This article explores and shares the creative journey and interpretive process I experienced when creating fiction as a qualitative researcher. I seek to accomplish three things: (a) to articulate the process of creation and interpretation; (b) to revisit the burgeoning literature that argues for the use of fiction and other poetic, artistic writing as useful contributions to scholarly research; and (c) to show how the creation of fiction can usefully show other truths and different viewpoints.
Arendt, H. ( 2000). The portable Hannah Arendt (E. Barker, Trans.). Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press.
2.
Caulley, D.N. ( 2008). Making qualitative research reports less boring: The techniques of writing creative nonfiction. Qualitative Inquiry , 14, 424-449.
3.
Chia, R. ( 1996). Organizational Analysis as Deconstructive Practice. Berlin, Germany: De Gruyter.
4.
Clarke, J., Febbraro, A., Hatzipantelis, M., & Nelson, G. ( 2005). Poetry and prose: Telling the stories of formerly homeless mentally ill people. Qualitative Inquiry, 11, 913-932.
5.
Coffee, A., & Atkinson, P. ( 1996). Making sense of qualitative data: Complementary research strategies. Thousand Oaks, London : Sage.
6.
Czarniawska, B. ( 1997). Narrating the organization: Dramas of institutional identity . Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
7.
Czarniawska, B. ( 2006). Doing gender unto the other: Fiction as a mode of studying gender discrimination in organizations. Gender, work and organization , 13, 234-252.
8.
Czarniawska, B. ( 2008). Accounting and gender across times and places: An excursion into fiction. Accounting Organizations and Society, 33(1), 33-47.
9.
Czarniawska-Joerges, B., & de Monthoux, P.G. (1994). Good novels, better management: Reading organizational realities in fiction. Chur, Switzerland: Harwood.
10.
Davis, C.S., & Ellis, C. ( 2008), Autoethnograhic introspection in ethnographic fiction: A method of inquiry. In P. Liamputtong & J. Rumbold (Eds.), Knowing differently: Arts-based and collaborative research (pp. 99-117). New York: Nova Science.
11.
De Cock, C. ( 2000). Essal: Reflections on fiction, representation, and organization studies: An essay with special reference to the work of Jorge Luis Borges . Organization Studies, 21, 589-609.
12.
Ellis, C., & Bochner, A.P. ( 2003), Autoethnography, personal narrative, reflexivity: Researcher as subject. In N. Denzin & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), Collecting and interpreting qualitative materials (2nd ed., pp.199-258). Thousand Oaks, London: Sage .
13.
Finley, S., & Knowles, J.G. ( 1995). Researcher as artist/artist as researcher. Qualitative Inquiry, 1(1), 110-142.
14.
Frank, A. ( 1995). The diary of a young girl: The definitive edition. London: Penguin Books.
15.
Frank, A.W. ( 2004). After methods, the story: From incongruity to truth in qualitative research. Qualitative Health Research, 14, 430-440.
16.
Freeman, M. ( 2004), Data are everywhere: Narrative criticism in the literature of experience, In C. Daiute & C. Lightfoot (Eds.). Narrative analysis: Studying the development of individuals in society (pp. 63-81). Thousand Oaks , London: Sage.
17.
Furman, R. ( 2006a). Poetry as research: Advancing scholarship and the development of poetry therapy as a profession. Journal of Poetry Therapy , 19(3), 133-145.
18.
Furman, R. ( 2006b). Poetic forms and structures in qualitative health research . Qualitative Health Research, 16, 560-566.
19.
Furman, R., Lietz, C., & Langer, C.L. ( 2006). The research poem in international social work: Innovations in qualitative methodology. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 5(3), 1-8.
20.
Garwick, A.W., Patterson, J.M., Bennett, F.C., & Blum, R.W. ( 1998). Parents’ perceptions of helpful vs unhelpful types of support in managing the case of preadolescents with chronic conditions . Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, 152, 665-671.
21.
Glesne, C. ( 1997). That rare feeling: Re-presenting research through poetic transcription. Qualitative Inquiry, 3, 202-221.
22.
Golden-Biddle, K., & Locke, K. ( 1997). Composing qualitative research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
23.
Goodin, R.E. ( 2000). Democratic Deliberation Within. Philosophy and Public Affairs, 29, 81-109.
24.
Gouldner, A.W. ( 1976), The dialectic of ideology and technology: The origins, grammar, and future of ideology. London: MacMillan Press.
25.
Gutkind, L. ( 2009). The private and public: The range and scope of creative nonfiction. In L. Gutkind (Ed.), Keep it real: Everything you need to know about researching and writing creative nonfiction (pp. 11-25). New York: Norton .
26.
Harold, J. ( 2003), Flexing the imagination. Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 61, 247-257.
27.
