepted by their peers.
(2021-2022) Utilized in an award-winning poetry set
Lovesick
In this spoken word poem, I depict the thralls of young love and how it can blind an individual to the toxicity of their crush/lover. In other words, I encapsulate what it is like to be lovesick.
(2019-2020) Utilized in an award-winning poetry set
Not in my Skin
When we do not know what's happened, it can be incredibly painful. In this haunting poem, I capture the traumatic experience of being the victim of a crime one can't remember and being gaslit by someone whom the poet thought they could trust.
(2019-2020) Utilized in an award-winning poetry set
Essays
The Cut-Throat Construct and its Warping of Women: An Analysis of Gender and Performativity in He’s Out There (2018)
In this essay that blends film analysis with literary analysis, I assess the slasher film He's Out There (2018). By analyzing He’s Out There using gender and performativity theory, this paper illustrates how this film challenges gender’s entrenched systems of limitations; whilst, showcasing the consequences of rebelling against a system that humanity fears to recognize as manufactured, not innate.
(2023) Published in The Real and Animated Worlds on Disney+, Volume VIII, Issue 2: Summer 2023 (Cinematic Codes Review)
(2023) 2nd Place Recipient of Amy M. Young Award in Literary Scholarship
(2023) Accepted to the Northwest Undergraduate Literature Conference
Finite Femininity and Mythological Misperception: An Analysis of
Monkey King: Journey to the West, The Odyssey, and Norse Mythology
In this essay, I explore Chinese, Greek, and Norse mythology analyzing these works for the gender performance of their characters and policing of femininity. I draw parallels between these radically different group's myths and the necessity of recognizing the prejudice inherent within them that normalizes the enduring minimization of women.
(2023) Accepted to 2023 Northwest Undergraduate Conference on Literature
The Haunting History of Oppression and Trauma: A Comparative Analysis of Beloved and
Sing, Unburied, Sing
In this essay, the abstract provides the best summary I could provide: "This paper seeks to define hauntology (i.e. spectrology) and cultural haunting; the characterization of the ghosts in Beloved and Sing, Unburied, Sing; and how ghosts shape these books' respective narratives. By illustrating these concepts and the ways they function within Beloved and Sing, Unburied, Sing, this paper will prove to readers the profound symbolism capable through hauntings (i.e. via hauntology/spectrology) and how they embolden the pertinent messages that Morrison and Ward seek to communicate about the power dynamics of race and the nature of trauma within their respective literature."
Published in the 15th edition of Audeamus
(2022) Finalist for Amy M. Young Award in Literary Scholarship
Resolving Rossetti’s “Ambiguous” Stance on Feminism: An Analysis of Goblin Market"
In this essay, I apply a feminist literary analysis lens to the poem, Goblin Market, by Christina Rossetti in order to derive important insight into the Victorian period and to demonstrate her unique approach to feminism. Over the years, many scholars have ridiculed Rossetti's more covert approach to pioneering the rights of women and her inferred acceptance of their limited role within society; however, this essay highlights Rossetti's literary activism and the profound power she alots to women within her work.
(2022) Presented at Northwest Undergraduate Conference on Literature
Unmasking the True Monster:
An Analysis of Frankenstein
In this literary analysis essay, I assert that the true monster of Frankenstein is scientific ambition. This essay proves that Victor Frankenstein is in an emotionally abusive relationship with science that refutes the popular belief that mankind (i.e. Victor Frankenstein) is the true monster of the tale.
(2021) Finalist for Amy M. Young Award in Literary Scholarship
Workshops
Learning Self-Acceptance Amongst
Cut-Throat
Literary Magazines
Have you ever wondered what happens once you send poetry to a literary magazine? Do the poems evaporate into thin air or undergo grueling scrutiny from a circle of close-minded academics? In this workshop, I use my inside knowledge working on two literary magazines to walk poets through the behind-the-scenes process of assessing, rating, and selecting poems for literary magazines. Additionally, I provide insider tips and tricks to elevate one’s chances of publishing poetry while learning to value one's own work despite inevitable rejection letters from an increasingly competitive industry.
(2022) Presented at the Annual OPA Conference