About Crystal Renée

Authorpreneur, Editor and Professor 

Crystal Renée is a three time published Christian novelist, blogger for Apartment Housing & Rental Foundation, essayist, and Editor in Chief  and for her company, DreamWriterInk! Writing & Publishing. Her writings are God inspired, motivated by her life experiences, and decorated with her optimistic and humorous spirit.

Becoming an author was always Crystal Renée's dream and a lifetime goal she desired since she was 7 years old. In 1996 she pursued her BA in English and a minor in African/African American Studies at Truman State University in Kirksville, Missouri. While there she studied under authors and literary scholars Wenying Xu, Ben Bennani, and Joseph Benevenito. They guided her and showed her how her writing and imagination would take her far in life as an author, if she just kept writing. While enrolled, her poetry was published in Truman's Literary journal, Windfall, and the campus newspaper, The Index, in 1999 and 2000.

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After graduating with Sigma Tau Delta honors in 2000, Crystal Renée took her mentors' advice and pursued her Master's of Fine Arts in Creative Writing (MFA) at Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts. While there her love for African Diasporic Literature grew like a fresh first love affair; free, unrestricted, and uncensored.  These classes fueled her thesis and future novel, In the Company of Women.

While in Boston, Aaliyah died and 9/11 happened.  But, Crystal Renée continued to write, as she mourned with the country and her peers. During those three years at Emerson, she was mentored  by internationally known authors and literary critics, Wendy Walters and Kai Maristed. Wendy taught her everything Toni Morrison and Kai pushed her to step against traditional plots and narratives.  To go deeper and to not be afraid.

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Crystal Renée graduated from Emerson and Boston with a new perspective of the Black woman in America.  She was ready to write about it like Toni and Terri. She wanted her words to be heard by all Black women and little girls. She wanted to be published! As Crystal Renée's writer career began, her teaching experience flourished throughout the country.

She has taught Creative Writing at Brandeis University's Transitional Year Program and Composition and Fiction Writing for The University of Massachusetts - Boston's Upward Bound program. Besides instructing Composition,  Crystal Renée has instructed a variety of creative and professional writing workshops and seminars like, Write Like a Pro -Professional Writing for Success, Winning Scholarship Essay, Planning the Perfect Personal Statement, Rectify That Resume! and other writing and professional development classes and seminars throughout the city of Chicago, Robert Morris University - Illinois, Truman State University, Illinois Institute of Technology, Angelo State University, and Southern Illinois University - Carbondale (linkedin.com/in/crystal-r-tillman).

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Unfortunately, four years after graduating with her MFA, tragedy, sickness, and depression tried to stop Crystal Renée in her writing tracks over a span of 16 years. In 2003, she was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, lost one of her best friends to a brain tumor in 2014, and was diagnosed with Cervical Cancer three years later.

Her voyage to becoming a writer was far from over. All these tragedies wouldn't and couldn't stop her. Crystal Renée turned to God, seeking His face for understanding, help, and healing. She writes about how God literally told her everything she prayed for, healing, health, her books, wealth for her family, her future husband, and children were ALL to COME. She shares her testimonies in her memoir, It's All to Come: Becoming a Fearless Author. A book of personal essays revealing how sickness led to falling in love with Jesus and herself.

Currently, Crystal Renée is back home in Chicago and teaching Composition at National Louis University. Her most recent book, Becoming a Fearless Author can be found on here. She hopes this book will inspire and transform any writer into a published author.

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