the IDEA

The Environmental Storytelling Studio (TESS) is a writing initiative that helps academics unite their scholarship with storytelling so their work is artful, appealing, and accessible to a wide audience.

the REASON

We know our planet is in trouble, borne out by plenty of evidence, research, facts. But facts are not enough to stir people to care deeply about lives and landscapes under duress. “A fact does not fully obtain the depth of a fact, the power of a fact, until it becomes part of a story,” writes author John Freeman and TESS collaborator in his anthology, Tale of Two Planets. We agree. And that’s pretty much why we exist. Facts don’t change people, but stories can.

the STUDIOS

We use the word “Studio” instead of “workshop” or “class” because it encompasses and fosters the atmosphere we want to create: one of creativity, artistry, collaboration, and community instead of being bound by the obligations of academic systems, academic language, or academic publishing.

In the Studios, we’ll study various aspects of literary narratives and explore the promise and perils of environmental storytelling—through close readings, writing exercises, large group discussions, small group chats, literary theory, one-on-one mentoring, guest speakers, and more. Topics may also include: interviewing techniques; how to pitch a book to a trade publisher; how to write an OpEd; or how to write about people who died 100 years ago.

Studios help scholars navigate literary techniques such as metaphor, movement, scene, dialogue, structure, transitions, rhythm, pace, point-of-view and plot, as well as the more intangible aspects of literary narrative, like memory, imagination, emotion, and voice.

The basic parameters of Studios are listed HERE. We can adjust days, instructors, guest speakers, topics etc. to suit your needs, budget, and cohort, as long as those needs fit within our larger mission and ideals—to make academic writing more artful and accessible.

our LOCATION

TESS will travel to any institution, organization, or group to work with your faculty, department, students, or colleagues. This allows our whole operation to be flexible and global rather than tied to one place or one institution.

Think of TESS as a roving environmental storytelling university—without the red tape! In fact, that’s another reason we exist. Not only to bring scholars’ writing to more people, but to reach more scholars by taking a detour around traditional academic paths.

We are happy to work with you remotely, but we love (and prefer) to join you in-person, for this also is part of our scheme…to cultivate writing community in real life.

Who is TESS?

Basically, it’s me, Kerri Arsenault, with help from so many friends and collaborators who teach alongside me or advise me.

I am a literary critic and author of Mill Town: Reckoning with What Remains, published in the US, Australia, Canada, Italy and will be published in France in spring 2027. My writing has also been featured in the Boston Globe, The Paris Review, The New York Review of Books, Freeman’s, The Washington Post, and The New York Times, among other publications. I am also part of the ensemble at The New School of the Anthropocene and a member of the American Society for Environmental History, The European Society for Environmental History, and the National Book Critics Circle.

In 2023 I served as the Democracy Fellow at the Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History at Harvard, and as a fellow at the Science History Institute in Philadelphia. My work has also been supported by the Mahindra Center for Humanities at Harvard; Chatham University’s Falk School of Sustainability; the Rachel Carson Center for Environment & Society at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München; University of Oregon’s Center for Environmental Futures; and the Architectural League of New York.

I’‘ve worked with environmental historians, geologists, high school teachers, architecture critics, biochemists, sociologists, anthropologists, landscape designers, art historians, indigenous activists, civil engineers on topics such as resource extraction in Africa, gun violence, queer community, plastics, data centers, viruses, Acadian history, and the unknown models who sat for famous artists. And I’ve mentored writers at Harvard , the New City Critics Fellow program for the Urban Design Forum, The New School of the Anthropocene, and the PEN America Prison and Justice writing program

I have also had over 86 jobs, which I wrote about for the New York Review of Books. My personal website is HERE.

TESS COLLABORATORS

TESS has the good fortune to be supported by incredible editors, writers, thinkers, and instructors—collaborators—to assist in arranging, planning, or co-teaching Studios, as well as advise, cheer TESS on, or provide texts to study and discuss…texts that deserve our attention, enrich our imagination, and are exemplar in the narratives we believe express the essence of environmental stories. Sometimes collaborators make guest appearances in our Studios, which also offers a model for thoughtful, fresh engagement with environmental storytelling.

TESS HISTORY

In 2023, TESS began at the Institute at Brown University for Environment and Society because that’s where TESS co-founder, Bathsheba Demuth was also based. When Bathsheba began intense research for her next book project, Still the River: A Biography of the Yukon Watershed, TESS transformed into an independent, mobile entity, led by director and co-founder, Kerri Arsenault with assistance from Harvard grad and writer, Cory Beizer.

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Who doesn’t love a little praise?!

“Taking a [writing] class with Kerri a few years ago changed my book and my life. Don’t miss the opportunity.” Ieva Jusionyte(Ph.D., EMT-P), is a legal anthropologist, certified emergency medical responder, and the Watson Family University Associate Professor of International Security and Anthropology at Brown University.

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“Good writing starts with a question: why does this need to be said? That’s what Kerri taught me. She helped me discover the pleasure of writing with rigor and real attention to language as craft. With Kerri, editing is never merely a means to getting published. It’s a crash course in creative writing that every scholar can learn from.” Stathis G. Yeros, Assistant Professor of Architecture, University of New Mexico.

“TESS nurtured a spirit of openness and generosity, where a mix of talented writers, editors, and publishers helped a group of aspiring academics, from advanced graduate students to senior scholars, learn more about the art and craft of storytelling. The experimental exercises and exchanges sparked a newfound sense of creativity and freedom toward my own writing, which I know I couldn’t have found on my own.” Gregg Mitmanhas served as the William Coleman and Vilas Research Professor of History, Medical History, and Environmental Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison and the ERC Research Professor, Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society.

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“You and your class have been so helpful. I signed up partly to keep me focused on writing as I settled into a new place and job, and I am so glad I did!  It's helped me to see my project and writing in a new way.” Ada Ferrer is a historian of Latin America and the Caribbean and the Dayton-Stockton Professor of History at Princeton University. Her book, Cuba: An American History, based on more than thirty years of research, won a Pulitzer Prize in History in 2022, as well as a Los Angeles Times Book Prize in History.

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“TESS rewired my brain (in a good way!), and the friends and connections I made are like gold.” Scott Thomas Erich, historical anthropologist and environmental historian and Doctoral Lecturer at Baruch College, City University of New York.

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“Because of TESS, I've been incorporating sustainably-minded pedagogy into all levels of French that I teach. Beyond writing, sharing the ideas I learned from the workshop and bringing it forward has really helped my teaching assistants, students, and coworkers to rethink their place and space within sustainability and action within the languages.” Claire-Marie Brisson, Preceptor in French at Harvard University.

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“TESS was transformative for me. As a graduate student in U.S. History and American Studies, I felt revived and energized by the possibilities for environmental literary writing that Kerri and Bathsheba encouraged. Through TESS, I also developed enduring writing partnerships with participants.” Perri Mellon, PhD Candidate at Boston University.

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“An idea that I first mentioned during TESS about curry dams in Japan ended up resulting in this piece for Orion. It was a very direct result of the wonderful space Kerri and Bathsheba created for us all.” Emily Sekine, Ph.D. in anthropology from The New School for Social Research.