Comments on: Braided Essays and How to Write Them

By: Eric Hans Bauman

Eric Hans Bauman — Fri, 13 Dec 2024 19:04:32 +0000

I am writing a braided novel now, and the article above is very helpful. Thank you!
I first learned formally about braided essays in Heidi Czerwiec’s book, Crafting the Lyric Essay: Strike a Cord, Blooomsbury Academic, London and NY, 2024, plus through a two hour Zoom class with her through the Lafayette Writing Center. I can recommend both.
Thanks again for this terrific blog!

By: Alexia Clements

Alexia Clements — Mon, 28 Oct 2024 14:53:28 +0000

In reply to Allisa Holliday. I'm working on a memoir for class and one of the activities is to make the final draft into a braided essay. My memoir is about being interviewed for preschool and how my knowledge of shapes shocked the interviewers. Any ideas as to what I should "braid" into it?

By: Michael Pantlin

Michael Pantlin — Fri, 12 Jan 2024 19:58:54 +0000

I’m writing my memoir and can see a few threads that I could use for the braided structure,
Does braiding work just as well for a book (80,000 words) as for an essay?

By: Monday Notes: “Family Ties” Essay on Midnight & Indigo | K E Garland

Mon, 08 Jan 2024 14:04:57 +0000

[…] writing styles, and this one is called a braided or woven essay. A braided essay is where you take two seemingly dissimilar topics and weave them together into one. In this case, I describe the physical and psychological strength my adoptive mother required to […]

By: Marla Jacobson

Marla Jacobson — Thu, 17 Aug 2023 16:45:12 +0000

Have you looked up David Sedaris (Santaland Diaries) or Dave Barry? Off the top of my head, I’m sure they’d have something!

By: Allisa Holliday

Allisa Holliday — Sun, 05 Mar 2023 17:45:22 +0000

In reply to Rob Williams. I'm working on a braided essay for my class at the moment and its about mud and magic. Not a funny story but a fun story about childhood and imagination.

By: Rob Williams

Rob Williams — Wed, 05 Oct 2022 20:33:55 +0000

Hi Kathleen,
This is such a great explanation of the Braided Essay and these examples are amazing. I just bought ‘A Twenty Minute Silence’– thank you for introducing me to this text.

Question: I teach Creative Writing and my students love these Lyric Essay forms, but one student noted, ‘It seems like most collage and braided essays are about serious subjects: loss, heartbreak, grief, abuse, etc. Are there any funny collage or braided essays?’

I thought surely there must be but scanning Brevity and other online journals I could not come across a single ‘funny’ collage or braided essay. There are numerous funny Hermit Crab Essays but do you know of any funny/humorous Braided or Collage Essays?

I can also be reached at rob@robwilliams.org (should you want to respond or have a response).

Sorry for the long comment here. Really enjoyed reading this!
Thanks again.

By: Sean Glatch

Sean Glatch — Wed, 20 Apr 2022 15:00:29 +0000

In reply to Kathleen Irwin. Hi Kathleen, Good question! I don't know of any journals off the bat that accept essays of that length--generally, the upper limit will range between 3,000 and 7,500 words. Nonetheless, you might find a good home for your essay at this article: https://writers.com/best-places-submit-creative-nonfiction-online Best of luck!

By: Kathleen Irwin

Kathleen Irwin — Wed, 20 Apr 2022 12:57:45 +0000

I have written a braided essay (although I did not know it by this name until reading this post) of approximately 11,000 words. Too long for a short-story; too short for standard creative nonfiction.

Where does one publish a braided essay of intermediate length?