Catholic Boy Fights the Devil in the Mohawk River Valley is a short story that’s set in upstate New York during World War II. At a time when America was fighting fascist devils abroad, many were struggling with the devil’s influence at home.
"In this autoethnodrama, a woman terminates a pregnancy without telling her husband."
"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?"
This story explores childbirth-related trauma and postpartum mental health through the lens of a ‘good birth.’
This piece of original short fiction contains plot elements based on my recent adventures hiking remote trails in Ecuador and Colorado.
Missing A Beat examines the journey of two brothers as they attempt to leave behind a past marred by domestic violence but are presented with a choice that threatens the sibling bonds that have been their life raft.
In Saying Goodbye: A Father's Last Minute Parting Gift to His Son, I channel the moments I remember from the night before my mother died.
"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."
Ethology is a highly fictionalized ethnographic account of my travels around Tanzania, East Africa during my teens.
I provide context by referencing theory and practice in narrative medicine and current literary criticism around trauma plots.
J. Sumerau·
All ContentAutoethnographic Flash NonfictionAutoethnographic Literary FictionVolume 3, Issue 4 (2023)
··19 min readThis short story about a night in a shed is an attempt to encourage any reader to think about the stories that circulate within communities.
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."