Donna Hanelin
Nevada City CA 95959-9402
Summary of Highlights
Lifelong dual fascination with the arts and arts education leading to a career in the development of innovative arts programs as well as the pursuit of a public life in poetry.
Written over three hundred teaching essays and practices for student writers.
Inspired a love for the written and spoken word in emerging poets and writers, aged fifteen to eighty.
Guided authors and their manuscripts toward publication.
Consistently published and performed poetry and prose to an enthusiastic audience.
Awarded for outstanding contribution to the literary life of the community.
Education
B.A., University of California at Santa Barbara, 1972
College of Creative Studies, literature major, art minor
College of Creative Studies enrolls “on evidence of talent for advanced and independent work in an art or science. The aim of the college is to instruct these students by all means available to a faculty of artists and scholars whose interest is to work closely with talented undergraduates.”
At the college, completed both undergraduate and graduate courses.
CELTA, University of Cambridge, International House, Portland, OR, 2001
Certificate In English Language (as Foreign Language)Teaching to Adults
Sierra College, Grass Valley, CA
Continuing education in ceramics (1988-89), drama (1989), drawing (1990), Spanish language (1998-2000), Mac computer (2003)
San Francisco Art Institute, 1973 to 1975
Studied painting and drawing
Teaching Experience
1990 to present
Develop and teach courses in creative writing, including poetry, fiction, autobiography and literary non-fiction. Create practices and teaching essays which focus on particular aspects of writing, at the same time allowing for full expression of the individual writer. Direct students toward a clear, detailed and compassionate evaluation of all works-in-progress. Emphasize self- knowledge as basic material for poets and writers. Identify and refine the form and drama necessary for poem and story.
Courses
Poetry
The Painted Word How to find the images, then how to hold and prepare them for the written page.
The Pictures in Poems What is imagery?
Poetry Workshop Discussion of poems-in-process
Sound, Speech and the Music of Words Tuning up the ear for language and exploring the relation of sound to dramatic impact.
Imagery and the Poet How do word pictures stir the reader and the writer?
The Sense of Poetry If poetry no longer rhymes and often misses more than a few beats, what is the sense of poetry?
Intensive Writing Retreats in Oaxaca, Mexico
For writers and students of poetry and prose. Topics have included Magic Realism, Days of the Dead, Rhythm and Image, and Visible and Invisible Stories. On site writing practices use culture and environment of Oaxaca as background and inspiration. Participants also bring manuscripts for private consultation and/or group discussion.
Advanced Creative Writing
World of Words Focus on the creative, not critical, aspects of writing: in other words, how do we make writing, not unmake it.
Visible and Invisible Stories There is a set of apparent stories in our bodies and another collection of stories in our dreams, thoughts and feelings.
The Meaning of Spontaneity in Form and Focus How do we write what has spontaneous meaning for ourselves as well as keep our readers glued to the page? Learning to recognize what is new and working towards a coherent literary form.
Truth, Lies and Fiction What motivates us as writers to leave the comfort of apparent truth to enter the odd reality of fiction?
The English Sentence A review of sentence structure as well as ideas on how to bring clarity, variety and beauty to the sentence. What part of grammar matters?
Belief and the Believer Ways to make belief believable in story and poem by finding voices for the seer and the cynic and noting the difference between story and sermon.
Autobiography
Autobiography: Childhood, Youth, Adulthood Three part course supports the process of remembering and re-visiting the past and forming life into story.
Finding the Thread Exploration of major events, themes and characters in your own life story as a way to organize autobiographical writings into book form.
Leave-taking and the Familiar Writing of stories and poems related to different aspects of travel away from home, in both the literal and figurative sense.
When Death Comes Stories and poems of death— a part of life kept more secret than sex.
Love The experience of love using story and/ or poem as the medium.
Portraits and Self Portraits People we have known, or thought we knew, or wish we had known, or perhaps wish we hadn’t known, as well as the one person we dance with daily, our own self.
Childhood and the Magic of Shifting Realities In childhood we are often subject to whimsical if not irrational rule. What is magical about one’s own odd childhood? And how do we express it in story and poem?
