January 16 - February 10, 2023
There's no doubt...
Writing conferences can be magical.
There’s something special that happens when writers get together to learn, connect, and grow at writing conferences, either in-person or virtually.
However, a typical conference also:
- Asks you to set aside full days in your busy life to participate fully.
- Can overwhelm you with too much content and too many events in a short period of time.
- Is a big commitment of time and money.
- Doesn't allow for the time and space to process and reflect on what's being learned.
Our Writing summit is different.
- Just for midlife women
Connect with women in the same stage of life about topics and challenges that matter to you.
- On Your own time
Choose the live events that work with your schedule or watch the recordings any time.
- at your own pace
Work through exercises, prompts, and readings that appeal to you. Skip the ones that don’t.
- multiple ways to connect
Choose to attend live events throughout the week and meet with speakers, hosts, and other writers. Share your writing and participate in groups and forums.
Introducing...
The HerStories Community Writing Summit
A 30-day writing experience for midlife women who write.
January 16 – February 10, 2023
A New Workshop Each Day
A mix of live, recorded, and forum-based workshops
- Balancing writing with life
- Publishing options
- Memoir
- Personal essays
- Writing about loss and healing
- Developing strong characters
- Crafting scenes
- Clarifying your writing goals
- How to teach writing online
A Focus on Community
Build lasting relationships with other midlife writers
- Post and get feedback on your writing.
- Participate in live events, live chats, and co-writing.
- Find other writers based on genre, location, and goals.
Meet Our Speakers
Jackie Cangro
Jumpstart Your Writing: Explorations in Creativity
Jacquelin Cangro is a seasoned developmental editor, workshop leader, and book coach. She provides guidance, inspiration, feedback, and accountability for dedicated fiction and narrative nonfiction writers. Jackie has helped hundreds of gifted authors work toward their goals.
Anne Pinkerton
Writing Through Loss
Anne Pinkerton's holds an MFA from Bay Path University and studied poetry as an undergrad at Hampshire College. Her memoir, Were You Close? a sister's quest to know the brother she lost, will be released by Vine Leaves Press in April 2023.
Ann Imig
Group Coaching for Creatives: Break Free From "I'm Not Enough, I'm Too Much, and I'll be Happy When (fill in the blank)"
A widely published writer and seasoned performer, in 2010 Ann founded LISTEN TO YOUR MOTHER, a massive grass-roots live storytelling series in 60+ cities (and an acclaimed anthology, Putnam Books, 2015). In 2021, she created Listen Life Coaching, using her MSW and positive psychology coaching certification to help move people forward personally and professionally, with clarity and purpose.
Autumn Purdy
Three Lines, Three Ways: How to Haiku
Autumn Purdy is a contributing writer for Sharing Magazine and a former Reviews Editor for Literary Mama. She has published pieces on The HerStories Project Blog, the HerKind Collective Blog, Haiku Journal, Literary Mama, and two photos in The Sunlight Press. She is an essayist in The Pandemic Midlife Crisis: Gen X Women on the Brink and an editorial assistant for the anthology. She writes from her home in Westerville, OH.
Laurel Hilton
How to Start and Sustain a Writing Pratice
After a career in PR/Communications, and the nonprofit sector, Laurel was inspired to turn the lens of her writing on herself through personal essay, short fiction and narrative nonfiction. She's been featured in four book anthologies; onstage; multi-media platforms, and public radio for her writing. She heads a Creative Writing Coaching business called The Marin Writers Studio. She has a deep passion for helping others explore their interest in the craft of writing.
PAM MOORE
Pitching demystified: How to write pitches that lead to assignments in top tier outlets
Pam Moore is an occupational therapist-turned-award-winning freelance journalist, intuitive eating coach, and host of the Real Fit podcast. Her health and fitness writing has been published in The Washington Post, The Guardian, Time, Runner's World, Outside, SELF, WebMD, Forbes, and many others.
Maurene J. (Janiece) Hinds
Scene Selection in Memoir
Maurene has supported writers, beginners through published authors, at various stages in developing their creative and academic work for the past 20+ years. She focuses on providing honest feedback with a gentle, guiding touch. In addition to an MFA in creative writing and post-graduate work in writing pedagogy, she has completed editorial training through Author Accelerator, Liminal Pages, Editorial Arts, and Club Ed. She is a certified fiction book coach through Author Accelerator's Book Coach Certification Program.
Natalie Serianni
An Introduction to the Personal Essay
Natalie is a Seattle-based writer, instructor, and mother of two. Her work has appeared at HuffPost, Insider, Motherwell, ParentMap, Mutha Magazine and The Keepthings, and her essay, "Subtle Shifts," is included the anthology "The Pandemic Midlife Crisis: GenX Women on the Brink." She has taught college writing for over twenty years.
Elline Lipkin
Back to Poetry at Midlife
Elline Lipkin's first book, The Errant Thread, was chosen by Eavan Boland for the Kore Press First Book Award. Her second, Girls’ Studies, was published by Seal Press. Her poetry has been published widely and she has been in residence at Yaddo, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, the Dorland Mountain Arts Colony and Yefe Nof. She teaches poetry workshops and is currently a Research Scholar with UCLA’s Center for the Study of Women.
Holly Rizzuto Palker
Writing Parenting
Holly is a writer, a profiles editor at Literary Mama, a drama teacher, and a mom to three kids and Chilli the dog. Her essays appear in Parents, The New York Daily News, The Independent, Newsday, Kveller, Huffington Post, and more. Holly won Writer’s Digest Annual Writing Competition awards for her NextAvenue profile, “Women Share Tales at Stories Around the Table,” some of her Parents' articles, and her short story “Three.” She is a board member of the American Society of Journalists and Authors. She's working on a book.
Danita Berg
Generating Ideas: How to Capture Your Story and Get It on the Page
Danita Berg is an Assistant Professor of Communication and Humanities and the Online Department Chair of Liberal Studies at the Florida Institute of Technology, where she also advises the literary magazine. She has published creative works in journals such as Redivider, Southern Women’s Review, Quay: A Journal of the Arts, Black Market Review, and The Houston Literary Review, among others. She earned her MFA in Creative Writing at Goddard College and Ph.D. in English at the University of South Florida.
Kamsin Kaneko
Understanding the Paths to Publishing
Kamsin Kaneko is a Writer and Author Accelerator Certified Book Coach. She specializes in helping women with huge hearts and fierce minds overcome their perfectionism and procrastination to finally make write their books. Kamsin writes personal essays, poetry and is working on her first nonfiction book.
Stacey Loscalzo
What We Learn about Midlife From Our Favorite Fictional Characters
Stacey is a reader and writer whose life revolves, as much as possible, around stories. She shares stories. She reads and writes stories. She watches and listens to stories. And most importantly, she discusses stories as part of a community. Her corner of the internet (www.staceyloscalzoreads.com) is a place where story lovers of all kinds can gather.
Emma Jarrett
Connect and Heal Through Writing
Emma is a journaler, a personal essay writer, a poet, a playwright. She wrote and performed a one-woman play Breastless, as a way to process and share her experience with breast cancer and is currently writing her memoir, Let Me Get This Off My Chest. She leads others in writing to connect and heal - in themselves and for the sake of us all.
Andra Watkins
Memoir Writing Tips (How to Speak Your Story)
NYT bestselling author of the memoir Not Without My Father. Andra's workshop gives memoir-writing tips and tricks. Plus insights on how to speak your story to a live audience.
Sarah Lamb
Dive Within and Cleanse Your Psyche with Yin Yoga and Journaling
Sarah writes to feed her spirit and inspire the spirits of others. As a single mom, yoga teacher, therapist and nature lover, she hopes her own personal healing journey will aide in the healing of others. We all feed off of each others' stories.
Joan DELCOCO
Writing for Healing and Growth
Joan Delcoco is a brain injury survivor who writes to retrain her brain and make sense of the world. She is a certified Journal to the Self Instructor who believes strongly in the transformative power of writing to promote insight, healing, and growth.
