Keening for Carl: Mentor and Poetry Man

Abstract

This evocative autoethnography reflects the author’s grief following the death of a professor on her doctoral committee. She weaves poetic inquiry “to capture the contextual and psychological worlds of both poet and subject.” Autoethnography can “capture, probe, and render understandable the problematic experience,” and convey therapeutic stories as we write to make sense of ourselves and purge our burdens. Overall, autoethnography grounds the author with a deeper understanding about the personal and cultural influences of grief.