Beginning Creative Writing
A First Step Out Form, detail, practice, and audience as well as the vague yet essential matters of inspiration, creation and mystery.
Writing for Your Self A chance out of public view to experience how you write, what interests you in writing, what might stop you from writing, and most important, what inspires you to write.
Keeping a Notebook Notebooks as a way to contemplate new projects and/or as exploration in the art of writing.
Writing as Entry into the Imagination Writing can lead you to yourself and beyond into what you don’t know you know…a foray into this unknown.
Publications
Hanelin, Donna. And I You. The Black Rock Press: University of Nevada, Reno, 1998. (poems)
---. “Visible and Invisible Stories.” Art Matters: A Quarterly Advocacy Journal of the Nevada County Arts Council. Grass Valley, Vol. 19, Issue 4, Winter, 2003. (article)
---. “We Might All Survive.” Sierra Journal:2003. Castle Peak Editions: Murphy, Oregon, 2003. (poem)
---. “The Hummer’s War.” Year 2003…an Anthology. Ed. William Gainer, Nevada County Poetry Series publication: Nevada City, CA, 2003. (story)
---. “Dry Ranges.” and “Dropped Off in the First Part.” Sierra Songs and Descants: Poetry and Prose of the Sierra. Ed. Gail Entrekin and Kathryn Napier Stull, Hip Pocket Press, Nevada City, CA, 2002. (poems)
---. “Boredom.” Year 2000…an Anthology. Ed. William Gainer, Nevada County Poetry Series publication: Nevada City, CA, 2000. (dialogue)
---. “Song of Sixpence.” Poetry Now: A Publication of the Sacramento Poetry Center. Vol. 3, No. 11, November 1997. (poem)
---. “A Class on Ellipsis.” Wild Duck Review. Feb/March 1995. (essay)
---. “Remainders.” Wild Duck Review. Nov/Dec 1994. (essay)
---. Blood Red at Scarlet Sunrise.Raven Radio Ranch Productions: Nevada City, CA 1994. (audiotape of poetry)
Performances and Readings
“Poets for Peace” (Poets Against the War), with Sam Hamill, Gary Snyder, and others, Miners Foundry, Nevada City, Broadcast worldwide on kvmr.org, June 5, 2003.
Reading with Dennis Schmitz and Clive Matson, Nevada County Poetry Series, Center for the Arts, Grass Valley, CA March 21, 2003. Broadcast on FCAT, local cable.
“Words and Music” with Joe Tomaselli, Lassen County Arts Council, Susanville, CA, June 21, 2003.
“Donna Hanelin and Her Students”, Sacramento Poetry Center, CA, May 20, 2002.
“Snake in the Water”, dialogues performed with Chris Olander, Nevada County Poetry Series, Center for the Arts, Grass Valley, CA, June 19, 2000. Broadcast on FCAT, local cable. (Also at Sacramento Poetry Center with Art Mantecon, January, 2002.)
“Happiness, Death y Placas(license plates)”, with John Barbato, Casa Patrick, San Pablo Etla, Mexico, May 5, 1999.
Wordslingers Festival, sponsored by Literature Alive!, Featured reader with Maxine Hong Kingston, Molly Giles, Dan Bellm and others, Nevada City, CA, October 9-11, 1998.
Read Writin’ in the Hood, Spoken word series, North Columbia Schoolhouse Cultural Center, North San Juan, CA, September 19, 1998.
“And I You”, Sacramento Poetry Center at Barnes and Noble Books, Sacramento, CA, August 23, 1998.
“And I You”, Odyssey Books, Grass Valley, CA, May 13, 1998.
“And I You”, University of Nevada, Reno, May 5, 1998.
“A Glimpse of Visible Magic”, with writers from retreat in Mexico, Odyssey Books, Grass Valley, CA, February 3, 1998.
A Reading with Molly Fisk, Nevada City Poetry Series, Poets Playhouse, CA, September 27, 1997.
“The Poetical and Political History of a Modern Woman”, solo performance, Nevada City Poetry Series, Poets Playhouse, CA, June 16, 1995. (First performed for a celebration of National Poetry Month and National Women’s History Month at Odyssey Books, April, 1995.)
