Dr. Tawnya Selene Renelle is an experimental writer, educator, and performer whose diverse practices influence and shape one another. She holds a DFA in Creative Writing from The University of Glasgow and, after seven years abroad, has recently returned to her home state of Washington. Currently, she splits her time between Lopez Island, where she enjoys gardening, baking, and homesteading. Dr. Renelle publishes a weekly newsletter titled Pen and Paper Pioneer, exploring the intersection of writing and pioneer life. She is the author of the poetry collections, prompts and this exquisite corpse. Her essays and poems have been published widely.

Learn more about Dr. Renelle in our Meet the Teaching Artist series.

As individuals how do we curate, collect, collate, store, and exhibit the experiences that are our life?

This 7-week course will ask you to enter the imagined archive of your life in order to find the materials for writing. It is designed to provide a new and experimental way into approaching personal narrative, memoir, and nonfiction, but is open to writers of all genres.

If we use the ideas and practices of archiving and museums, can you find new and unexpected ways to explore and experiment with the writing of your life?

Each student will also schedule a one-on-one conference with Tawnya to discuss their work. 

COURSE OUTLINE

• Week 1: Introductions What do you know about museums and archival practice? What do you want to know? How will this lens shape your writing?
• Week 2: The Body Archive If many of our experiences can be described as embodied how can you archive, collect, and record these experiences?
• Week 3: Collecting and Memories In what ways is the act of writing about your memories a practice of collecting? What can you collect from the archive of your experience?  
• Week 4: Missing Archives How do you gather and create of an archive that doesn’t exist? Is it an imagined archive? Can your writing fill in the gaps?
• Week 5: The Object Archive What are the objects you have curated to create the archive of yourself? What objects do you deem worthy of being housed in your museum?
• Week 6: In The Museum Now that you have your objects, how will you build your museums? In what ways is your writing a museum?
• Week 7: Exhibiting Exhibitions How is your writing the exhibit of your experiences? How do you construct the exhibit that works best for you?
  

COURSE TAKEAWAYS:

• With a unique approach to memoir and creative non-fiction participants will gain a new approach that gives them safety as they deal with tough subject matter.
• Students will get a one to one mentorship meeting with Dr. Renelle to discuss their creative practice.
• Students will be writing lots of material which they will later be able to use for future projects.
  

TESTIMONIALS:

Professional Joy. Those two words are encapsulated in Tawnya’s approach and facilitation of the creative writing course I have been fortunate to partake of with Tawnya’s talent and experience at the helm. I can confidently say that I have been engaged with every session. The exercises are meticulously tried and tested to appeal and inspire a wide range of creative writers and disciplines. No stone is left unturned, and no avenue is off limits, everything is geared up to evoke and provoke an artistic response. I challenge any creative to complete a sitting unmoved by the accessible and encouraging style that is evidently part and parcel of Tawnya’s natural aura and personality.  -former student

Having undertaken my share of online and in the room learning tools and packages, I can say with conviction that the weekly meetings and mentor sessions have yielded results that have inspired me and will continue to do so as I look back on my notes for future stimulus. Knowing your craft and imparting it to others in a format that is understandable, universal and enlightening is a skill that requires constant honing but also an emotional maturity, a willingness to develop and grow in your own medium. Tawnya’s kindness and flexibility with informed knowledge and teaching methods are clearly what attracts other creatives to the opportunities on offer. I hope many more future writers of all walks of life are as lucky to have Tawnya as a guide in their creative practice. -former student

ONLINE COURSE STRUCTURE: