Poetry as Method: Reporting Research Through Verse

by Sandra L. Faulkner

This book takes an interdisciplinary approach to using and creating poetry for conducting and reporting social research. It includes examples of poetry, interviews of poets, and practical exercises that will enhance the discussion of poetry writing as a method. When used as a teaching guide this book will encourage students to consider the importance of form and function in poetry for qualitative methods. It also answers the question of how to teach the creation and evaluation of poetry, it combats the perception that poetry is too difficult or mysterious to use as research and that only poets should be concerned with poetic craft.

160 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 2009

About the author

In my research, writing, and advocacy about close relationships and relational communication, I incorporate theory and research from a variety of interpersonal, sexuality, health, feminist, and culture literatures to interrogate sexuality and identity. I focus on the role of culture and relational processes in discussions and discourse about sexuality and stigmatized identities in interpersonal relationships using qualitative and critical research methods. I am interested in how relational processes and goals influence disclosure decisions about sexual information and potentially stigmatizing identities, how the negotiation of identities influences relational health, how larger discourses surrounding identity influence and shape our relational experiences, and how we narrate and re-narrate our experiences for personal and social change.