I have been leading wildly productive writing studios for environmentally-focused scholars, mostly through The Environmental Storytelling Studio (TESS), a writing initiative I founded that helps academics unite scholarship with storytelling so their work is more artful, appealing, and accessible to a wider audience. Most of these studios are taught through universities who also provide the cohort and the cash. Lately, however, I’ve been asked by individual scholars if there are similar studios for them. The short answer is: YES.

Here’s how I roll: The word “Studio” reflects and encompasses and fosters the atmosphere I want to encourage, namely creativity, collaboration, and community instead of being bound by the obligations of academic systems, language, or publishing.

By studying the art and mechanics of literary narratives (which is what we will do)—through close reading, advising, in-class writing exercises, group discussions, one-on-one mentoring, reading each other’s work, etc.—participants will explore the promise and perils of environmental storytelling. We will navigate things like metaphor, movement, emotion, scene, dialogue, transitions, rhythm, pace, point-of-view and plot, as well as the more intangible aspects of literary narrative, like memory, imagination, and voice. We will not be discussing footnotes, or using jargon, or be concerned with peer review. And these studios will be serious but enjoyable.

We will, however, focus on texts that deserve our attention, enrich our imagination, and are exemplar in environmental stories. Discussions may also include topics such as interviewing techniques, book reviewing, pitching stories to magazines, or how trade publishing works.

Below are the seminars I hope to teach, with groups of no less than 5 and no more than 10 scholars…. depending. I’m working on logistics now, even pressing hard to have one studio in France ready for summer 2025.

While it’s my intention to only host scholars, if you are a writer with advanced skills, I can make an exception for Studios 1-3. However, I’m going to lead a couple of very short studios in the fall for just you! I am not a great generative teacher, forgive me, so you will need come with a writing project you’ve already started and I will need to see it first before taking your money. I’m not a magician!

If you are interested in any of this, please reach out to me at this email? I will return your email promptly!

Studio One
$1,000

ONLINE. Winter 2025-26. I have held online and hybrid studios with great success. Five weeks/3 hours each week, plus one-on-one mentoring

Studio Two
$1,000

MAINE. Fall 2025. While I am happy to foster great writing via Zoom, I love in-person studios, for me, an important part of writing is building community and it’s so much easier to do that in real life. Preferably you live in Maine (likely I will be teaching somewhere in Southern Maine) but if you don’t, it’s up to you if you want to find and pay for accommodations. It’s not easier or harder to do it online vs. in-person, so same price, for five weeks/3 hours each week, plus one-on-one mentoring.

Studio Three
$1,200

FRANCE. Summer 2025. Burgandy to be exact, and near where I live part time. Getting there is a cinch - a TGV from Paris is 1:25 and I’ll pick you up at the station. I’m working on finding accommodations at a chateau where the group can stay together for one week. We will meet from 9-5 +/- every day, eat together, dream together, and hopefully drink wine together. Intensive and close, so if you are a loner, don’t bother. Also, I cannot accommodate pets, partners, or perfume wearers. $1,200 for the week. You get all of the above, plus FRANCE. Get those grant applications in now! Does not include transportation or food.

GOALS: My goals are your goals. Tell me yours and I can help. You will have to submit to me no more than three pages of your project and a sentence or so about your goals. Do you want to learn how to write better sentences, work on transitions, how to write about people? Is your work boring to yourself, laden with boring verbs? Or is your project mostly finished and you need a writing community to help you bring it home? Do you have a problem inserting yourself into your work or do you want to remove yourself? Trust me, there’s no end to what writing goals I have faced or seen others face.

EXAMPLE OF A DAYI could publish previous syllabi but they are all madly different based on the cohort I teach. But I can give you an idea of what you will face in one day of a studio:

FRANCE:

8-9 am coffee coffee coffee and getting to know each other.

9-12 In-class teaching, discussions, close readings togeher

12-1:30 lunch / exercise/break

1:30-2