Just heard this wonderful news, 30 March 2022
The winner of the 2022 Qualitative Book Award is:
Lengelle, R. (2020). Writing the Self in Bereavement: A Story of Love, Spousal Loss, and Resilience. London & New York: Routledge.
This book spoke – sang, called – to each of us in its power, vulnerability and deep engagement with scholarship. Reinekke Lengelle uses her capacities as a researcher, poet, and professor of therapeutic writing to tell a heartfelt and fearless story about her grief after the death of her spouse and the year and a half following his diagnosis, illness, and passing. She demonstrates how writing can be a companion in bereavement, drawing deftly from the latest research on spousal loss. Integrated with this contemporary research are stories, poetry, and reflections on writing as a therapeutic process. The author unflinchingly explores themes that are underrepresented in existing resources: how one deals with anger associated with loss, what a healthy response might be to unfinished business with the deceased, continuing conversations with the beloved (even for agnostics and atheists), ongoing sexual desire, and secondary losses. As a rare book where an author successfully combines a personal story, heart-rending poetry, up-to-date research on grief, and an evocative exploration of taboo topics in the context of widowhood, Writing the Self in Bereavement is valuable for those grieving a loved one, those supporting others in bereavement, and those interested in the healing power of poetry and life writing. Researchers on death and dying, grief counsellors, and autoethnographers will also benefit from reading this resonant resource on love and loss.
International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry
Qualitative Book Award 2022
The Award committee – Kakali Bhattacharya, Ron Pelias, Pat Sikes, and Jonathan Wyatt (chair) – has been privileged to review 18 nominations for the 2022 ICQI book award. The Qualitative Book award recognizes books that make a major contribution to the study and practice of qualitative approaches through success in experimenting with new or traditional writing forms, the inclusion of critical reflections on the writing and research process, contributions to living meaningful lives, and insights into creating a socially just world. As in past years, the task to select winners for the award was a major challenge, given we received many excellent books for review.
