“Writers are often adults who were not listened to as children.”

Kathleen Spivak

This mentoring wisdom from author, Kathleen Spivak—a protégé of Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Robert Lowell—who first encouraged Renée to read her essays aloud at spoken word events in Paris, sums up the catalyst that catapulted Renée from a daydreaming child with imaginary friends, through a long legal career as a judge, to her current life as a creative writer, speaker, and spoken word performer.

Along the way, theatre classes, mentoring teenagers, and listening to the stories of patients in the hospital emergency unit where she volunteered, kept her creative juices flowing and provided a storehouse of writing material.   

In spoken word events in both Paris and the US, Renée has read her works before live audiences. As a volunteer with her local public radio station, she records books for the blind and disabled. She belongs to several writing groups including the East Lansing Writing Workshop and the long-standing Paris-based AWOL writer’s group. Always eager to improve her craft and forge new creative friendships, she has participated in a wide array of writing classes and workshops lead by best-selling and well-known authors including Rolf Potts, Jack Livings, Wendy Goldman Rohm, Kathleen Spivak, Dinah Lenney and John Biguenet—to name a few. She is an alumna of Stanford University’s two-year novel writing program.

In addition to her Bachelor of Arts and Juris Doctorate degrees, Renée continues to hone her creative writing craft through intensive coursework, writing workshops and webinars, including: