Fiction as Research Practice: Short Stories, Novellas, and Novels [Paperback]

The turn to fiction as a social research practice is a natural extension of what many researchers and writers have long been doing. Patricia Leavy, a widely published qualitative researcher and a novelist, explores the overlaps and intersections between these two ways of understanding and describing human experience. She demonstrates the validity of literary experimentation to the qualitative researcher and how to incorporate these practices into research projects. Five short stories and excerpts from novellas and novels show these methods in action. This book is an essential methodological introduction for those interested in studying or practicing arts-based research.

Patricia Leavy, herself both a highly published qualitative researcher and a novelist, explores the overlaps and intersections between these two ways of understanding and describing human experience, including a methodological introduction and five stories showing these methods in action.

"Leavy’s book is beneficial for varied audiences…This text provides the background needed for the success of original fiction-based research."

—Richard H. Rogers, The Qualitative Report

Patricia Leavy is an independent scholar, formerly associate professor and chairperson of the Sociology & Criminology Department and the founding director of the Gender Studies Program at Stonehill College in Easton, MA. She is the author of Iconic Events: Media, Politics, and Power in Retelling History (2007), Method Meets Art: Arts-Based Research Practice (2009), Oral History: Understanding Qualitative Research (2011), and Low-Fat Love (2011); coauthor of Feminist Research Practice: A Primer (2007) and The Practice of Qualitative Research (2d ed. 2010); and co-editor of Hybrid Identities: Theoretical and Empirical Examinations (2008), Handbook of Emergent Methods (2008), Emergent Methods in Social Research (2006), and Approaches to Qualitative Research: l£ã