Starts Sunday, October 6th, 2024

Class will meet weekly via Zoom on Sundays, 6:30PM CST - 8:30PM CST.

Now Enrolling!

Any questions about this class? Use the Chat Button (lower left) to talk with us.

Taught by Jeneé Skinner, an Iowa Writers’ Workshop graduate who also went to the University of Oxford to study Renaissance Literature and the Italian Renaissance. Her work has appeared in the Catapult, Roxane Gay’s The Audacity, Missouri Review, and elsewhere. Additionally, she won Michigan Quarterly Review’s Jesmyn Ward Prize. She has received fellowships from Tin House Summer Workshop and Kimbilio Writers Retreat. Jeneé is an assistant memoir editor at Split Lip Magazine. Her interests include swamps, haunted houses, folklore, family sagas, epics, and poetic prose.

While there’s more literature and conversations happening around mental illness, it’s still a very isolating and unique experience. There are illnesses passed down through families, caused by trauma, or that seemingly lack reason.

Whether it be seeing people who aren’t there, mood swings, or the desire to harm others or oneself, reality functions differently and must be approached with nuance in these circumstances.

Stories create room for understanding what happened and why and accepting what can’t change. Illness is often further complicated by intersections of class, gender, race, and other identities. There’s density in the chaos and humanity of characters’ inner battles that we as readers, writers, and human beings can learn from.

In this course, we’ll discuss researching and documenting illness, considering the spectrum of “normal” for each character, and how to handle the murkiness of trauma and memory.

We’ll read excerpts from Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut, The Night Parade by Jami Nakamura Lin, The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh, and Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi, among others.

COURSE TAKEAWAYS:

• Tactics for Researching medical illness or documentation.
• Defining what is "normal" for characters.
• Handling trauma and memory.
• Figuring out what brings peace, chaos, and relapse.
• Writing believable secondary characters who witness or take advantage of the mental illness journey.
  

COURSE SKELETON:

• Week 1: Introductions & Research
• Week 2: Workshop
• Week 3: Normal/Abnormal in Worldbuilding
• Week 4: Workshop
• Week 5: Working through Trauma/Memory
• Week 6: Workshop
• Week 7: Secondary Characters/Witnesses
• Week 8: Workshop
  

TESTIMONIALS:

"Writing About Mental Illness with Jenee Skinner was an incredible class. Jenee was through and covered in-depth aspects of mental illness, and I looked forward to each class meeting. The readings she assigned were so thought-provoking, and the opportunity to write a 5,000-word narrative and recieve feedback from Jenee was great. The most valuable part of the class was Jenee's knowledge of the subject matter." -former student

"I have taken a lot of writing classes, and Writing About Mental Illness with Jenee Skinner was the best. I would recommend this class to any writer who is thinking about signing up. Do it. You won't regret it. I would take another class with Jenee in an instant." -former student

"Taking the Writing About Mental Illness workshop with Jenee Skinner was a transformative experience. Each week, Jenee’s insightful guidance and the carefully curated readings opened my eyes to new ways of understanding and portraying mental illness in my writing. I particularly appreciated the focus on defining what is "normal" for characters and the nuanced handling of trauma and memory. Jenee's expertise and passion made each session deeply engaging." -former student

"Jenee Skinner's Writing About Mental Illness workshop was exactly what I needed to push my writing to the next level. The course was well-organized, with each week building on the previous one, allowing us to delve deeply into topics like trauma, memory, and the complexities of mental illness. Jenee's feedback was always thoughtful and constructive, helping me to see my work in new ways." -former student

Instructor Jeneé Skinner is an Iowa Writers’ Workshop graduate and went abroad to the University of Oxford to study Renaissance Literature and the Italian Renaissance. Her work has appeared in the Catapult, Roxane Gay’s The Audacity, Missouri Review, and elsewhere. Additionally, she won Michigan Quarterly Review’s Jesmyn Ward Prize. She has received fellowships from Tin House Summer Workshop and Kimbilio Writers Retreat. Jeneé is an assistant memoir editor at Split Lip Magazine. Her interests include swamps, haunted houses, folklore, family sagas, epics, and poetic prose.