Thesis Defence: Swimming for Silver

Jenna Campbell, supervised by Nancy Holmes, will defend their thesis titled “Swimming for Silver” in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing.

An abstract for Jenna’s thesis is included below.

Defences are open to all members of the campus community as well as the general public.

Registration is not needed for in-person defences.

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Swimming for Silver is a middle-grade novel that combines the worlds of synchronized swimming and Bible camp in a rural Saskatchewan setting. Eleven-year old Jamie enters Camp Silversand where she is introduced to Bible stories, camp lore, and campers with different ideologies. The camp’s wilderness and isolation places Jamie in an unfamiliar setting, away from the safe haven of her supervised home life which is heavily influenced by her mother and grandmother. She finds an opportunity for exposure to new narratives, beliefs, and ways of seeing the world. Jamie is convinced her life will be different and her dreams of becoming a synchronized swimmer and making friends will come true. However, as she becomes entangled in various narratives, her own and those of the people around her, she struggles with the blurred lines between truth, faith, and fantasy; Jamie learns to navigate which stories to believe, and thus make true. Swimming for Silver questions the power of stories we tell ourselves and others about the past, present, and future, and for what purpose, and the novel weaves metaphoric connections between spirituality and swimming, which includes belonging to something larger than oneself and the polarities of joy and fear, as Jamie learns more about her family and more about friendship.