Seeking more information on
Writing Doula Services?
Writing is one of the deep joys of my life.
I have studied literature and academic and creative writing by award-winning writers, including Elizabeth Alexander (President Obama’s inaugural poet), Lauren Winner (bestselling writer and professor at Duke Divinity School), Shelley Streeby (former Director of Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writer’s Workshop and researcher of Octavia Butler and Ursula LeGuin’s archives), and Sabrina Orah Mark (essayist).
My research and teaching specializes in supporting those finding their voice and birthing their unique contributions to the world. I use these "doula" methods in my leadership programs and courses. I sometimes have availability for 1:1 consulting for writing.
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I have been a writing doula for 20 years and my students have seen all kinds of success. I love using my academic research on the history of feminist, queer, and ethnic studies writing practices to support folks (of all genders) who are breaking the status quo and growing their imagination for what is possible to change in this world.
Yours,
Dr. Kimberly B. George
The Approach to Teaching Writing
I teach writing practices to help people connect to their body, to their creativity, and to the wondrous depths of diverse ways of knowing and perceiving the world. My dissertation was on the psychosocial processes and epistemologies (or, ways of knowing) within several lineages of feminist studies writing practices—including practices found in Black studies, Chicana studies, and postcolonial and transnational feminist writing, especially in the 1980s.
I bring a focus to feminist writing practices on identity itself as dynamic and multiple, and on coalition building practices across differences of identity, including race, gender, sexuality, and class. (Feminist transnational theorist Jacquie Alexander has a beautiful articulation of this way of understanding dynamic identity.)
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While I am not a therapist, I am a psychosocial theorist, which means my methods teaching writing bridge interdisciplinary work on the unconscious and the psyche with critical social theory's attention to material histories of power (including race, gender, sexuality, religion, and colonization). I focus on using writing as a trauma-informed creative practice that reconnects the head, heart, and spirit, as well as a process that expands our ways of knowing to connect with Spirit, land, water, ancestors, and other-than-human life.
I use the teaching of writing in service of supporting people's finding of their voice, and in service of their learning how to listen to the stories of others. I call myself a Writing Doula because what I do for my students and clients supports the birthing of creative life and power inside them. It feels like sacred work.
I have loved writing since kindergarten when I wrote my first story about a magical talking horse! I find words enchanting. I asked for a typewriter for Christmas in 3rd grade. I published my first "article"—a 3 sentence letter to the editor—in 6th grade. I have spent most of my adult life trying to create a life in which I get to study and write as much as possible—which led to 5 graduate programs of labor to cultivate my methods as a teacher, theorist, and writer. I believe the study of texts across time and generations and the creation of our own words on a page somehow matters in the evolving life-force of this gorgeous (and heartbreaking) world.
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The Intensive Project Mapping Service is a service for clients to create the initial foundations for a non academic writing project. In 4-8 weeks, we look at big picture questions of the project (such as narrative voice, audience, and central themes). We then establish writing practices customized to the goals of the writer and their project. For more information: Contact Dr. George
How to Build a Better Argument offers 1:1 coaching to learn the skills of scholarly writing. This course especially supports women who are considering going back to graduate school, and/or who desire to learn more research and writing skills for their vocational life. Contact Dr. George
Writing With Feminist History: A Course in Transformations is an 8-week class designed to support shifts in the status quo. It shows you how the feminist writings of history can inform your approach to writing toward a re-imagined world. You will learn writing practices modeled by women writers who have come before, exploring themes of change and liminality. Read more here.
Contemplative Reading/Spiritual Autobiography uniquely blends an experience of creative writing, learning social theory (including critical race theory), studying feminist foremothers across faith traditions, and nurturing contemplative spiritual practices. The intensive version is 6 weeks; or, join a slower paced 6-month cohort.
Read more here.