We know a few matters of the heart.

We know restlessness and desire.

We know facing every blank page takes guts.

We know a creative life is a risky business.

We also know that building an authentic community of women writers requires grit, wit, and a whole lot of passion.

The Guild: A Global Powerhouse

We know as a guild we stand in a long tradition dating back to the 14th century, when mostly men organized according to their trade to control their craft, as well as to gain more social and economic power. The wives of merchants and artisans rarely received the same training and camaraderie their husbands, fathers, brothers, and sons enjoyed.

With our guild, we used our imaginations.

We dreamed of a unique gathering for women to write together in an environment of mutual support and learning. And then we built it.

The Guild was founded in 1976. As a women’s writing guild, we are culturally diverse. From the beginning, we’ve represented women from many backgrounds.

We wanted to make a place where all women writers feel welcome, inspired, and empowered by skills, resources, and mentoring.

Now, after 40 years of enriching women writers’ lives, we are still growing and changing with the times. Recently, we forged a new leadership team to take stock of our core mission and values, and to renew our vision. More than ever, we’re committed to empowering women writers with innovative and diverse professional resources, mentoring, and support.

We have a robust membership, a membership publication, a signature summer conference, and a dynamic and growing list of established regional conferences.

But something more is afoot.

We’ve been listening to women writers around the world. Many of us yearn for writing and publishing resources, friendship, self-expression, professional writing guidance, and development of craft. Many of us yearn for a community, but may not have the means or time to travel to a Guild event in person.

We refuse to let the voices of emboldened women writers go unheard.

We’re ushering in a movement of mighty, soulful women writers. Together, we’re changing the way women writers’ stories get heard, crafted, and spread around the globe.

We’re creating a digital village where we can gather in community from anywhere we are in the world.

We’re creating a place where we craft our stories and grow our souls.

And change our world.

Who We Are

We’re a global community of women with diverse backgrounds who share core common values.

COURAGE

We believe courageous women change the world. We bring together diverse women under the same global roof where all voices are heard and empowered.

DIVERSITY WITHIN UNITY

In our global family, our diversity is our strength. We bring the power of words to women around the world. We value learning and growing together in a safe, intelligent, open-hearted community. Through our differences, we unite.

ARTISANAL CRAFT

We offer the highest calibre instruction in craft so that women’s voices can have the greatest impact.

IMPACT

We view publishing in all of its forms in the early 21st century as a vehicle for women’s stories and voices to make a difference in the lives of their readers, communities, and beyond. We offer women exceptional guidance in finding the means to publish their work for greatest impact.

WISDOM

We believe that wisdom, both of the heart and the mind, empowers women writers. Many of our workshop leaders and mentors have decades of experience writing, publishing, and teaching. They generously share their knowledge and leadership to help women writers grow inside and out.

The Diversity of Our Membership

We’re the journalist who has traveled the world to shine a light on women’s experiences of war, and who is now finding her passion in documenting the stories of refugee women.

We’re the award-winning professor with many scholarly publications to her name who is now finding a home for her commercial fiction.

We’re the stay-at-home mom who is mustering the courage to transform her personal journals into a compelling memoir.

We’re the social activist who is empowering incarcerated women to use poetry for self-expression and personal transformation.

We’re the expatriate, living and raising her children in a different culture, who is inspiring women around the world to see writing as a richly rewarding journey into self-discovery.

We’re the successful entrepreneur who is realizing a longstanding dream by writing and publishing her literary novel.

We’re the young musician and songwriter who is launching a new career in the literary world as she completes her MFA in Creative Writing.

We’re the teenager, full of excitement, energy, and passion, who is using her blog to establish a platform for her young-adult fiction.

If you’re seeking a vibrant learning community for strong women writers, join us. And if you’re curious about who keeps things running, click here.