LIRIC Volume 3 Issue 01

Hello and welcome to LIRIC Journal!
The papers on offer this issue speak to the range of interpretations of practice as research, moving between creative and therapeutic spaces but always demonstrating the ability to bring these together in work which seeks and celebrates connection, strength, and healing through creative practice.

This issue marks our third volume, and the diversity and quality of work included shows how we continue to attract high-quality writing and scholarship, and how the field of writing for wellbeing and CWTP (creative writing for therapeutic purposes) is growing.

Author: Emma Decent

Abstract
In this study, I selected a sample of my own historic diary entries (ages 14–43) and wrote into them reflectively and creatively. This culminated in a script-in-hand performance shared with a closed audience in the landscape. My curiosity was how this process might be therapeutic to me and possibly others. I found therapeutic value in re-storying, becoming more reconciled to life events, improved self-image, confidence, and integration of parts of self. There were impacts on the audience, and findings relate to how sharing life story enables two-way connection, being heard, and seeing oneself in others. There are implications for ongoing work creatively and therapeutically engaging with diaries, especially regarding life review and end of life.

Author: Janet L. Kuhnke

Abstract

This qualitative inquiry is the account of one academic who used poetry and art as reflective mediums while applying for tenure and promotion in a university environment. The autobiographical framework guiding this work adds a rich layer of understanding to the lived experience of applying for tenure as an academic in a tenure-track role. This paper suggests that using arts-based mediums as reflective tools can ease the journey to tenure. Through thematic analysis of the poetry and art created, three findings emerged: first, the importance of considering the creation of poetry and art as mediums to express and explore the reflective practitioner’s role in the academy; second, the importance of creating writing spaces and protecting time needed to engage and critically analyze our works; finally, for each of us as practitioners to engage in self-care activities while inquiring into tensions within our work practices.

Authors: Lucy Windridge-Floris and Shaamil Windridge-Floris

Abstract

This duo-autoethnography explores responses to a recurring hiatus in conversations when I, a white English woman, state that I am married to a man with an Arabic name. Together, my husband and I have used practices of creative writing for therapeutic purposes to examine our personal encounters with Islamophobia in the UK. This article evidences the power of co-inquiry, demonstrates the necessity of flexible responses to written expressions of trauma; and reveals outrage and silence as distinctive ways of coping with discrimination. It shows an incongruence in the binary which presupposes white non-Muslim men to be superior in their ability to respect women and highlights the need to dismantle white supremacy in trustworthy environments to avoid unhelpful fight-or-flight responses. Personal responses have been written, acknowledging structures of wider political, social, and historical contexts shaping social conditions.

Author: Dr Jasna Levinger-Goy

Abstract

The experience of a civil war is always traumatic, as is refugee status and settling down in a new environment. Writing about such traumatic events takes a great deal of processing and a lot of time. Almost 30 years after the events, I set out to write a memoir describing them. One surprising fact was that the language in which the book was first rendered was English. Although I have near native proficiency in English, it is not my mother tongue. It was only after the book was completed that the idea of translating/rewriting it in Serbo-Croat started to emerge.
The link between language and identity is well-known, but some aspects might seem rather strange. In this essay, I analyse various psychological processes that accompanied my writing. I note the differences in emotions and reactions, as well as something I would refer to as a change of personality traits, depending on the language I was writing in. Completing both versions of the memoir helped me process my trauma and bring together previously fragmented pieces of self.

Author: Kim Etherington

Book Review
A Story of a Marriage Through Dementia and Beyond: Love in a Whirlwind

By Laurel Richardson 2023, 104 pages (paperback) ISBN 9781032181158 Taylor & Francis Ltd
Reviewed by Kim Etherington, PhD Professor Emerita, University of Bristol, UK