Alternative Forms for Difficult Stories [Sonya Lea]

Sometimes our personal material is elusive, fragmentary, or obscured by our emotional response to it. We can use this beautiful chaos by creating an indirect, meandering way into the essay or book. Braided essays allow the personal to expand into a more satisfying truth. We’ll look at disjunctive, segmented, and sectioned works such as Isaac Butler’s “Here Comes The Planes,” Brian Doyle’s “Van,” and Janisse Ray’s Ecology of a Cracker Childhood. Generative writing and craft exercises included. Advance reading required.

This class takes place at Ballard Homestead, 6541 Jones Ave NW, Seattle, WA 98117