ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author explains to theorizing the practice of autobiographical writing by documenting and investigating her own process of writing a grief and trauma memoir. She offers a contextualized and situation-specific investigation of her personal practice of writing memoir. The author examines a significant contemporary memoir in order to situate her practice-led research. She aims to help fill the gap in knowledge about Australian creative nonfiction writing practices identified by Sue Joseph. The author analyzes When It Rains by Maggie MacKellar as a case study to identify ethical issues that can arise in the young widow memoir from the perspective of the reader. The ethics advisor elaborated further on the issue of name changes and highlighted that sometimes a name change is not enough to protect the anonymity of someone if they can be identified through mention of their professional position in conjunction with the place of work. As always, ethical representation requires contemplation and conscious choice.
