Writing Anthropology

“Writing Anthropology is the long-awaited handbook that our discipline desperately needs to move us away from the lingering idea that our texts should be indecipherable to mortals. Carole McGranahan and company have given anthropologists a beautifully wrinkled and coffee-stained road map to help us all get to a writing place that is thoughtful, self-aware, compassionate, and (gasp!) accessible.” -- Jason De León, author of * The Land of Open Graves: Living and Dying on the Migrant Trail *
“In this powerful volume, a multitude of ruminations, thoughts, prompts, and provocations flow together like a vibrant stream until we see the lifeblood of contemporary anthropology as a committed way of writing about people that is beholden to a sense of accountability. The accomplished anthropologists featured in this book pursue a shared commitment to writing well. But this is not merely for the sake of more effective explication or theoretical nuance. They aim to better convey the hardships and dignity of humanity itself. This is ethnography at its best: beautifully written, surprising, deeply instructive, and grounded in an ethical practice that never ceases to care about and attend to everything and everyone with whom anthropologists engage.” -- Laurence Ralph, author of * The Torture Letters: Reckoning with Police Violence *
"In these 53 short, blog-style essays, students now have a new, pithy guide to help them think through a wealth of writing issues. Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty; professionals." * Choice *
"A rich wordhoard of ideas that focus on 'craft and commitment' in anthropological writing…" -- David Syring * Anthropology and Humanism *
"Although Writing Anthropology is not ostensibly a how-to book, readers seeking strategies to apply to their writing practices should not be disappointed. . . . The essays in this collection resonate, as McGranahan depicts, that ‘anthropology is a writing discipline’ (7). As writers, anthropologists make ideal commentators on their practices of presentation and representation, on their visions for process and product." -- Steven E. Gump * Journal of Scholarly Publishing *
"... Writing Anthropology makes a compelling case for clear, truthful, heartfelt, and engaged anthropological writing. It will certainly be one of those books I will turn to for inspiration and solace when I find myself struggling in front of a white screen." -- Nastja Slavec * Anthropology Notebooks *
“Making a poignant point about clarity and commitment in anthropological writing, Carole McGranahan has put together an important volume of essays.” -- Helena Wulff * Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute *