“Snow was falling,
so much like stars
filling the dark trees
that one could easily imagine
its reason for being was nothing more
than prettiness.”
~Mary Oliver~
Dear Women, Who Write!
The silence of snow has always impressed this former Iowan. The world seems to slow as flakes fall heavily to the ground, creating a blanket of snow that muffles sound. And is there anything more lovely than a landscape of snowy branches?
These pandemic years—2020 and 2021— have felt a bit like a long winter. We’ve been blanketed by restrictions. Most of us have managed to adapt. WWW has adapted as well, thanks to a devoted leadership team. We held monthly Zoom meetings where we discussed the writing life and provided strength-based peer critiques. We welcomed new members. We invited published writers and poets to discuss their books. We managed to host two socially distanced in-person writing retreats. On Tuesday, December 14, we’ll celebrate our writing community, in person, at Molly Malone’s Irish Pub beginning at 6:30 PM (scroll down to learn more). We began a blog about life and the writing craft, to which members are invited to submit their work.
Each of us has been changed by the experience of life in the time of COVID. So has Women Who Write. We won’t be the same organization we were before March 2020. But we can be better! Now is the time to improve, create, invent, decide.
Image by Nick Youngson CC BY-SA 3.0 Pix4free
Help your writing community work for you! Please nominate yourself or others to be on our leadership team! Nominees will be invited to a January meeting to discuss this opportunity to serve. Nominees who choose to serve will take a position or job that best suit their interests and skills. Please submit nominees here: Board Member Nomination Form
Photo by picjumbo.com from Pexels
PLEASE JOIN US FOR OUR WWW HOLIDAY GATHERING
On Tuesday, December 14
In-person At Molly Malone’s Irish Pub
Beginning 6:30 pm.
In a private room.
Socialize, eat, imbibe, and participate in an open mic reading
EAT, DRINK, AND BE WRITERLY! On Tuesday, December 14, we will gather to celebrate the holiday and the writing life, from 6:30 to 8:30 PM at Molly Malone’s Irish Pub & Restaurant at 933 Baxter Ave in Louisville. We have a private room and can order from the menu. After socializing, we’ll enjoy an open mic for seven-minute (or less) readings by WWW members. Please RSVP attendance and open mic participation online here or email to .
Photo by Johnny Briggs on Unsplash
WE WANT TO SUPPORT YOUR WRITING LIFE.
Here is a list of writing retreats for women at The Write Life website and blog.
Interested in writing and editing jobs that pay? Here are twenty ways to find freelance writing and editing jobs at The Write Life.
Here is the “Big List” of Writing Contests from NewPages.com.
Submit to the Women Who Write blog— We accept short fiction, nonfiction, and poetry (less than 1,300 words of prose) from current members. Please pitch a blog idea or paste your writing in an e-mail to You can read the most recent blog post, by Alisa Childress, WWW secretary, “Soundtrack of a Life.”
Submit to Landslide Lit (erary), a Medium.com publication by WWW members Kimberly Crum and Bonnie Omer Johnson. The platform publishes poetry, fiction, and short memoir. Learn more about submissions here. This is an online publication, technically a blog, easy to post on social networks and find via browsers. Kim and Bonnie are happy to advise you on the process—email Kim at
- Consider submitting to Image Journal, which publishes fiction, poetry, and personal essays re: “sustained engagement with Judaism, Christianity, or Islam. That engagement can include unease, grappling, or ambivalence as well as orthodoxy.”
- Consider submitting to Minerva Rising’s on-line journal, “The Keeping Room.” The journal publishes “short stories, essays, free writing, poetry, and photo essays that touch on topics related to Women’s Wisdom, Lessons Learned, Self-care, Bodies, Relationships, and Community.”
- The HerStry blog invites themed submissions and a $20 payment when the personal essay is published. Now collecting essays on Sex (due January 1) and Home (due February 1).
- Literary Mama publishes creative nonfiction by mothers of any age, about motherhood. They accept submissions on a rolling basis.
- Check out The Manifest Station: On Being Human literary blog. Submit poetry, essay, fiction, art, and photography. Submissions are open continuously.
- This clearing house has an amusing name, “Publishing and Other Forms of insanity. The list of submission opportunities is ongoing.
HERE ARE WAYS YOU CAN SUPPORT OUR WRITING COMMUNITY!
Attend our monthly meetings on the second Tuesday of each month. Our next meeting is Tuesday, January 11 at 6:30 PM (place TBA).
Become a member (or re-member)—As a community, WWW strives to nurture your writing life. We hope you choose to join or renew as a member and participate in our monthly meetings, author talks, retreats, and workshops. Please share your ideas for future programming! You can attend two meetings as a non-member, before joining for $50. Students 18 and older enrolled in school can become members for $25.
Nominate someone, including yourself, to be on our board of directors— Board Member Nomination Form
Visit our Facebook Page and stay awhile—@womenwhowriteky. Help us exceed 1000 followers. Check out our most recent writing prompt for six-word memoirs and add one of your own! See video interviews of WWW meetings with visiting writers.
Be safe. Be strong. Be peace.
Love your writing life!
The leadership team— Kimberly, Pam, Melony & Alisa
