Ethology is a highly fictionalized ethnographic account of my travels around Tanzania, East Africa during my teens.
"This autoethnographic story is about mental illness, specifically bi-polar disorder."
"In this autoethnodrama, a woman terminates a pregnancy without telling her husband."
"I wrote Asha’s story to give voice to all the women in rural Bangladesh who cannot speak out against their abusers or society."
"Processing Parental Grief" As she started to tear up, the sweater instantly felt like her mother's arms wrapping around her. In that moment, Kathy realized she would never again be able to hide in that sweater while her mother was wearing it.
“Cold Snap” is about two disparate adults, caught in the tumult of abrupt weather change, caused by the accidental detonation of an experimental meteorological weapon.
"Ami Tau Ami (I Am Who I Am), is a story about a mother letting go of her own dreams but passing it to her daughter, as my mother did for me."
"My stories are meant to give women from Bangladesh a chance to show their strength and resilience. It is a way for me to try to connect with the rest of the world despite the differences in language and culture."
Ulla-Maija Matikainen·
All ContentAutoethnographic Literary FictionAutoethnographic PoetryAutoethnographic WritingVolume 2, Issue 1 (2022)
··12 min read"A woman alone doesn’t belong to any male power or protection sphere. She can be kidnapped into fears and dreams."
"She has been so careful at work; she has had all of her shopping delivered for weeks, actually for months, now; she's even wiped down the items with bleach as they are delivered, and still does. How can this have happened?"
