Research & Projects

Summary

In this project, I demonstrate my writing capabilities in the creative non-fiction genre. In addition, I contextualized this writing project by providing a mock book proposal and writer's statement. In "Another Barrack," I initialize an ongoing family research project. This project was completed for Dr. Unal's Creative Non-Fiction (CNF) course during the Fall of 2023. 

Objectives

According to Dr. Unal's ENG 566 Advanced Creative Nonfiction Writing course syllabus, this course was "an intensive writing course further developing the techniques of writing creative nonfiction: researching, editing, assimilating features of fiction and poetry, and experimenting with structure, voice and style" (Unal 2023). "Another Barrack" was the final culminating project demonstrating my growth in developing CNF writing techniques. Additionally, course texts and readings helped me develop an ethical framework for balancing creative elements from fiction and poetry while remaining a truthful and honest storyteller. 

Course readings included:

• "The Elusive Truth" by Lee Gutkind

• "The Ethics of Creative Nonfiction" by Sondra Perl and Mimi Schwartz

• "The Journalist and the Murderer" by Janet Malcolm

• The Philosopher and the Wolf by Mark Rowlands

• No is Not Enough by Naomi Klein

• "The Night My Mother Met Bruce Lee" by Paisley Rekdal

• "The Fourth State of Matter" by Jo Ann Beard

In addition to the exigencies prompted by the course syllabus and final revision assignment description, "Another Barrack" also responded to a personal exigence. Increasingly over the past 10 years, I have felt the call to capture my family history and use my experience in writing to connect with relatives whose histories have been erased and intentionally forgotten. But, within this drive, I was also aware of my limited perspectives and was too afraid to start this journey because of the internalized voyeurism I felt when prying for these stories and using them for my own writing purposes. But, this course and the readings supplemented by Dr. Unal changed my perspective on CNF. The CNF writers gave me the tools and reference points to understand my unique positionality as a writer of another's story.  

Results

Inspired by Sondra Perl and Mimi Schwartz's "The Ethics of Creative Nonfiction," along with other course readings, I was inspired to finally bring my family history to life and confront my family's internalized narrative by calling my aunt and documenting her truth on Nayoe's terms. 

After reading Rekdal and Ann Beard, I started rethinking my approach and positionality with a better understanding of literary journalism, or "new journalism." In my reflective writer's statement, I write, "Rather than writing over the subject (a positionality of an all-knowing and absolute narrator), writing under the subject (a positionality of vulnerability and co-construction of a story with your subject) gave me the mindset needed to begin a process of exploration" (1). This idea of writing "under" has transferred to other genres of creative writing, but has also transferred to my pedagogical perspectives as well. Connecting to a socio-constructivist pedagogy, I have the language to help frame my students as co-constructors of a classroom narrative. Instead of teaching over my students, I do my best to teach "under" my students, allowing room for play and for my students' uncensored voices to take up space in the classroom. 

While "Another Barrack" taught me about my writing resilience, the data collection process in CNF, and how to blend fiction and poetry devices with journalism and storytelling ethically, the writer's statement (part of Dr. Unal's final portfolio) helped me reflect metacognitively on my writing process and the assignments rhetorical situation, examining the self as the rhetor and speaking directly to an imagined reading audience. 

Finally, the "Book Proposal" challenged me to consider what it might look like to continue working on this project with the goal of publishing a larger work. I had never considered completing a book-length creative work until I wrote this book proposal.  Viewing "Another Barrack" as a chapter in a more extensive work, I reconsidered my larger exigence and how my audience would shift if I were looking for publishers to invest in my story. In my book proposal, I further explain my positionality in order to emphasize the personal and cultural exigencies: "In this reflective personal essay, I grapple with my expectations for the narrative and work with Naoye to create meaning in her stories by considering my own positionality as a ¼ Japanese woman of privilege. As a narrator, I openly practice rhetorical, self-critical listening and consider my errors as a reporter, and the biases that saturate my perspective" (1).