Editor’s Foreword
Timothy Buescher, PhD
Editor, LIRIC Journal
Correspondence address: liriceditor@lapidus.org.uk
Hello and welcome to another rich and diverse volume of the Lapidus International Research and Innovation Community (LIRIC) Journal. This issue has been some time coming, and I hope that when you read it, you will agree that it has been worth the wait!
In This Issue
Much has changed in the few years since I first joined the LIRIC editorial board. In that time, we have weathered a global pandemic, seen political change of enormous and frightening degrees around the world, and learned that whilst we can connect more easily through new means than ever before, there are some incredibly deep disconnections between people, cultures, and nations. The papers gathered in Volume 5 of LIRIC offer some means to address these old and new divisions personally, professionally, interprofessionally, and institutionally.
Kate McBarron offers a novel take on the literature review, with a personal reflection on her work in producing the bibliography of writing for wellbeing. Her creative approach to this is refreshing and immersive, in keeping with the hopes of the team here to showcase new and accessible forms of research and representation that foreground subjectivity and experience. Of course, Kate’s paper also shows the long legacy of research into writing and words for wellbeing, and the growing evidence base for our practice within a more traditional scientific milieu. The bibliography continues to grow and offers a repository of evidence for students, practitioners, teachers, and researchers alike.
Penny Simpson has written an engaging and enlightening account of the development and implementation of a community partnership creative writing project, which offers readers insight into the many facets of interagency working to produce a creative and meaningful experience for families in South Essex. Weaving in her own methodological development with the expansive process of networking to show ‘behind the scenes’ as well as ‘in the room’, Penny offers a range of insights.
Bringing the Internal Family Systems (IFS) model to creative writing for therapeutic purposes, Elisabeth Winkler addresses how she bridged the gap between her teen and present selves to find a unity, self-compassion, and freedom of expression. To read this excellent autoethnography is not only to encounter deep ethical questions about the conduct of research, but also about the conduct of a life. The academic and creative elements harmonise to great effect here. Elisabeth’s account of writing to artefacts using set prompts to elicit discovery and ultimately understanding, appreciation, and acceptance is brave and generous.
Following her Creative Bridges ‘25 session, and in relation to her Lapidus Magazine piece ‘Glass’, Dawn Garisch provides us with a spectacular essay that explores the power of writing to uncover hidden questions and buried truths. In asking why we are compelled to write a particular piece or react to a prompt in a particular way, she offers revelations about the healing power of words and the importance of the arts to medicine.
Lucy Windridge-Floris and Buki Akilapa give us their review of Epistemic Justice and the Postcolonial University (edited by Amrita Pande, Ruchi Chaturvedi, and Shari Daya) and in doing so, challenge us to stand by the stated aims of LIRIC to promote decentralised ways of knowing and inquiry. Whilst this book addresses academic institutions, it’s impossible to miss the resounding relevance of these arguments for LIRIC and Lapidus International.
Developments at LIRIC
These boundary-pushing papers reflect the ethos of Lapidus and LIRIC in their quest to bring people together through creative knowledge-sharing. To this end, LIRIC’s transformation continues, as the next steps towards indexing in academic databases begin, enabling authors, students, practitioners, researchers, and teachers to more easily discover and cite papers published in LIRIC. This will also mean receiving the credit for publication so necessary to academic careers, the published work being easier to share through recognised platforms. More than this, because of the free-to-publish and free-to-read model LIRIC employs, it is possible for practitioners to publish their own research without the hurdles of paywalls and publishing fees.
To make this work bear its fruits for us all, as readers, authors, and users of research into writing and words for wellbeing, it is most important that as many people as possible sign up to membership of the journal through the hosting platform, Public Knowledge Project’s Open Journal System. This is a non-profit site originating at Simon Fraser University, that seeks to enable access to knowledge without paywalls or fees and is well-suited to protect the data you share in setting up your account. You can sign up from the landing page at https://liric.lapidus.org.uk/index.php/lirj/index
The next exciting development at LIRIC is the move to a rolling publication model. This means that when you submit a paper, it can be reviewed, revised, and published more quickly, as there is no requirement to wait for the volume to be complete. The paper can be available and publicised as soon as the necessary processing is complete. There will still be an annual volume, comprised of all the papers published in a given year, but they will be available as they are ready to read.
Moving On
Other people, better suited to such work, will carry this forward, along with the next steps of preparation for academic database indexing. It is time for me to step aside and let this work progress. The last few years have been, for many of us, a time of reappraisal—of values, of meaning, and of activity. I have decided to be more involved in what is on my doorstep, stepping away from academic work. LIRIC editor is the last of many academic roles I have released, and I do so gladly. Whilst I have enjoyed the counsel and companionship of the board members and the editorial team, my attention has turned to writing.
Being much influenced by the community at Lapidus, I questioned my own claims to creativity in writing and research. An email from a book editor in 2019 challenged my ideas about this, provoking me to enrol for an MA in 2022. This has proved to be a great awakening as well as the source of safety and growth during some turbulent years. I have not contemplated my own academic publishing prospects since beginning that course, and in 2024, left my substantive academic post to concentrate on writing, saving my energies for poetry and screenplay. The benefits of this for my own wellbeing are enormous and reaffirm my belief that the work of practitioners in this field is of the highest value. I look forward to reading future publications from Lapidus and LIRIC, engaging local groups with writing, and sharing my own work with the world.
I must thank the editorial board members past and present, the editorial team members I have worked with as assistant editor and as editor, in particular Kim Etherington and Mel Perry, whose friendship, counsel, and passion for this work is truly inspirational.
Thank you, too, to the many authors and reviewers who have dedicated time and effort to the creation of some ground-breaking work that has crossed disciplinary boundaries and offered modes of representation and publication which engage, challenge, and include readers as we hoped. I look forward to seeing more of this in future.
In solidarity, respect, and love
Tim
Volume 5, No. 1 | March 2026