[Commlist] CFP: Complex Care: Stories from Fractured, Fraught, or Strained Family Relationships

*/Complex Care: Stories from Fractured, Fraught, or Strained Family 
Relationships/*

Edited by Hannah Radcliff-Hoy and Aaron Hoy

Proposals Due: August 15, 2025

Caregiving is inevitably complex work, even within loving, close-knit 
families. Yet for many, the act of caring for an intimate other is 
complicated even further by family relationships that are in some way(s) 
fractured, fraught, or strained. These are stories of care shaped by 
histories of rupture, silence, estrangement, and harm—where care is 
offered through emotional complexity, ethical ambiguity, and relational 
contradiction. In these contexts, caregiving may involve navigating 
unresolved trauma, setting and re-negotiating boundaries, and/or holding 
space for both love and resentment. By centering stories like these, 
this volume aims to challenge dominant assumptions about what care looks 
like, who provides it, and under what conditions.

Although we do not define complex caregiving solely in terms of 
relationship context, we are especially interested in submissions that 
explore caregiving in contexts including (but not limited to):

  * Estranged, “no-contact,” or emotionally distant family relationships
  * Family hostility or rejection (e.g., due to identity-based or other
    forms of prejudice)
  * Abusive or neglectful family systems
  * Families shaped by divorce and/or remarriage (e.g., stepfamilies)
  * Families impacted by incarceration (e.g., caregiving for a formerly
    incarcerated parent or sibling)
  * Families affected by addiction or substance use disorders
  * Families experiencing intergenerational trauma
  * Transnational families
  * Long-distance or “intimate-but-distant” family relationships

Caregivers have long turned to*autoethnography and similar forms of 
personal storytelling*to make sense of and represent their 
experiences—and for good reason. Methods and approaches that prioritize 
evocative, resonant writing are uniquely powerful in capturing the 
intimate, embodied, and emotionally complex work of caring for another, 
and they are well-suited to demonstrating how multiple truths can 
coexist. Seeking to leverage these and other strengths, we invite 
chapter proposals based on author(s)’ lived experiences of complex 
caregiving—ones that treat vulnerability as insight, embrace the raw and 
intimate, and are willing to dwell in contradiction and complexity.

Although other types of data and analysis can be incorporated, too, we 
are interested in submissions based primarily on autoethnographic or 
similar forms of personal storytelling. In addition to traditional 
narrative forms,/we also encourage submissions that experiment with 
poetry, hybrid genres, visual storytelling, or other creative and 
multimodal approaches.///

*Submission Guidelines:*

Submissions should be brief (no more than 500 words) and speak to the 
proposed chapter’s focus, autoethnographic approach, and contribution to 
the volume’s themes.

  * Please include a short bio (100–150 words) with your submission
  * Submit proposals (tohanah.radcliff-hoy.2 /at/ mnsu.edu)
    <mailto:(hanah.radcliff-hoy.2 /at/ mnsu.edu)>by August 15, 2025
  * Invitations to submit full chapter will be sent by September 2, 2025
  * Full chapters (3,000-6,000 words; subject to change per publisher’s
    instructions) will be due by December 1, 2025

For questions, please contact Hannah Radcliff-Hoy 
(athannah.radcliff-hoy.2 /at/ mnsu.edu) 
<mailto:(hannah.radcliff-hoy.2 /at/ mnsu.edu)>and/or Aaron Hoy 
(ataaron.hoy /at/ mnsu.edu) <mailto:(aaron.hoy /at/ mnsu.edu)>.

You canalso view this call at:https://link.mnsu.edu/cccall 
<https://link.mnsu.edu/cccall>

No payment from authors will be required for submitting either a 
proposal or a full chapter.

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