Become a Life Writer: Where Voice Transforms in 9 Short Stories

Author(s)
Roxanne Bourque
Edition
1
Copyright
2026
Pages
214
Book Type
Academic

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Paperback Book

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ISBN: 9798319749130
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ISBN: 9798319749147
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CHOOSE YOUR FORMAT
Help Me Choose

Paperback Book

$25.00

ISBN: 9798319749130
Details: 
Print Product

eBook

$15.00

ISBN: 9798319749147
Details: 
Electronic Delivery EBOOK - 365 days

There is a sacred space where lived history and poetic reflection exist in the heart work of Life Writing. In this book, sole author, Dr. Roxanne Bourque blends memoir, cultural storytelling, reflection, and teaching into one voice without sounding exceedingly academic or overly sentimental. This book is more than a “how to start your life story.” Dr. Bourque takes the reader through her own life journey while Life Writing moves between the two in a way that feels organic. Her exemplars are personal narratives to seamlessly guide, while her voice stays purely descriptive. Like a north star, Dr. Bourque’s words gently move the reader as she writes
to portray the patterns that connect her own life.

Dr. Bourque refers to sacred space as a place where meaning evolves separately, leading the interpreter to the whole, while each stand-alone piece bears deep meaning. Together, each pivotal moment tells a larger story.

The book is a more reflective and experiential --way of teaching people how to document life through memory, sensory detail, cultural grounding, and meaning-making while building an eloquent timeline of early life experiences. Dr. Bourque slows down inside a memory to reveal how she writes through the senses to mirror her own truth. Her intention is to lead the reader to connect the guidance of a voice, a physical object or place to lead with emotional truth that widens the lens toward a universal reflection. That movement from intimate detail to shared human meaning is what gives the work breadth and depth.

Chapter 1- Honor thy mother

Chapter 2- Honor thy maternal grandmother

Chapter 3- Teacher

Chapter 4 – Familial Love and Ancestry

Chapter 5 – Independence

Chapter 6 -Weather Event

Chapter 7- From Innocence to Adolescence

Chapter 8- Crossroads to Adulthood

Chapter 9 - Dr. Bourque - A Poetic Reflective Life

Chapter 10 - Self-Discovery

Chapter 11 – Life Writing through Poetic Voice

Chapter 12 – Collected Wisdom, Life Patterns, and Quotes

Roxanne Bourque

Dr. Roxanne Bourque is a retired professor from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette in the College of Education and Human Development. Dr. Bourque served for over 25 years as a teacher educator specializing in curriculum and talent development. Her professional pathway in education leads with a specialization in systemic leadership with college students in teacher preparation, specifically with early childhood development and education. In addition, Dr. Bourque’s creative teaching methods are recognized through National Association for Gifted Children as she was awarded as a Frasier Scholar for the design of the Fashion and Design curriculum for Lafayette Parish Schools (2012). She served as children’s program director for Academic Enrichment with PreK-12 Programming and Curriculum design for the Center for Gifted Education at UL Lafayette. In her time at UL Lafayette, Dr. Bourque implemented a redesign of university coursework to support culturally relevant curriculum for undergraduates. Dr. Bourque was honored by the Advance Student Research Experience program as a research mentor whose students were awarded LEAF awards for their individual research projects. Dr. Bourque’s professional expertise moves beyond the scope of her university work to include an institutional repository archival collection of undergraduate cultural children’s stories, curriculum design for local school districts, and academic enrichment programming design to identify high potential students, and talent spotting in diverse school populations.

Dr. Bourque currently serves as a Bayou Vermilion District (BVD) commissioner, in Lafayette, Louisiana. Her new role for BVD is Education Programming lead for Keep Acadiana Beautiful: A Swamp to Coast Watershed Education Program.

Dr. Bourque is the sole author of The Fashion and Design Curriculum, Learning Zone Express (2012), Autoethnography as a CURE: The power of voice in personal narratives, Kendall Hunt Publishers, (2025).

Dr. Bourque’s research includes trauma informed practices applicable to ACE’s  education, the power of autoethnography in writing personal narratives, writing with children to improve folklife education, and qualitative studies of with Words of Wisdom, a 9-month writing program for the Women of Wisdom of Acadiana where she served as a governing board member.

