Poetic Inquiry: Craft, Method and Practice examines the use of poetry as a form of qualitative research, representation, and method used by researchers, practitioners, and students from across the social sciences and humanities. It serves as a practical manual for using poetry in qualitative research through the presentation of varied examples of Poetic Inquiry. It provides how-to exercises for developing and using poetry as a qualitative research method.
The book begins by mapping out what doing and critiquing Poetic Inquiry entails via a discussion of the power of poetry, poets’, and researchers’ goals for the use of poetry, and the kinds of projects that are best suited for Poetic Inquiry. It also provides descriptions of the process and craft of creating Poetic Inquiry, and suggestions for how to evaluate and engage with Poetic Inquiry. The book further contends with questions of method, process, and craft from poets’ and researchers’ perspectives. It shows the implications for the aesthetic and epistemic concerns in poetry, and furthers transdisciplinary dialogues between the humanities and social sciences.
Faulkner shows the importance of considering the form and function of Poetic Inquiry in qualitative research through discussions of poetry as research method, poetry as qualitative analysis and representation, and Poetic Inquiry as a powerful research tool.
List of Illustrations
Preface
Acknowledgements
The Book
Chapter 1. The Power of Poetry
Chapter 2. Poetry as Method
Chapter 3. Concern with Craft: The Question of Poetic Criteria
Chapter 4. Exercising the Poetry Muscle
References
Biography
Sandra L. Faulkner is Professor of Communication at Bowling Green State University. Her interests include qualitative methodology, Poetic Inquiry, and the relationships among culture, identities, and sexualities in close relationships. She received the 2014 Knower Outstanding Article Award from the National Communication Association and the 2016 Norman K. Denzin Qualitative Research Award.
I can think of no better guide than Sandra Faulkner to walk alongside you to explore the possibilities and power of poetry in qualitative research practice. This updated version of her book Poetry as Method provides exemplars of her own Poetic Inquiry and points to many more in this small but growing and vibrant field of arts-based research. I will recommend this book to my colleagues and graduate students, and will return to it myself when in need of inspiration.
Dr. Monica Prendergast, Professor, University of Victoria, co-editor of Poetic Inquiry and Poetic Inquiry II
Sandra L. Faulkner has done it again, written a book that is a true gift to the research community. Poetic Inquiry: Craft, Method, and Practice is a beautifully rendered, all-encompassing guide to using Poetic Inquiry in qualitative or arts-based research. Faulkner makes a persuasive case for the place of Poetic Inquiry in research across the social sciences and humanities and offers detailed methodological instruction, robust examples, and practical assistance including how-to exercises. I absolutely love this book! I will be pulling it off my bookshelf often. It is a must-read for researchers, professors, students, writers, and anyone interested in artful approaches to research. It would also make an outstanding classroom text in qualitative, arts-based, or creative writing courses. I highly recommend this outstanding text.
Patricia Leavy, PhD, author of Method Meets Art and Spark
Faulkner’s in-depth, nuanced and extremely important treatment of Poetic Inquiry is a balm to those who have poetic sensibilities and who have expanded their vision of what research could and might be. Faulkner’s own commitment to the form provides encouragement, and will inspire others to take the leap!
Michelle Reale, author of Inquiry and Research
Sandra Faulkner's follow-up to her seminal work, Poetry as Method, is a comprehensive overview of both the theory, method, and praxis of doing poetry as research, written in the clear, succinct voice of a feminist, poet-researcher passionate about poetry as art, teaching others how to create it and using poetry as a social justice tool to change the world one poem at a time.
Mary E. Weems, PhD, author of Blackeyed: Plays and Monologues
Rich and hearty. Come to this book hungry to improve your thinking about Poetic Inquiry. Come to this book hungry to improve the listening and writing practices that matter. Faulkner has proven – in a scholarly sense – why poetry matters as a research form and tool. She does this in both a complex, well-cited way and an accessible way. And then come the examples, the how-to, the what-to-try, the robust fodder for your future art-and-service making, and you can just gather it all up. Revel in the pleasure and utility of it. Truly a gift.
Kimberly Dark, sociologist, writer, raconteur, and author of Love and Errors and The Daddies
"‘Poetic Inquiry’ is rich, full,
an essential exploration
of arts-science entanglement,
a reflexive, creative field map.
This essential exploration,
Faulkner’s provocation to imagine
a reflexive, creative field map,
crafts critical challenge to staid epistemologies."tandfonline.com
"In reading the book, I was struck by a sense of Faulkner’s collaborative spirit: a generosity of sharing the experiences as poetic inquirer she has gained along the way. She encourages the reader to enhance their suppleness through writing exercises. She is invitational, welcoming potential poet-researchers to “join the conversation, and to further your Poetic Inquiry.”"
Sarah Penwarden, Laidlaw College, Auckland, New Zealand
