Writing Breakage: The Collage Essay

in the broken thing, human agency is oddly implied: breakage, whatever its cause, is the dark complement to the act of making; the one implies the other. – Louise Gluck

Do you have a nonfiction story or essay that struggles to mold to a traditional structure? Sometimes the most personal stories or essays do not want to follow a linear trajectory. Collage and braided forms of creative nonfiction rely instead on fragmentation, silence and resonance to build suspense and/or complex thinking processes. We will consider how writers weave different story and thought threads into personal writing to access and represent ways of thinking/knowing. Class time will be spent writing, discussing assigned reading and aspects of the form, and finally, responding to each other’s work. Students will leave class with a deeper understanding of these nontraditional forms as well as a draft of a new story or essay.

Access Program
We want our writing classes to be accessible to everyone, regardless of income and background. We understand that our tuition structure can present obstacles for some people. Our Access Program offers writing class registrations at a reduced rate. The access program for writing classes covers 60% of the class tuition. Most writing classses have at least one access spot available. Contact Susan Moore at susan@literary-arts.org if you would like to take a writing class at the Access Rate.

Wendy Noonan’s poetry has appeared in many journals, including Painted Bride Quarterly, Muzzle, Crazy Horse and 2River View. Her creative nonfiction, forthcoming in Diagram, was also featured in Meridian Journal as one of two finalists for their 2020 Editor’s Choice prize. Wendy teaches at Pacific Northwest College of Art and tutors at Portland Community College.