"Like a splinter had come out of her": A poetic inquiry of shared reading
Abstract
Poetry offers a valuable resource at this moment of need for language that not only informs but also connects, enacts, and creates. With this paper, I present a selection of findings from the poetic inquiry phase of my doctoral research examining what happens when we bring people together to read aloud and discuss literary works. I create and share three sets of poems: found poems from the transcripts of my interviews with reading group participants, found poems from the work of relevant theorists, and threshold poems that weave in my voice as the poet-researcher. The poems reveal how the cultivated liminal space of shared reading can engender a practice of listening otherwise experienced as a process of relational wellbeing.
Alison Brown
Department of Information Science, Dalhousie University
Alison Brown is a lecturer and doctoral student in the Department of Information Sciences at Dalhousie University. She studies how bringing people together to read aloud and discuss literature can strengthen relational wellbeing and support social inclusion in our diverse communities. This builds on her MLIS thesis work that explored the outcomes of a shared reading program for incarcerated mothers and their families. Alison’s teaching and research interests include community-led services, the sociology of reading, services and resources for children and young adults, and information experience. When not working, she takes long walks, hosts breakfast parties, curls up with books, and seeks sunshine (literal and metaphorical) with family and friends.