“And Now I Can’t Unknow This” – Poems Of Other People’s Lives.

Life writing, biographical poetry and poetry that uses models of collaboration are not new within the field of creative writing. In addition, creative writing as a therapeutic tool for wellbeing is well documented and practised within community settings. This thesis draws from all these practices and contexts to offer an innovative methodology to inform a creative response to telling other lives and stories.

I have devised a process which uses qualitative research practice and notions of collaboration in writing to produce a collection of poetry. This included developing an innovative methodology based on informal extended interviews with individuals. The project’s starting point was the simple question: “tell me about your life” The poet and the individual responding to this invitation then worked in partnership to create a poem which told that life story authentically. The methodology I devised has created new models of best practice and ethical guidance when using qualitative research as a basis for creative practice. This thesis contains the poems written via this process and a critical commentary which explores the methodology and considers where this collection is situated within contemporary poetry. The critical commentary includes close reading of Claudia Rankine, Joelle Taylor, Simon Armitage, Denise Duhamel, and Maureen Seaton, whose practices are adjacent to the methodology created for this thesis. It offers a model of working for those engaged or interested in life writing whereby editorial control is returned to the people whose lives are being written about.