Life writing and the art of working with what you remember, what you have forgotten, and what refuses to fit neatly into a story.
Writing from life presents a peculiar problem. You already have the material, but it will not stay still.
Memory shifts. Chronology breaks down. Photographs reveal things you had forgotten and conceal things you want to know. Other people remember events differently. Whole years disappear while a single afternoon remains vivid decades later.
Written from Life is about working with that uncertainty. I write about memoir, personal essay, fragments, photographs, family history, place, identity, and the difficult work of turning lived experience into form.
The project grows from research, my own memoir practice, and years spent teaching creative writing. The articles are practical. Theory appears when it helps solve a problem at the desk. I draw from my own work, from other life writers, and from the mistakes and discoveries that shaped my practice.
You might find an article about arranging fragments into a memoir, writing into gaps in memory, or using a family photograph to generate prose. The aim is to leave you with something you can use: a method, an exercise, or a question worth carrying back to your own work.
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New articles are published weekly.
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The archive contains essays on memory, structure, photographs, fragments, truth, family, ethics, and the practical work of writing from experience.
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About
I’m Marc Brüseke, a writer, educator, and independent scholar with a PhD in English Literature and Creative Writing.
My doctoral research focused on experimental memoir, fragmented narrative, visual culture, memory, and photo-sketching, a writing practice that uses photographs as a way into autobiographical material.
I have taught English Literature, Creative Writing, and Media Studies at university level, and I continue to work with writers and students through teaching and one-to-one mentoring.
Written from Life is where that research and practice become something you can take back to your own page.