“Writing through Trauma” is a creative writing class taught by IU graduate Shawna Aoub Ainslie.
The eight-week class had its first meeting Monday, but is still accepting students until its next class ?Jan. 26. Classes will meet 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. each Monday in the Charles and Myrtle Fillmore Room at Unity of Bloomington, a local non-denominational church.
“The pastor, Lori Boyd, and I were talking and I said I’d really like to offer a class like this,” Ainslie said. “So we found a way to put that together.”
The class has a maximum of 10 students. Ainslie said five or six students are already signed up.
Ainslie has an MFA in creative writing from IU and has written for various ?websites, she said.
She blogs and publishes both fiction and poetry on her own website, honeyquill.com.
As a trauma survivor herself, Ainslie said writing has been her own form of therapy.
Ainslie is a victim of child abuse and much of her personal writing reflects how that has affected her as an adult.
“I found a lot of healing,” she said. “My writing on my website started to reach more people because I was writing about issues that others are facing, like surviving physical abuse as a child and changing your patterns so that you’re no longer an abuser.”
Ainslie said the class will be a private, safe space for students to write and heal while supporting each ?other.
She said she has yet to teach a creative writing class where lifelong friendships are not formed.
“I’m still in touch with a number of my students from ten years ago and I’m friends with them on many levels,” she said.
The fee for the class is $80 and can be paid using PayPal at ?unityofbloomington.org.
Cassie Heeke
