autoethnographer: one who uses lived experience as evidence with which to explore cultural phenomena.
Story-worlds were magical—they transported me to different places where I’d meet new people, and learn about their lives in visceral ways.
In Part One, I situated my work within the context of the work of writers. Now, I’m situating my work within the context of women writers.
This autoethnographic narrative describes the growth and development I experienced once I found mentors who, despite my lack of “natural musical abilities” or “talent,” believed I could learn.
There’s also a larger goal underscoring my work. I aim to create a philosophy of the arts and a philosophy of love.
I’d take the past and make it straight, Even though it’s complicated, We’ve got time to start again, I don’t know if you can hear me…
Gratitude is a recurring theme I hear from readers of Patricia Leavy’s social fiction. This is an essay about Patricia Leavy novels.
Patricia Leavy is a genuine trailblazer, the real deal, an inspiration.
The Resistant Analysand: A Memoir Author’s Memo My memoir is about my...
When Whistles Melt into Beeps: Four Poems for AutoEthnographer Author’s Memo I...
This is a humorous narrative nonfiction account of the strangest job I ever had working for a kooky fitness guru in Manhattan for six years.
This film explores foreign EFL teacher identity construct dialectics in contemporary China, qualified by China/West geo-political tensions.
On Emerging Liberated of the Glass Box Author’s Memo Like many others...
SPECIAL ISSUE 2024: PATRICIA LEAVY & SOCIAL FICTION
An Invitation to Story: "Everything in my life has shown me that stories matter. Sharing stories matters. Through stories we generate connection, resonance, empathy, reflection, discovery, learning, change, resistance, visibility. Storytelling is at the heart of my work. It’s also at the heart of autoethnography. I hope when you read my books and the contributions in this special issue that you’re inspired to think about how you might tell the stories of your research and your life." Dr. Patricia Leavy
LATEST POSTS
autoethnographer: one who uses lived experience as evidence with which to explore cultural phenomena.
“The AutoEthnographer is an award-winning, non-profit, open-access, peer-reviewed literary and arts magazine dedicated to presenting the creative side of autoethnography, a qualitative research method uniting ethnography and autobiography that utilizes lived experience as evidence with which to explore cultural phenomena." ISSN: 2833-1400
What is autoethnography? The AutoEthnographer's international team of editors offer definitions & suggested readings.
Readers can ask questions about autoethnography or invite an editor to speak to their group or classroom.
MISSION
THE AUTOETHNOGRAPHER is a digital magazine dedicated to creating a public, open-source space for creatives to share their personal stories of cultural experience. We aim to support emerging authors and artists, to promote cultural diversity and appreciation, and to celebrate creative expression as a vehicle for shared understanding and positive change.
MISSION
THE AUTOETHNOGRAPHER is a digital magazine dedicated to creating a public, open-source space for creatives to share their personal stories of cultural experience. We aim to support emerging authors and artists, to promote cultural diversity and appreciation, and to celebrate creative expression as a vehicle for shared understanding and positive change.
SPECIAL ISSUE 2024: PATRICIA LEAVY & SOCIAL FICTION
An Invitation to Story: "Everything in my life has shown me that stories matter. Sharing stories matters. Through stories we generate connection, resonance, empathy, reflection, discovery, learning, change, resistance, visibility. Storytelling is at the heart of my work. It’s also at the heart of autoethnography. I hope when you read my books and the contributions in this special issue that you’re inspired to think about how you might tell the stories of your research and your life." Dr. Patricia Leavy
AUTOETHNOGRAPHIC LITERARY NONFICTION
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AUTOETHNOGRAPHIC LITERARY FICTION
Visitation, an Autoethnodrama in One Act
In this autoethnographic play, a woman terminates a pregnancy without telling her husband.
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AUTOETHNOGRAPHIC POETRY
FEATURED POET: MILTON KARP
"My poems are not entirely mine. They belong to the people and events of my passage through life. For once the dam is breached its contents flow unabridged. - Milton Carp, poet at 91"
I’d take the past and make it straight, Even though it’s complicated, We’ve got time to start again, I don’t know if you can hear me…
Laurel Richardson and U. Melissa Anyiwo writes the introduction to this special issue celebrating Dr. Patricia Leavy’s work.
There’s also a larger goal underscoring my work. I aim to create a philosophy of the arts and a philosophy of love.
I share real world examples of why I believe the trans community uses empathy as a powerful tool to combat transphobia and promote self-love.
I explore the intersection of queer identity and popular culture through the lens of my adolescent crush on rock legend Tina Turner.
"My Old Kentucky Homo," highlights my failure to assimilate into the community in which I still live, fourteen years later.
What this essay tries to capture is both the wonder and the inherent horror in potty training.
"This is my childhood memory of realizing the power of laughter when everything interior and exterior makes me scared."
Humor acts as a defense mechanism, a pressure release valve, a teaching tool. As a heart surgeon, I have used laughter for all these reasons.
In this story I shifted my attention to the young woman –a nurse or a volunteer– who sat beside me and held my hand throughout abortion.
"My poems for this special issue seek to document a history of my choice, not just personally but humanly, to use autoethnography to weave through the personal and the political."
