Wayne Anderson

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Wayne Anderson

Emeritus Appointment
School of Writing, Literature & Film

Corvallis, OR
United States

Credentials
BA, Gonzaga University, 1977
MA and Ph.D., University of Washington, 1979, 1983
MA in Theology, Mount Angel Abbey, 1997
Office Hours
MWF 11-12 and by appointment
Research/Career Interests

Chris Anderson’s graduate work was in rhetoric and composition, and for twenty years he coordinated the composition program at Oregon State.  He now teaches a range of courses in writing, pedagogy, and literature in translation.  His early focus was the essay.  Since being ordained a Catholic deacon, he has developed a strong interest in the Bible as Literature, Dante, Spiritual Autobiography, and the relationship of religion and literature in general.  What he teaches in all his classes are ways of reading, with an emphasis on personal response, and ways of writing, with an emphasis on alternate forms, particularly freewriting, journals, and collage.  He has written, co-written, or edited fifteen books in a variety of genres and on a variety of subjects, including Free/Style: A Direct Approach to Writing (Houghton Mifflin, 1992); Edge Effects: Notes from an Oregon Forest (Iowa, 1993), a finalist for the Oregon Book Award in creative nonfiction; and Teaching as Believing: Faith in the University (Baylor, 2004).  He has also published two books of poetry, My Problem with the Truth(Cloudbank, 2003), and The Next Thing Always Belongs (Airlie, 2011).  His latest book is Light When It Comes:  Trusting Joy, Facing Darkness, and Seeing God in Everything (Eerdmans, 2016), a book of collage essays.