Essaying the Impasse

Background: Writers (from Flaubert to Woolf and Patchett) have frequently referred to or written about states of impasse – of being unable to continue with a writing project for one reason or another, whether that be ‘writer’s block’ or some other practical or ethical hindrance. And yet, the impasse may not always signal defeat. In Cruel Optimism cultural critic Lauren Berlant describes an impasse as a ‘holding station that doesn’t hold securely but opens out into anxiety ... it marks a delay that demands activity” (2011: 199). An impasse can be generative; it can inspire disruption, resilience, creativity. Through the form of the essay (from the French ‘essayer’ meaning ‘to attempt, to try’), this creative work draws together the voices of four writers to collaboratively confront and challenge the concept of the impasse. Contribution: This collaboratively written, dialogic work explores the essay as a space in which four writers (of poetry, fiction, nonfiction genres) might collectively think through not only the frustrations of the impasse to their respective practices, but also the potential of the impasse as a space for reconfiguring one’s direction, focus or approach. In ‘socialising’ the space of the unknown, this essay explores the role that collaboration can play in shepherding and inspiring writers through the tricky terrain of the impasse. Significance: The essay first performed live at the 2021 international NonfictioNOW conference and subsequently selected for publication in Fourth Genre, a leading US literary journal established in 1999, dedicated to publishing ‘notable, innovative work in nonfiction’. Over the last two decades, the Fourth Genre has published high-profile international nonfiction writers including Suzanne Paola, Lee Gutkind, John D’Agata, Patricia Foster and David Shields.