Dr. Bourque will serve as UL Honors faculty to offer the Life Writer course in the UL Honors program in the fall of 2027. Her professional experience includes writing early childhood stories with education majors, honors students, teachers, and women in her community.

There is a sacred space where lived history and poetic reflection exist in the heart work of Life Writing. In this book, sole author, Dr. Roxanne Bourque blends memoir, cultural storytelling, reflection, and teaching into one voice without sounding exceedingly academic or overly sentimental. This book is more than a “how to start your life story.” Dr. Bourque takes the reader through her own life journey while Life Writing moves between the two in a way that feels organic. Her exemplars are personal narratives to seamlessly guide, while her voice stays purely descriptive. Like a north star, Dr. Bourque’s words gently move the reader as she writes
to portray the patterns that connect her own life.

Dr. Bourque refers to sacred space as a place where meaning evolves separately, leading the interpreter to the whole, while each stand-alone piece bears deep meaning. Together, each pivotal moment tells a larger story.

The book is a more reflective and experiential --way of teaching people how to document life through memory, sensory detail, cultural grounding, and meaning-making while building an eloquent timeline of early life experiences. Dr. Bourque slows down inside a memory to reveal how she writes through the senses to mirror her own truth. Her intention is to lead the reader to connect the guidance of a voice, a physical object or place to lead with emotional truth that widens the lens toward a universal reflection. That movement from intimate detail to shared human meaning is what gives the work breadth and depth.

Chapter 1- Honor thy mother

Chapter 2- Honor thy maternal grandmother

Chapter 3- Teacher

Chapter 4 – Familial Love and Ancestry

Chapter 5 – Independence

Chapter 6 -Weather Event

Chapter 7- From Innocence to Adolescence

Chapter 8- Crossroads to Adulthood

Chapter 9 - Dr. Bourque - A Poetic Reflective Life

Chapter 10 - Self-Discovery

Chapter 11 – Life Writing through Poetic Voice

Chapter 12 – Collected Wisdom, Life Patterns, and Quotes

Roxanne Bourque

Dr. Roxanne Bourque is a retired professor from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette in the College of Education and Human Development. Dr. Bourque served for over 25 years as a teacher educator specializing in curriculum and talent development. Her professional pathway in education leads with a specialization in systemic leadership with college students in teacher preparation, specifically with early childhood development and education. In addition, Dr. Bourque’s creative teaching methods are recognized through National Association for Gifted Children as she was awarded as a Frasier Scholar for the design of the Fashion and Design curriculum for Lafayette Parish Schools (2012). She served as children’s program director for Academic Enrichment with PreK-12 Programming and Curriculum design for the Center for Gifted Education at UL Lafayette. In her time at UL Lafayette, Dr. Bourque implemented a redesign of university coursework to support culturally relevant curriculum for undergraduates. Dr. Bourque was honored by the Advance Student Research Experience program as a research mentor whose students were awarded LEAF awards for their individual research projects. Dr. Bourque’s professional expertise moves beyond the scope of her university work to include an institutional repository archival collection of undergraduate cultural children’s stories, curriculum design for local school districts, and academic enrichment programming design to identify high potential students, and talent spotting in diverse school populations.

Dr. Bourque currently serves as a Bayou Vermilion District (BVD) commissioner, in Lafayette, Louisiana. Her new role for BVD is Education Programming lead for Keep Acadiana Beautiful: A Swamp to Coast Watershed Education Program.

Dr. Bourque is the sole author of The Fashion and Design Curriculum, Learning Zone Express (2012), Autoethnography as a CURE: The power of voice in personal narratives, Kendall Hunt Publishers, (2025).

Dr. Bourque’s research includes trauma informed practices applicable to ACE’s  education, the power of autoethnography in writing personal narratives, writing with children to improve folklife education, and qualitative studies of with Words of Wisdom, a 9-month writing program for the Women of Wisdom of Acadiana where she served as a governing board member.

Dr. Bourque will serve as UL Honors faculty to offer the Life Writer course in the UL Honors program in the fall of 2027. Her professional experience includes writing early childhood stories with education majors, honors students, teachers, and women in her community.

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