“Stories and Poems on Love”, with Iven Lourie and Chris Vona, Literature Alive! Reading Series, Harmony Books, Nevada City, CA, 1995.
“An Evening of Paradise”, Spoken word with dancers, Miners Foundry, Nevada City, CA, October 6, 1994.
“Time in the Tank”, with John Barbato, Nevada City Poetry Series, Poets Playhouse, CA, September 9, 1994.
“Blood Red at Scarlet Sunrise”, Art Live Poetry Series, Artists’ Guild Gallery, Nevada City, CA, April 9, 1994.
“Bird Gills and Fish Feathers”, with John Barbato and Jeremiah Raven, Nevada City Poetry Series, Poets Playhouse, CA, June 17, 1993.
First Sundays Reading Series, with David Guastaferro and Gena Hawkins, Broad Street Books, Nevada City, CA, March 3,1993.
“Any Port in a Storm”, Reading with Michael Creedon and Jeremiah Raven, Nevada City Poetry Series, Poets Playhouse, CA, July 30, 1992.
Award and Grants
May Martin Goyne Award, 1999
For outstanding contribution to the literary arts of Nevada County, CA
Poets and Writers, Inc. for Workshops:
The Sense of Poetry, co-sponsor Nevada City Poetry Series, July 25, 1998
Imagery and the Poet, , co-sponsor Nevada City Poetry Series June 28, 1997
The Painted Word, co-sponsor Nevada City Poetry Series, March 9, 1996
Stories from Life, co-sponsor St. Joseph’s Cultural Center, Grass valley, CA, February 4, 1995
Writing Workshop for Teens, co-sponsor, Nevada County Youth Arts Council, April 19,1994
Stories from Life, co-sponsor Silver Spring Mountain Retreat, Hayfork, CA, August 19-21, 1994
Poets and Writers, Inc. for Readings:
(Please refer to “Performances and Readings” for venue)
Words and Music, co-sponsor Lassen County Arts Council
Reading with Dennis Schmitz and Clive Matson, co-sponsor Nevada County Poetry Series
Snake in the Water, co-sponsor Nevada County Poetry Series
Wordslingers Festival, co-sponsor Literature Alive!
A Reading with Molly Fisk, co-sponsor Nevada City Poetry Series
The Poetical and Political History of a Modern Woman, co-sponsor Nevada City Poetry Series
Time in the Tank, co-sponsor Nevada City Poetry Series
.
Related Career Experience
St Joseph’s Cultural Center, Executive Director, Grass Valley, CA, 1988 to 1992
Transformed an underused historic building into a hub for the arts. Developed budgets, scheduled events, wrote publicity and newsletters, worked with a volunteer Board of Directors and many artists and arts organizations in Nevada County. Tripled profit for the Center during tenure.
Red Sandbox School, Owner and Director, Nevada City, CA, 1983 to 1987
Created a warm, playful learning environment for young children with books, story telling, music, art activities.
Oak Meadow Learning Center, Director, Nevada City, CA, 1982
Developed art and music program for homeschooling families under the auspices of Oak Meadow School (Ojai, CA), which offers a Waldorf based curriculum.
Children’s’ Creative Project, Art Teacher, Santa Barbara, CA, 1979 to 1981
Taught elementary age children in Santa Barbara County Schools. Designed art projects in drawing, painting, mask making and ceramics.
I.D.E.A., (parent education pproject), Santa Barbara County Schools, Editor,1977 to 1979
Edited “Alphabet Soup: A Guide for Parents of Young Children”. Included health education, creative projects, guidance for parents, and county services. Also assisted in parent education classes.
Community Service
Volunteer ESL tutor, Literacy Council of Nevada County, CA, 2000 to present
Reader, various benefit performances including Peace Center and Senior Daycare, 2000 to 2003
Host, Public Read-in, National Poetry Month Celebration, Odyssey Books, Grass Valley, CA, 2000
Volunteer, Nevada City and County Poetry Series, 1992 to 2000
Contest judge and Host for public reading of annual high school poetry contest in celebration of National Poetry Month, Odyssey Books, Grass Valley, CA April 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999