Ingram, K.M., Jones, D.A., Fass, R.J., Neidig, J.L., & Song, Y.S. ( 1999). Social support and unsupportive social interactions: Their association with depression among people living with HIV. AIDS Care, 11, 313-329.
28.
Ketelle, D. ( 2004). Writing truth as fiction: Administrators think about their work through a different lens. Qualitative Report, 9, 449-462
29.
Lewis, O. ( 1959). Five families: Mexican case studies in the culture of poverty. New York: Basic Books.
30.
Park, Y. ( 1982). The function of fiction. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 42, 416-424.
31.
Peterson, R.A. ( 1985), Six constraints on the production of literary works. Poetics, 14, 45-67.
32.
Phillips, N. ( 1995). Telling organizational tales: On the role of narrative fiction in the study of organizations. Organization Studies , 16, 625-649.
33.
Poindexter, C.C. ( 2002). Research as poetry: A couple experiences HIV. Qualitative Inquiry, 8, 707-714.
34.
Rhodes, C. ( 2001). Writing organization: (Re)presentation and control in narratives at work. Amsterdam, Netherlands: John Benjamins.
35.
Rhodes, C., & Brown, A.D. ( 2005). Writing responsibly: Narrative fiction and organization studies. Organization, 12, 467-491.
36.
Richardson, L. ( 1994). Nine poems: Marriage and the family. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 23(1), 3-13.
37.
Ricoeur, P. ( 1983). The narrative function. In J. B. Thompson (Ed.), Paul Ricoeur, hermeneutics and the human sciences: Essays on language, action and interpretation (pp. 274-296). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
38.
Rinehart, R. ( 1998). Fictional methods in ethnography: Believability, specks of glass, and Chekhov. Qualitative Inquiry, 4, 200-224.
39.
Rolfe, G. ( 2002). "A lie that helps us see the truth": Research, truth and fiction in the helping professions. Reflective Practice , 3(1) 89-102.
40.
Rowland, G., Rowland, S., & Winter, R. ( 1990). Writing fiction as inquiry into professional practice . Journal of Curriculum Studies, 22, 291-293.
41.
Schmidt, N.J. ( 1981). The nature of ethnographic fiction: A further inquiry . Anthropology and Humanism Quarterly, 6(1), 8-18.
42.
Spicer, M. (in press). In defense of politics in public administration. Tuscaloosa, AL: University of Alabama.
43.
Spindler, J. ( 2008). Fictional writing, educational research and professional learning. International Journal of Research & Method in Education, 31(1), 19-30.
44.
Szto, P., Furman, R., & Langer, C. ( 2005). Poetry and photography: An exploration into expressive/creative qualitative research. Qualitative Social Work, 4, 135-156.
45.
Tedlock, B. ( 2004) Ethnography and ethnographic representation. In N. Denzin & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), Strategies of qualitative inquiry. Thousand Oaks, London: Sage .
46.
Tierney, W. ( 1993). The cedar closet. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 6, 303-314.
47.
Tierney, W.G. ( 2003). Undaunted courage: Life history and the postmodern challenge . In, N. Denzin, & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), Strategies of qualitative inquiry (pp. 537-554). Thousand Oaks, London: Sage.
48.
Vallant, S. ( 2005, February 17-20). Presenting findings: Creating a diary to blend multiple stories. Paper presented at the 6th International Interdisciplinary Conference, Advances in Qualitative Methods Conference, Edmonton, Alberta , Canada.
49.
Van den Bulck, J., & Vandebosch, H. (2003). When the viewer goes to prison: Learning fact from watching fiction-A qualitative cultivation study . Poetics, 31, 103-116.
50.
Vickers, M.H. ( 2005).Working and caring for children with chronic illness: Stories of disconnection, cruelty, and "clayton’s support". The Review of Disability Studies: An International Journal, 1(4), 37-49.
51.
Vickers, M.H. ( 2006). Working and caring for a child with chronic illness: Disconnected and doing it all. London: Palgrave MacMillan.
52.
Vickers, M.H. ( 2008). Why people with MS are really leaving work: From a Clayton’s choice to an ugly passage-A Phenomenological Study. Review of Disability Studies: An International Journal, 4(4), 43-57.
53.
Vickers, M.H. ( 2009). Why people with multiple sclerosis (MS) are really leaving work: An exemplar case study with lessons for managers, The 2009 Pfeiffer Management Development Annual, Section: Learning Activities, Questionnaires and Articles (pp. 139-154). San Francisco: Pfeiffer (An Imprint of Wiley).
54.
Watt, I. ( 1957). The rise of the novel. Berkeley: University of California Press.
55.
Watts, C. ( 1990). Literature and money: Financial myth and literary myth . London: Harvester Wheatsheaf.
56.
Whiteman, G., & Phillips, N. ( 2006). The role of narrative fiction and semi-fiction in organizational studies. Rotterdam, Netherlands: Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM), Report Series Research in Management.
