Writing Anthropology

Carole McGranahan is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Colorado, author of Arrested Histories: Tibet, the CIA, and Memories of a Forgotten War, and coeditor of Ethnographies of U.S. Empire, both also published by Duke University Press.

“Writing Anthropology is the long-awaited handbook that our discipline desperately needs to move us away from the lingering idea that our texts should be indecipherable to mortals. Carole McGranahan and company have given anthropologists a beautifully wrinkled and coffee-stained road map to help us all get to a writing place that is thoughtful, self-aware, compassionate, and (gasp!) accessible.” - Jason De León, author of (The Land of Open Graves: Living and Dying on the Migrant Trail) “In this powerful volume, a multitude of ruminations, thoughts, prompts, and provocations flow together like a vibrant stream until we see the lifeblood of contemporary anthropology as a committed way of writing about people that is beholden to a sense of accountability. The accomplished anthropologists featured in this book pursue a shared commitment to writing well. But this is not merely for the sake of more effective explication or theoretical nuance. They aim to better convey the hardships and dignity of humanity itself. This is ethnography at its best: beautifully written, surprising, deeply instructive, and grounded in an ethical practice that never ceases to care about and attend to everything and everyone with whom anthropologists engage.” - Laurence Ralph, author of (The Torture Letters: Reckoning with Police Violence) "In these 53 short, blog-style essays, students now have a new, pithy guide to help them think through a wealth of writing issues. Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty; professionals." (Choice) "A rich wordhoard of ideas that focus on 'craft and commitment' in anthropological writing…" - David Syring (Anthropology and Humanism) "Although Writing Anthropology is not ostensibly a how-to book, readers seeking strategies to apply to their writing practices should not be disappointed. . . . The essays in this collection resonate, as McGranahan depicts, that ‘anthropology is a writing discipline’ (7). As writers, anthropologists make ideal commentators on their practices of presentation and representation, on their visions for process and product." - Steven E. Gump (Journal of Scholarly Publishing) "... Writing Anthropology makes a compelling case for clear, truthful, heartfelt, and engaged anthropological writing. It will certainly be one of those books I will turn to for inspiration and solace when I find myself struggling in front of a white screen." - Nastja Slavec (Anthropology Notebooks) “Making a poignant point about clarity and commitment in anthropological writing, Carole McGranahan has put together an important volume of essays.” - Helena Wulff (Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute)

• Acknowledgments  ixIntroduction. On Writing and Writing Well: Ethics, Practice, Story / Carole McGranahan  1Section I. Ruminations1. Writing in and from the Field / Ieva Jusionyte  232. List as Form: Literary, Ethnographic, Long, Short, Heavy, Light / Sasha Su-Ling Welland  283. Finding Your Way / Paul Stoller  344. The Ecology of What We Write / Anand Pandian  375. When Do Words Count? / Kirin Narayan  41Section II. Writing Ideas6. Read More, Write Less / Ruth Behar  477. Pro Tips for Academic Writing / C. Anne Claus  548. My Ten Steps for Writing a Book / Kristen R. Ghodsee  589. Slow Reading / Michael Lambek  6210. Digging with the Pen: Writing Archaeology / ZoË Crossland  66Section III. Telling Stories11. Anthropology as Theoretical Storytelling / Carole McGranahan  7312. Beyond Thin Description: Biography, Theory, Ethnographic Writing / Donna M. Goldstein  7813. Can't Get There from Here? Writing Place and Moving Narratives / Sarah Besky  8314. Ethnographic Writing with Kirin Narayan: An Interview / Carole McGranahan  8715. On Unreliable Narrators / Sienna R. Craig  93Section IV. On Responsibility16. In Dialogue: Ethnographic Writing and Listening / Marnie Jane Thomson  10117. Writing with Community / Sara L. Gonzalez  10418. To Fieldwork, to Write / Kim Fortun  11019. Quick, Quick, Slow: Ethnography in the Digital Age / Yarimar Bonilla  11820. That Generative Space between Ethnography and Journalism / Maria D. Vesperi  121Section V. The Urgency of Now21. Writing about Violence / K. Drybread  12722. Writing about Bad, Sad, Hard Things / Carole McGranahan  13123. Writing to Live: On Finding Strength While Watching Ferguson / Whitney Battle-Baptiste  13424. Finding My Muse While Mourning / Chelsi West Ohueri  13725. Mourning, Survival, and Time: Writing Through Crisis / Adia Benton  140Section VI. Writing With, Writing Against26. A Case for Agitation: On Affect and Writing / Carla Jones  14527. Antiracist Writing / Ghassan Hage  14928. Writing with Love and Hate / Bhrigupati Singh  15329. Peer Review: What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Stronger / Alan Kaiser  15830. When They Don't Like What We Write: Criticism of Anthropology as a Diagnostic of Power / Lara Deeb and Jessica Winegar  163Section VII. Academic Authors31. Writing Archaeology "Alone," or a Eulogy for a Codirector / Jane Eva Baxter  16932. Collaboration: From Different Throats Intone One Language? / Matt Sponheimer  17333. What Is and (Academic) Author? / Mary Murrell  17834. The Writing behind the Written / Noel B. Salazar  18235. It's All "Real" Writing / Daniel M. Goldstein  18536. Dr. Funding or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Grant Writing / Robin M. Bernstein  188Section VIII. Ethnographic Genres37. Poetry and Anthropology / Nomi Stone  19538. "SEA" Stories: Anthropologies and Poetries beyond the Human / Stuart McLean  20139. Dilations / Kathleen Stewart and Lauren Berlant  20640. Genre Bending, or the Love of Ethnographic Fiction / Jessica Marie Falcone  21241. Ethnographic Fiction: The Space Between / Roxanne Varzi  22042. From Real Life to the Magic of Fiction / Ruth Behar  223Section IX. Becoming and Belonging43. On Writing from Elsewhere / Uzma Z. Rizvi  22944. Writing to Become . . . / Sita Venkateswar  23445. Unscholarly Confessions on Reading / Katerina Teaiwa  23946. Guard Your Heart and Your Purpose: Faithfully Writing Anthropology / Bianca C. Williams  24647. Writing Anthropology and Such, or "Once More, with Feeling" / Gina Athena Ulysse  25148. The Anthropology of Being (Me) / Paul Tapsell  256Section X. Writing and Knowing49. Writing as Cognition / Barak Kalir  26350. Thinking Through the Untranslatable / Kevin Carrico  26651. Freeze-Dried Memory Crumbs: Field Notes from North Korea / Lisa Sang Mi Min  27052. Writing the Disquiets of a Colonial Field / Ann Laura Stoler  27453. On Ethnographic Unknowability / Catherine Besteman  280Bibliography  283Contributors  293Index  305