Remembering All Too Well:
Taylor Swift and Confessional Writing
Virtual Class
***Hi, all! If you’ve registered and paid for class, please be advised that the course syllabus, zoom link, and other course details should be in your inbox before 2pm ET on Tuesday, May 16.***
Check your inbox from an email from margaret@notsorryproductions.com.
Course Description:
Taylor Swift’s public persona is deeply ruminative, veering into petty. This trait is one for which she has received intense scrutiny and persistent, sometimes vicious, critique, but it is also key to her profound appeal as an artist. Instead of being shamed into making her feelings smaller, as women and other marginalized people so often are, Swift specializes in taking the moments of which she cannot let go and turning them into cathedrals we can all inhabit.
In this course, consisting of six, two-hour class sessions and led by beloved Not Sorry faculty Margaret H. Willison, participants will trace this thread of Taylor Swift’s career and ask themselves: How can we create confessional, personal work that honors our emotional intensity instead of being too abashed to own it? Margaret will lead discussions of Swift’s 10 studio albums, with each class session examining two albums at a time. Through a mix of of communal close-reading and small group discussion, participants will identify the central strategies by which Swift transforms her personal pain into collective understanding, and then, with individual writing time and small group work, they will practice applying these strategies to their own work. At the close of the course, each student should have created their own piece (or collection of pieces)– whether fictional or non-fictional, poetry or prose– about the moments they cannot move past. They will work towards elucidating why these events loom so large in a way others can identify with or comprehend, transmuting embarrassment into mutual understanding.
Beginning Tuesday, May 16, this class will convene from 8-10pm EST weekly, with a week off mid-way. To use the words of Taylor Alison Swift herself, we’re inviting you to build a castle out of all the bricks people have thrown at you, and we hope everyone who wishes to join us feels able to.
Faculty bio:
Margaret H. Willison - Instructor - she/her
Margaret H. Willison serves Not Sorry Productions as both their Communications & Social Media Manager and a regular faculty member for virtual classes, pilgrimages, and other programming. Based in Boston, where she grew up, Margaret has a B.A. in English and History, a Masters in Library and Information Science, and a (self-issued) Streets Smart Certificate in Being Too Online, with concentrations in Discourse Parsing, Meme Fluency, and GIF deployment.
In addition to her work with Not Sorry, you may know her as a regular fourth chair on NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour, one of the writers behind the Two Bossy Dames newsletter, part of the team behind the Appointment Television podcast, or simply because her ability to make friends and influence people is definitely on the mutant superpower, maybe-she-was-bitten-by-a-radioactive-social-butterfly level and therefore cannot easily be contained. When not posting to the internet for either business or pleasure, you can find Margaret mixing cocktails, dispensing on-call shopping advice to anyone in need, or at the front of most concerts in the greater Boston area wherein any kind of woman plays any kind of guitar.
The overview:
Tuition: Sliding scale, $245-$350
Dates: Tuesdays from 8-10pm EST for for six weeks beginning on May 16, ending on June 27 (class will not meet on June 6)
Recording: Classes will be recorded for later viewing, but the course is best experienced if you attend each session live.
Cost: Full price is $295. If you cannot quite afford the course, we have a price option of $245. If you would like to pay $350, all donations above $295 will go toward scholarships that we offer and help subsidize.
Scholarship applications are closed at this time. Thank you to all who applied. We hope you can take advantage of scholarship opportunities for a future course!
Email Margaret at margaret@notsorryproductions.com with any questions! Please note that this email address could become lost in your spam folder, so it would be helpful if you add it to your address book.
Course materials:
The ability to listen multiple times to the following editions of Taylor Swift’s 10 albums (all of which are readily available via major music streaming services):
Taylor Swift (15 tracks, 2006)
Fearless (Taylor’s Version, 26 tracks, 2021)
Speak Now (Deluxe Edition, 20 tracks, 2010)
Red (Taylor’s Version, 30 tracks, 2021)
1989 (Deluxe Edition, 19 tracks, 2014)
Reputation (15 tracks, 2017)
Lover (18 tracks, 2019)
folklore (deluxe version, 17 tracks, 2020)
evermore (deluxe edition, 17 tracks, 2021)
Midnights (3am Edition, 20 tracks, 2022)
If you can’t find the specified version, other less deluxe/older versions will serve you perfectly well. If any Deluxe-exclusive songs/iterations are considered essential for any classes, we will provide advance warning/links as needed.
FAQs:
Q: Is this class for “Swifties,” or can I take it if I’m only partially familiar with Taylor Swift’s work, or ambivalent about it?
A: This class will require listening to a lot of Taylor Swift’s music and discussing said music in a thoughtful, rigorous, and respectful manner, but meaningful participation will demand neither profound expertise in nor unwavering admiration of Swift’s oeuvre. The ideal participant should feel that Swift makes art that is both worthy of serious discussion and capable of withstanding meaningful critique, as these are the modes in which Not Sorry believes the most substantive insight can be uncovered, which means both reflexive scoffers and militant fans should approach with caution. Beyond those two poles, we’d love to find the maximum diversity of opinion, and are confident the course will satisfy most people whose curiosity it piques.
Q: If I am more interested in discussing Swift’s work than in creating my own, is this class for me?
A: We think so! The creative work included in the class should be thought of more as a means of exploring the idea than a demand participants produce perfect art— although folks with the ambition to produce perfect art will be more than welcome to pursue it. Much like Albert Einstein at an elementary school science fair, ambitious or expert writers should find much to enjoy in the class, but willingness to try and share is all participation demands.