Da-Shiva Francois

Hello, everyone! My name is Da-Shiva D. Francois. I earned my BS in Economics and my BA in Writing at TCU in 2022. I travelled down the street to earn my MA in English at UTA. My thesis was an excerpt from a novel I am working on called Cross of Bouquets. The story is set on the fictional island of Cross of Bouquets in the Caribbeans, following a young man called André I. Francois (no relations), as his country falls into political turmoil, and the only thing his family can do is move to America. It’s a mix of magical realism, historical fiction, and humor to create a world affected by colonialism, but not guided by its burning hands. A form of post- colonialism resistance of preconceived notions on developing nations as lands of uncivilized inhabitants. As a first year PhD English student, I hope to enrich my creative repertoire to publish a few books (Cross of Bouquets and Ocean), combatting how we conceive pain and teach the former. Post-colonialism is fraught with pain, justifiably, but I want to teach the power of humor, along with how the manipulation of language can help tell stories to a larger audience. Besides academics, I love video games, reading, and people watching.