This book seeks to disrupt the narrative about the process of academic writing and the written products which are currently valued in the university by juxtaposing the messiness and deletions of the writing process with the hegemonic imaginary of what research writing should look like. The author uses writing as both a subject and a method of enquiry in an ethnographic deep dive into her long-term engagement with a postgraduate writers' circle in an elite South African university. The book engages with growing global interest in the geopolitics of research writing and its relationship to patterns of epistemic privilege, drawing on current work on decolonising knowledge production. It opens a space to widen and deepen how we imagine the relationship between writing and knowledge-making.

In this beautifully crafted text Lucia Thesen offers deep insights into those unseen aspects of knowledge-making, the ‘back stuff’ of postgraduate writing. She immerses the reader in the ‘extra-textual’ life surrounding writing, through a visceral journey into the ‘swampy space’ of a postgraduate writers' circle. With its deep ethnography and interwoven theoretical resources, this book provides a fresh way of reimagining research writing.

* Cecilia Jacobs, Stellenbosch University, South Africa *

Knowledge that makes it to the formal archive (as publication or accepted thesis) is a sanitized myth. The archive’s occlusion of the twists and turns of knowledge-making as well as its premises have deleterious effects, as Lucia Thesen demonstrates. This book interprets two decades of her experience facilitating a writers' circle for postgraduate students. Serious research that is a sheer delight to read.

* Bassey E. Antia, University of the Western Cape, South Africa *
This book celebrates epistemic messiness, the serendipity of ideas and insights, and the leftover traces of pedagogic practice. It lends credibility to emotional experience of both writing student and writing teacher, which is mirrored stylistically in the intermingling flow of thoughts and feelings, often lyrical in texture. The book is rich in theoretical perspective, with insights from influential authors from both the global North and South. A stimulating read for practitioners and researchers in academic literacies. * Joan Turner, Goldsmiths, University of London, UK *

This book offers conceptual insights about understanding the interplay between academic literacy growth and its ecological complexity within tension-filled social dynamics. It also shows how to integrate the narrative presentation of such complexity in academic writing as a form of knowledge-making dialogue. These accounts can serve as a resource for researchers of doctoral literacy education and academic discourse socialisation. They may also inform EAP writing instructors about hands-on activities which can be adopted to cultivate students’ self-awareness in research conceptualisation and written communication.

* Keru Li, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong SAR, China, Educational Review, 2024 *

Lucia Thesen is Associate Professor Emerita at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. She is the co-editor (with Linda Cooper) of Risk in Academic Writing: Postgraduate Students, their Teachers and the Making of Knowledge (Multilingual Matters, 2014).