Plus 12 fall Journeys closing September 15
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September 7-13
Each week, a word becomes a world.
Featured Media:
Let Writing Change You
butterfly
By Vibu Parambhai
When I need a sign I ask for a butterfly. No matter its form—as long as I see its flapping wings of bright colors a sense of Ease pulls over me.
Embark on a Journey this Fall as a Mentor or Mentee
Apply to the Collaboratory by September 15
Ready to spread your wings? Join our Wild Ideas:
Nature, Science & Creativity Journey, created in honor of Helen Ghiradella, the trailblazing biologist who uncovered the hidden architecture of butterfly wings.
Notes from the Community:
On the Wings of Creation
PRINT PUBLICATIONS
Metamorphosis Launches Tomorrow
Experience Transformation through Art in our New Anthology
To understand Girls Write Now, zoom out and observe a complex, multi-dimensional organism, constantly and consciously in the making. Its contours come into focus, and each word dissolves and evolves: Girls becomes a spectrum across gender, race, age, and poverty; Write spans genres, media, and disciplines; Now stretches across three decades and counting. Resolved into its component parts—G. W. N.—its very being refracts: a nonprofit, but also an incubator of art, a developer of professions, a community that heals. Made for writing and mentoring—and, in turn, for training, curating, and fortifying coalitions of artists, educators, and leaders. Rooted in New York City, branching outward: statewide, national, even global. Dubbed the Collaboratory: intimate, versatile, cutting-edge; designed to move with AI, a volatile marketplace, and our own psyches. For Girls Write Now, Metamorphosis is not only the title and theme of this anthology—it is a state of being.
Girls Write Now is doing the essential, joyful work of nurturing the next generation of writers, and of giving them not just the tools, but the permission, to tell the truth about their lives.
—LENA DUNHAM, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Famesick
Cayla Summer Hall
Studio Facilitator
Cayla Summer Hall facilitates The Writer’s Mind: Creativity, Process, and Purpose. In this Community Studio, writers interrogate their beliefs about writing and learn about alternative perspectives of the creative process.
Join us at the next Community Studio on September 21, 5-6 PM ET.
WRITING PROMPT
Writing Outside the Lines
What Rules Work for You as a Writer?
"What is it about writing that generates this attitude, often held passionately, that some people are writers and others are not? Is it the romantic ideal of innate genius? The belief that one has to be initiated to join a special club called writers? Is it something unique to the craft of writing and the anxieties it provokes? I have never heard of a professional baseball player, for example, telling a community baseball league that they should get off the field or that they’re a menace to the sport, but I have heard professional writers complain about there being too many people claiming to be writers." —Ronald Clark Brooks, Bad Ideas About Writing
What rules have you’ve learned about 'good' writing or writers. Jot down some ways these rules have impacted you. Now, the next time you write, break one of them and see what happens! (Nobody has to know).
LINKEDIN BLOG
"I Can't Wait Until All the Young People Are in Charge…"
Mentor Kyla Buckingham's Life@GWN as Told by Mentee Deb Coffy
Life@GWN presents the stories of Girls Write Now, by Girls Write Now. In this week's edition, Deb Coffy—a mentee in the Art of the Profile Journey—features Kyla Buckingham, a science editor, painter, and first-time mentor who moved to New York without a job after a professor told her not to sell herself short. Years later, a friend at Women's Media Group told her about meeting the same mentee at the same coffee shop every Sunday for five years, and Kyla knew where she wanted to be. She arrived at her first Journey confident she had already mastered the interview. Read on for what the Journey taught her anyway.
Tomorrow, our new book Metamorphosis goes out into the world. Every writer inside is mentored, edited, and published at no cost to them. The only way that happens is with the support of generous readers like you. Thank you.
Happening Write Now:
Mark Your Calendar
CAREER CHAT
Chasing Spirits: A Youth Mental Health Career Chat
Tuesday, September 8, 4:45-6 PM ET, Virtual
Your mind needs care as much as your body does. This Career Chat, in partnership with Chasing Spirits, brings together organizations working in youth mental health—Born This Way Foundation, The Liv Project, The Trevor Project, and The Possibility Project. Hear how people in this field built their careers and what a pathway into the work could look like for you.
This Chat also offers a sneak peek of our 2026 Chasing Spirits writing contest, launching October 1. Two writers ages 13-19 will each receive a $1,500 prize.
Open to all mentors, mentees, members & the public.
COLLABORATORY WORKSHOP
Sharing Your Stories: Podcast Marketing Strategies
Saturday, September 12, 1-3 PM ET
Great stories deserve to be heard. Join the Writing Our Way to Wellness Journey Teaching Artist Jordan Gass-Pooré for a conversation on podcast marketing strategies that help you grow your audience, build community, and amplify your message. Whether you’re launching your first show or looking to expand your reach, you’ll leave with tactics you can use on your next episode.
Open to all mentors, mentees, members & the public.
COLLABORATORY WORKSHOP
You’re a STAR: Acing the Interview (with Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation)
Monday, September 14, 4-5:30 PM ET, Virtual
Interviews are hard when you are new to the job market. An informational coffee, a phone screen, a button-down ironed for the real thing—nerves get in the way of all of them. This workshop brings employees from Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation to share what has worked for them and to help mentees practice. From 4 to 4:30 PM, mentees learn how to make a first impression, including the STAR method (Situation, Task, Action, Result) for answering behavioral questions. From 4:30 to 5:30 PM, SMBC employees join them in breakout rooms for mock interviews and feedback. Come to pass on your knowledge, or to rehearse for your next opportunity.
Open to all mentors, mentees, members & the public.
Get the Gig:
Curated Opportunities Just for You
Need help applying for these opportunities—and more?
Take flight with a Mentor On Demand today!
INTERNSHIP OPPORTUNITY
Brink Literacy Project
Publishing Internship Program
Are you eager to grow a love of literature and stories? Do you believe in the power of the pen? Are you motivated by a desire to discover hidden gems of literary beauty and bring them to light? An internship with Brink will provide you with firsthand experience in the publishing industry. Brink's programs are designed to bridge the gap between learning about publishing and working in the business.
Deadline: September 11, 2026
Create a portal account to apply.
JOB OPPORTUNITY
New England Foundation for the Arts
Program Coordinator, Creative Economy
The Program Coordinator is responsible for organizing all communications and community building activity: implementing engagement and promotional campaigns and distributing materials; providing direct technical assistance to constituents and CreativeGround users; supporting meetings, workshops, trainings, and events; tracking trends, and cohort lists; and building relationships and gathering stories to share with stakeholders and partners.
Deadline: September 18, 2026.
Create a portal account to apply.
JOB OPPORTUNITY
Meridians
Administrative Assistant, Editorial Coordinator
Keep the journal Meridians: feminism, race, transnationalism running at Smith College. Half the role is editorial operations: coordinating workflow among contributors, the editor, guest editors, the editorial board, and the publisher, and fielding their questions. The rest is communications and office work: running the journal's website, designing event flyers and posters, sending notices across campus, and training and supervising student interns, including leading their weekly meeting. A BA in WGSS, area studies, race and ethnicity, or cultural studies, or similar; two years working with undergraduates and faculty preferred.
Deadline: September 18, 2026.
Create a portal account to apply.
