Assessing Autoethnography: Notes on Analysis, Evaluation, and Craft
2025, Routledge, co-authored with Andrew F. Herrmann

In this book, we describe what autoethnography is, why it matters, how to do it, and the kinds of personal experiences that often work best for autoethnographic projects. Every chapter is accompanied with exemplars and we consider key autoethnographic issues such as ethics, storytelling, and good writing.

Handbook of Autoethnography (2nd edition)
2022, Routledge, co-edited with Stacy Holman Jones and Carolyn Ellis

The next edition of the comprehensive reference volume on autoethnographic research and practice. This edition includes more than 40 essays written by scholars representing more than a dozen disciplines. 

Advances in Autoethnography and Narrative Inquiry: Reflections on the Legacy of Carolyn Ellis and Arthur Bochner
2021, Routledge, co-edited with Robin M. Boylorn and Lisa M. Tillmann

This collection pays homage to two prominent scholars, Arthur Bochner and Carolyn Ellis, for their formative and formidable contributions to autoethnography, personal narrative, and alternative forms of scholarship. The collection is organized into two sections: “Foundations” and “Futures.” Contributors to “Foundations” explore Carolyn and Art’s scholarship and legacy. Contributors to “Futures” offer novel and innovative applications of autoethnographic and narrative inquiry. Throughout, contributors demonstrate how Bochner’s and Ellis’ work has created and shifted the terrain of autoethnographic and narrative research. 

Narrating the Closet: An Autoethnography of Same-Sex Attraction
2011, Left Coast Press/Routledge (Click here for a brief description of the book.)

Received the 2016 “Innovator Award” from the Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Caucus of the Central States Communication Association,  the 2012 “Best Book Award” from the Ethnography Division of the National Communication Association (NCA), the 2012 “Outstanding Authored Book Award” from the Organization for the Study of Communication, Language, and Gender, and the 2013 “Book of the Year” award from NCA’s GLBTQ Division and the Caucus on LGBTQ Concerns.

Reviewed in Text and Performance Quarterly (2012), The Qualitative Report (2011, 2012), Sexuality & Culture (2011), Psychology & Sexuality (2012), CHOICE Magazine (2012).

Autoethnography
2015, Oxford University Press, co-authored with Stacy Holman Jones and Carolyn Ellis

This book provides a historical and conceptual overview of autoethnography, outlines the purposes and practices of the method, offers strategies for writing autoethnography, and provides criteria for assessing autoethnographic research. In 2023, it was translated from English to Japanese.

The English version has been reviewed in The Qualitative Report (2015), PsycCRITIQUES (2015), Journal of Second Language Writing (2016), and Counseling and Psychotherapy Research (2017).

Living Sexuality: Stories of LGBTQ Relationships, Identities, and Desires
2020, Brill | Sense, co-authored with Keith Berry and Catherine M. Gillotti

In Living Sexuality: Stories of LGBTQ Relationships, Identities, and Desires, the authors use autoethnography and personal narrative to provide first-hand accounts of the connections between sexuality, particularly LGBTQ identities, and the everyday experiences of relationships. Each story also invites readers to understand how sexuality informs communication as it occurs within diverse cultural contexts. In addition, the stories often focus on taboo issues overlooked or ignored in mainstream research about sexuality. Discussion questions appear at the end of each story that should stimulate engagement by students, instructors, and researchers.

International Perspectives on Autoethnographic Research and Practice
2018, Routledge, co-edited with Lydia Turner, Nigel P. Short, and Alec Grant

This collection combines perspectives on contemporary autoethnographic thinking from scholars working within a variety of formats, disciplines, and contexts. Throughout, contributors demonstrate different types and uses of autoethnography, identify potential issues and questions associated with autoethnographic practice, and offers perspectives about supervising, sharing, and evaluating autoethnography. 

Reviewed in The Qualitative Report (2018).

Handbook of Autoethnography
2013, Left Coast Press/Routledge, co-edited with Stacy Holman Jones and Carolyn Ellis

The first comprehensive reference volume on autoethnographic research and practice. The collection includes more than 40 essays written by scholars representing more than a dozen disciplines. 

Received the 2013 Best Edited Book Award from the Ethnography Division of the National Communication Association (NCA).

Reviewed in Qualitative Research (2015) and Cadernos de Saúde Pública (2015).

Chapter 9, “Spinning Autoethnographic Reflexivity, Cultural Critique, and Negotiating Selves,” by Keith Berry, received the 2014 The H.L. “Bud” Goodall, Jr. and Nick Trujillo “It’s a Way of Life” Award in Narrative Ethnography. Chapter 6, “Walk, Walking, Talking Home,” by Devika Chawla, received the 2014 Best Book Chapter Award from the Ethnography Division of the National Communication Association.

On Writing Families: Autoethnographies of Presence and Absence, Love and Loss
2014, Brill | Sense, co-edited with Jonathan Wyatt

This collection of personal narratives considers how children relate to their parents, how parents relate to their children, and how familial relationships in general are made and (not) maintained. Contributors write about issues of interpersonal distance and closeness, gratitude and disdain, courage and fear, openness and secrecy, accountability and forgiveness, life and death. (Click here to to view the Table of Contents, Introduction, Chapter 1, and Chapter 2.) 

Reviewed in The Qualitative Report (2015) and Counseling and Psychotherapy Research (2016).

Doing Autoethnography
2017, Brill | Sense, co-edited with Sandra L. Pensoneau-Conway and Derek M. Bolen

This collection represents outstanding work from the five Doing Autoethnography conferences (2011, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016). Contributors interrogate autoethnography ethically, theoretically, relationally, and methodologically, as well as address many interrelated themes: identity norms and negotiations; experiences tied to race, gender, sexuality, size, citizenship, and dis/ability; exclusion and belonging; oppression, injustice, and assault; barriers to learning/education; and living with/in complicated relationships.