LEARN MORE “Bodily Autonomy: A Fetus for a Fetus” explores the cultural issues of what it means to...
Our future depends on readers like you.
$1 a month can help us reach our goals and continue to provide a platform for important voices and stories.
“We noticed signs of climate change and felt a sense of impending doom, even as we witnessed how human beings across the continent are trying to keep alive a sense of culture, art, and kindness.”
"This autoethnographic poem resembles a wave: coming, going, history, hereafter...an endless exchange."
"I have continued to explore the usefulness of various poetic forms as a mechanism for providing access to suppressed internal voices."
AUTOETHNOGRAPHIC WRITING
I share the complexity of my frustration about a failed site visit to the British Museum and wonder about the meaning of the experience.
There are multiple approaches to find one's poetic voice depending on the lens one chooses as a part of the author’s creative process.
"For the first time since my adolescence, I am recognizing that I don’t have to believe what everyone believes, nor do I have to base my morals on faceless strangers who don’t know who I am, or what my experiences are."
HAVE YOU HEARD?
We're podcasting!
Listen to The AutoEthnographer in the car or on the go and enjoy discussions with artists, authors, performers, and researchers from around the world. In our 20-minute episodes we examine how autoethnography can be utilized in diverse contexts, from marketing and coaching to painting and songwriting.
AUTOETHNOGRAPHIC MULTIMEDIA
In The AutoEthnographer’s latest podcast, Marlen Harrison talks with Sandra Faulkner about collage and visual poetry.
"Award-winning artist, Suzanne Hughes, talks about autoethnography and painting. Suzanne is responsible for the cover art for our special issue based on climate change."
Today we're talking with the award-winning author, researcher, and performer, Shanita Mitchell about performance and autoethnography.
“We noticed signs of climate change and felt a sense of impending doom, even as we witnessed how human beings across the continent are trying to keep alive a sense of culture, art, and kindness.”
The focus of this piece is to highlight and celebrate the asexual and aromantic community and what it means to exist outside of the expectation to be partnered.
"Award-winning artist, Suzanne Hughes, talks about autoethnography and painting. Suzanne is responsible for the cover art for our special issue based on climate change."
IAANI AWARD WINNER
“A Seat at the Table” is the autoethnographic manifestation of my vulnerability, anger, and anguish, of my black feminist grit."
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Get updates about The AutoEthnographer direct to your inbox!
Sign up for our seasonal newsletter, only four times a year.
Within the context of this poem, I tried to explain what was happening to my body because of SLE and what I was thinking.
My poem “Week After” explores my experience with assault, rape, and emotional abuse in a year and a half long relationship with an older man.
“Tired,” the titular poem and the collection at large, is an autoethnography looking at the cause of so much pain, so much fatigue. Anthropomorphizing the feeling of being tired gave me creative license to dramatize and explore the real experiences of needing a break...
FEATURED POET: MILTON KARP
"My poems are not entirely mine. They belong to the people and events of my passage through life. For once the dam is breached its contents flow unabridged. - Milton Carp, poet at 91"
What is autoethnography? The AutoEthnographer's international team of editors offer definitions & suggested readings.
"Although I never planned it, I wrote a series of novels, Celestial Bodies, that have pierced my heart in a way nothing else ever has, changing me as a writer and as a person."
"My thesis began to unfold after doing some research on my final topic idea about Tolkien’s world, female characters, female gamers, and the stereotype that females are the love interests or damsels in distress. I chose autoethnography because it allowed me to add that personal angle to the paper because I am a female writer, reader, and gamer."
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Sign up for our seasonal newsletter, only four times a year.
NEWS, INTERVIEWS & REVIEWS
Editor Guillermo Gil's latest book review examines Chin who highlights her relationship to things, and/or her obsessing over wanting and buying things, and many more.
"Throughout the first week of January, 2022, the International Association of Autoethnography and Narrative Inquiry (IAANI.org) will hold their International Symposium on Autoethnography and Narrative (ISAN) as an online conference."
"In my interview with award-winning author Patricia Leavy on literary research, we also discuss her evolution from academic to novelist, her genre of "social fiction," and her latest novels series, Celestial Bodies."
AUTOETHNOGRAPHIC ESSAYS
NEWS, INTERVIEWS & REVIEWS
HAVE YOU HEARD?
We're podcasting!
Listen to The AutoEthnographer in the car or on the go and enjoy discussions with artists, authors, performers, and researchers from around the world. In our 20-minute episodes we examine how autoethnography can be utilized in diverse contexts, from marketing and coaching to painting and songwriting.
REFLECTIONS ON METHOD
SPECIAL ISSUE 2024: PATRICIA LEAVY & SOCIAL FICTION
SPECIAL ISSUE 2023-24: QUEER
SPECIAL ISSUE 2023: LAUGHTER
SPECIAL ISSUE 2022-23: BODILY AUTONOMY
Visitation, an Autoethnodrama in One Act
In this autoethnographic play, a woman terminates a pregnancy without telling her husband.
SPECIAL ISSUE 2022: CLIMATE CHANGE