Abstract
Drawing on the auto/biographical experiences of four women working in the field of death studies as well as on a range of creative, professional, and academic sources about loss and the process of writing, in this article, we explore creativity, innovation and impact, and the strategies on offer in auto/biographical writing about dying, death, and grief. We ask and explore the questions: What is writing doing? When is writing doing? and provide insights into the productive potential of writing as a way to continue bonds (Klass et al., 1996), live with loss and engage with grief. Centrally concerned with how first-person writing can function as a powerful practice for responding to experiences of dying and grief, we take a creative approach to the article that seeks to do what it advocates—to write in the first person, to reflect, and to explore the limits and potential of language to produce meanings from loss. The article intersperses the personal narratives of three writers (Gayle, Tamarin, and Kate) woven together by Bethan with epigraphs from other writers whose work is connected to that offered here in terms of its themes. This practice of collaborative writing, and of citing the work of others from a wide range of backgrounds, suggests and produces connections and intersubjectivities, emphasizing the theme of this special issue—public dying and public grieving—and signals the complicated, inevitably partial, and powerful ways in which writing can function to make grief a shared and public experience.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Journal | Illness, Crisis, & Loss |
| Early online date | 15 Apr 2025 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 1 Jul 2025 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© The Author(s) 2025.
Acknowledgements
We are very grateful to Michael Brennan (special edition editor) and Jason Powell (journal editor) and to the anonymous reviewers of our article for their careful reading of our writing and their generous support and encouragement. We also thank Cathy Renzenbrink for her Centre for Death and Society (CDAS) seminar ‘Writing Inside and Outside of the Academy' and the many friends and colleagues—from CDAS and elsewhere—who engage positively with our writing and who sometimes join us in thinking creatively about What is writing doing? When is writing doing?Funding
The \u201CFrom the Heart\u201D Notelets project was a collaboration with Scottish baby loss charity Held In Our Hearts, supported by UKRI Higher Education Innovation Funding. Together we created packs of postcard-sized note cards with memory and writing prompts to support parents in capturing fleeting memories, thoughts, and impressions when a baby died. Prompts include \u201CHere are some things I remember about the feeling of holding you\u2026,\u201D \u201CIf I could play you any song, it would be \u2026 because\u2026,\u201D and \u201CHere are some things I want the whole world to know about you\u2026.\u201D These notelets, which come in packs of 20, include suggestions for other ways to write through grief, and where to find further emotional support. I had proposed developing resources like these in a 2021 article on the powerful potential of creating and sharing stories, images and metaphors when a baby died near birth (), and by 2023 these very resources were in the hands of bereaved parents. They are now a standard part of the package of support offered across several NHS Boards in Scotland, and increasingly in parts of England too.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| UK Research & Innovation |
Keywords
- auto/biography
- collaborative working
- grief
- intersubjectivities
- writing
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Health(social science)
- Sociology and Political Science