Light Carries On

• Main Author: Crivilare, Gabriella
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: Hollins Digital Commons 2020
• Subjects: young adult literature; animal stories; fantasy; fairy tale retellings; plagues in fiction; dogsledding; quest narratives; wolves in fiction; great race of mercy; same sex relationships; Hollins University Dissertations Children's Literature; Children's and Young Adult Literature; Nome; Tundra; Alaska
• Online Access: https://digitalcommons.hollins.edu/mfatheses/7; https://digitalcommons.hollins.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1007&context=mfatheses

Light Carries On, a young adult fantasy novel, comprises the creative segment of the thesis. Valo, a member of a harpy-like species, serves as a musher for his tundra-bound, flightless society. When his mate falls ill with a deadly disease, he must race against time to seek out and deliver a cure. The manuscript reimagines the Great Race of Mercy—the relay of diphtheria antitoxin from Nenana, Alaska to Nome by sled teams in 1925—with a “Cinderella” inspired element. The accompanying critical paper, “A Fairy Tale, a Race, and an Enchanted Place: The Road to Enlightenment in Light Carries On,” discusses the manuscript in comparison to East, The Cry of the Icemark, and Tess of the Road. It also provides a topographical analysis of the main character’s journey and an examination of how the author’s writing process adheres to the home-away-home format of a circular narrative.