Writing Feminist Autoethnography

Elizabeth Mackinlay is an Associate Professor in the School of Education at the University of Queensland, Australia, where she teaches Research Methods, Gender Studies and Arts Education. She has worked in higher education for over 25 years as a feminist academic, activist and autoethnographer.

"I plonked myself down to read ‘Writing Feminist Autoethnography’ with a bad attitude. 5 mins into the text and I had put my feet up; 15 mins in and I was slowing down, savouring the words and the craft; 2 hours in and I was curled up and immersed, shooing away offers of lunch and basking in the poetry and the care. Next came tears of recognition and shared rage, never replacing laughter and the bitter sweet taste of words, though. And then the startling weaving together of genres that worked on my body and incanted me to calm. It’s been a long time since I read a feminist book where its author opened themselves up so generously and where I was so moved in turn. Thank you Liz for reminding me why feminist writing and embodiment is so important in the world and for taking the risks that you have: it’s a tour de force. Do I need to tell you to read this book?"Clare Hemmings, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK"A feminist tour de force. The chapters on Beauvoir and Cixous alone offer the reader a world of writing; an invitation to read, write, and be re-written. Liz Mackinlay’s dialogues with a diverse range of women writers is at the forefront of feminist autoethnography, a feminist virtuoso."Michelle Boulous Walker, The University of Queensland, Australia"Elizabeth Mackinlay begins her beautiful and evocative book on feminist autoethnography with love –for women’s theory, words and language. The compelling epistolary approach that MacKinlay uses to thread these chapters together is its own form of autoethnographic homage. The book thinks with the author’s love of women writers and the women in her family and the particular wisdom that has emerged from these nurturing relationships. The book ultimately becomes a kind of meditation on the nature of love itself. It explores the range of kinds of love as co-existing and interdependent, including romantic, passionate love, unconditional, familial love and empathetic, universal love. Mackinlay also acknowledges the hard-to-love as a core part of the human experience. She is intent on addressing non-woman others, narrates hard experiences, and she calls on men to do better. But she needn’t worry: this book makes feminist autoethnography accessible and relevant to all through "knowledge grounded in a relationality of love." Finally, this book is a love letter to her readers as well. She invites us to come along and fall in love. And to that invitation, our answer is a resounding ‘Yes!’."Dan Harris, RMIT University, Australia and Stacy Holman Jones, Monash University, Australia"Writing Feminist Autoethnography is full of love: it’s in ‘love with theory, words, and the language of women writers'. I love that Mackinlay's text is so full of love; other readers will be swept up in/by it too. They will be carried on this wave of deep, smart, fluent, uncompromising engagement by a writer in love with craft, subject(s), and process. This is autoethnography at its finest: scholarly, lyrical, poetic, critical."Jonathan Wyatt, University of Edinburgh, UK

• List of FiguresPrefaceAcknowledgementsIn acknowledgement: Writing in relationality with Yanyuwa, Garrwa, Mara and Kudanji womenBecoming a broken-hearted feminist autoethnographer with Ruth BeharA-way to love: Feminist autoethnographic lessons from bell hooksBecoming feminist autoethnography: Becoming some-thing with Kathleen StewartHush, the ethics of paying attention: Wording and worlding feminist autoethnography with Simone WeilWhat kind of world do you want to word? Crafting feminist autoethnography with Ursula K. Le GuinWriting feminist autoethnography with Simone de Beauvoir: Fourteen villanellesWith love from I-to-you, Hélène Cixous: A play script