the IDEA

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

the REASON

We know our planet is in trouble. We have plenty of solutions. We have enough 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 comes 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 UPDATE

In 2023, TESS was based at the Institute at Brown University for Environment and Society, but in 2024, TESS transformed into an independent, mobile entity, led by director and co-founder, Kerri Arsenault.

Now, TESS can travel year-round 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. 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 around the world, but to reach more scholars by taking a detour around traditional academic paths.

TESS has also gathered more writers, thinkers, instructors, and collaborators to assist with this expansion to help arrange, plan, and co-teach our Studios, as well as advise, cheer us on, or tell others about our work. With such a diversity of talent, we can offer Studios in a zillion configurations and to suit any cohort’s needs.

the STUDIO

The word “Studio” reflects and encompasses and fosters the atmosphere we want to encourage at TESS, namely creativity, collaboration, and community instead of being bound by the obligations of academic systems, academic language, or academic publishing.

We are not an LLC or a nonprofit, at least not yet, because as we mentioned, we don’t like red tape. That said, we exploring possibilities in the US and in France, as TESS director, Kerri Arsenault lives in both places part-time.

inside the STUDIO

By studying the art and mechanics of literary narratives—through close readings, writing exercises, group discussions, small group chats, one-on-one mentoring, and more—participants will explore the promise and perils of environmental storytelling. Discussions may also include topics such as interviewing techniques, the difference between place and landscape, how to pitch a story, how to write about people (alive or not), or how trade publishing works. We will also help you 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. And of course, we will read and review together texts that deserve our attention, enrich our imagination, and are exemplar in the narratives we believe express the essence of environmental stories. If a multi-day Studio is on order, we may also be joined by authors whose writing offers a model for thoughtful, fresh engagement with environmental storytelling.

We are happy to Zoom in to you, but we love (and prefer) to join you in person, for that also is part of our scheme…to cultivate community in real life.

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

For Spring 2025, we have Studios large and small happening at Georgetown University, UPENN, Dumbarton Oaks, and University of Manitoba. Please reach out soon if you are interested in something for fall 2025.

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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 and a certified emergency medical responder. She is the Watson Family University Associate Professor of International Security and Anthropology at Brown University

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 Mitman has served as the William Coleman and Vilas Research Professor of History, Medical History, and Environmental Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison and is the ERC Research Professor, Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society

TESS rewired my brain (in a good way!), and the friends and connections I made are like gold.
Scott Thomas Erich is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Washington College, and the Howell Postdoctoral Research Associate in Arabian Peninsula and Gulf Studies in the Corcoran Department of History at the University of Virginia

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 is a Preceptor in French at Harvard University

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 is a PhD Candidate at Boston University

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 has a Ph.D. in anthropology from The New School for Social Research