Last month, I taught my very first writing workshop. I’ve publicly spoken as an author before, talked at high schools about craft and publication, been featured on panels at conventions. Yet Novis Mortem Collective offered me my first opportunity to actually teach writing.
To no surprise, my inaugural topic was Writing & Trauma, an exploration of how to use fiction writing to process trauma.
The first piece I ever officially published (outside my college) was trauma writing. A nonfiction essay entitled “How to Kill Yourself Slowly“. While this was nonfiction, it kickstarted both my career as an author, a public advocate for mental health, and a trauma writer.
While I was obsessed with memoirs in college, I’ve never written one. While I’ve journaled near compulsively my entire life, that was never the writing that healed me. After “How to Kill Yourself Slowly”, I transitioned to writing about trauma through the lens of fiction.
And that is what the workshop became about.
The opportunity to teach a workshop on such a tender subject was exciting and intimidating and terrifying. But the experience was amazing. A wonderful group of people joined me to define trauma, identify literary examples of author trauma in fiction, discuss different ways to use fiction in healing, and do practice exercises. We laughed; we cried; we shared. I flayed myself on the table, and they all met me there, and it was beautiful.
I honestly feel that this part of writing has always been my calling. Ever since suicidal strangers used to email me about my essay. Back when the internet was actually a place to connect.
I hope (and plan to) offer this workshop again. But, in the meantime, here is the reading list of literary examples that I used:
- Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
- Interview with a Vampire by Anne Rice
- The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi
- This Thing Between Us by Gus Moreno
- Girl in Pieces by Kathleen Glasgow
- Tantrum by Rachel Eve Moulton
- The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones
- The Reformatory by Tananarive Due
- Wake Up and Open Your Eyes by Clay McLeod Chapman
- Savages by me
- The Rest Will Come by me
- “Hairs” by me
How do I think these fictional pieces relate to personal trauma? You’ll have to attend a workshop to find out.
Christina Bergling
https://linktr.ee/chrstnabergling
Like my writing? Check out my books!
- Invisible Girls – Two girls must decide how far they will go to protect each other and if freedom can be found without fire.
- Red Walls – When Talia’s parents go after the monsters who hurt her, they never expected real monsters.
- Followers – You never know who is on the other side of the screen. Followers is a mystery and thriller that blends women’s fiction with horror.
- The Rest Will Come – Online dating would drive anyone to murder, especially Emma.
- Savages – Two survivors search the ruins for the last strain of humanity. Until the discovery of a baby changes everything.
- The Waning – Locked in a cage, Beatrix must survive to escape or be broken completely.
- Screechers – Mutant monsters and humans collide in the apocalyptic fallout of a burned world. Co-authored with Kevin J. Kennedy.
- Horror Anthologies
Fiery Pen 