Increasing numbers of researchers in the field of higher education research are searching for meaning rather than metrics: something in their data that call to them and that make their hearts soar. This paper leans into post-qualitative approaches and attempts to resist methodological arrest, drawing on the disciplinary language of literary fiction to explore how we can make meaning through creative acts of reading. We trace our literary roots across readings from a diverse range of texts and approaches to show how this method could help us reshape and reframe pedagogic challenges within higher education.