Howell, Megan HeatherA man who changes age at random following a failed suicide attempt. An inpatient at an upscale nursing home whose dementia erases her cruelty but not her past. A teenaged boy whose racist brother upends his best friend’s false sense of security. What each of these characters share in common is the women who fall into their lives, seemingly cursory interlopers whose repressed traumas inform the stories in "Blue Beard's First Wife." To survive, each woman must look to the past, investigating their lives and the lives of those around them while steering clear of the dangers the come with being too curious in a racist, misogynistic world.enThesisCreative writingWomen's studiesafrican americanfeminismlovemillennialshort fictionwomen