Nina Badzin
Creating Opportunities Around a Niche
Nina Badzin is freelance writer with articles in a wide variety of publications. She's the host of the podcast Dear Nina: Conversations About Friendship and a growing Substack newsletter by the same name. She has been leading creative groups in Minneapolis since 2015.
Dana Schwartz
Saved by a Metaphor
Dana Schwartz is a life long reader, writer, and word lover. She studied English literature in college, and later went on to earn her Master's in Creative Writing. Her work, both fiction and memoir, have been published on and off line in magazines, literary journals, and anthologies.
Jessica Smock
Teaching Writing (Or Anything Else) Online
Jessica Smock is the co-founder and co-editor of the HerStories Project. She is a writer, a former teacher and researcher, and a curriculum coordinator. She has taught writing to students from second grade to graduate school.
Robin Finn
Hot Writing: Writing Deep Into Midlife
Robin Finn, MPH, MA, is an award-winning writer, teacher, and coach, and the founder of Heart. Soul. Pen.® writing workshops for women, and Hot Writing™ ‘for women of a certain age.’ Her essays have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, Buzzfeed, and her novel, ‘Restless in L.A.’ was named a "Best New Novel" by Babble.com.
Bonus Workshop: How To Teach Writing (or Anything Else) Online
- Learn how to plan, structure, and market an online course, workshop, or group.
- Taught by the editors of the HerStories Project, who have been leading online courses, groups, and workshops for nearly a decade.
Meet the HerStories Project
Jessica Smock and Stephanie Sprenger are the co-founders and co-editors of the HerStories Project, a publishing and writing community for midlife women.
We met online as “blogging friends” and then founded the HerStories Project in 2013. We’ve published five essay collections, led dozens of writing groups, and have taught writing to hundreds of female writers over the past several years.
It’s been our joy to work with midlife writers just like you. Our lives of juggling family and jobs and writing are much like yours. We know what it’s like, as midlife women, to want to carve out space in our lives for just ourselves.
9
Years of HerStories
Teaching and publishing since 2013.
100s
of Writers
Who have participated in our groups and workshops.
5
anthologies
Essay collections about friendship, motherhoood, and more.
Early Bird Pricing — Only $74 Until 12/22 (Half off)
Write with us.
Gentle writing instruction and support from 20 writers, instructors, coaches, and editors.
20 presentations over 30 days (January 16-February 10)
private summit community
writing feedback
discounts on future summits
After you sign up,
What Happens Next
Get Invited
You'll get invited to our private HerStories community platform and get an email with next steps.
Create an account
After you create an account, you can find more information on all the presentations and speakers and RSVP to the meetings you wish to attend.
Get Daily Emails
Each day of the summit you'll get an email with what's happening that day and the summary of the previous day.
"IT GAVE ME THE GENTLE PUSH I WAS LOOKING FOR"
“The HerStories workshop got me to write after a long period of procrastination, but more importantly, it impelled me to re-engage the whole practice of writing. I was inspired to sit down and think about my writing, what I want to write, what I need to write, and how I should go about it. It gave me the gentle push I was looking for. Stephanie and Jessica honour every woman’s personal pathway to discovering what works for her. ”
- former workshop participant
Questions?
When will the live meetings be?
The live meetings will be at different times each day from January 16 – February 10th, 2023. Recordings will be available after the meeting. Do not worry if you cannot attend the meetings live. Discussions and other participation will continue after the meeting.
What if I'm not interested in many of the topics?
Perfectly okay! Participate in only what appeals to you.
What are the ways I can participate in the summit?
The presentations will include live workshops, writing prompts, and other writing exercises. You can share your writing and receive feedback inside the workshop platform.
What is the refund policy?
You can request a refund up to the end of the first week of the summit. Just email us at [email protected].
I'm interested in becoming a speaker or presenter for a future HerStories workshop. What should I do?
We’ll include information about becoming a speaker or presenter during the summit. We’ll describe next steps. If you can’t make the summit, we’ll also provide more information to our email subscribers during the first part of 2023. You can sign up for instructor updates here.
How long do I have access to the summit material and recordings?
You’ll be able to access the summit community and workshops for at least 3 months. You’ll also get discounts on future summits.
