Remembering & Honoring the IWWG

As you probably know, the IWWG was founded in 1976 as a child of the U.N.’s International Women's Year. And over the last 50 years, the Guild has connected, nurtured the voices of, and empowered women from NYC to Los Angeles to Sydney to Nairobi to Geneva to Cork City and beyond. And now, effective August 31, 2026, the IWWG will be ceasing operations. 

Thankfully, a new organization, separate from the Guild, recently incorporated as the Women’s Writing Collective. The WWC will honor the Guild’s resilience, fortitude, and penchant for magic by carrying forth a new tradition of supporting an international community of women writers rooted in the fertile ground established by the Guild.

Because the IWWG persisted, transformed, and nourished for half a century, it’s going to take some time and a series of events to fully acknowledge and celebrate the Guild’s legacy. Under the auspices of the IWWG, the first of these honoring events will take place on Friday, August 28, 2026, from 4 to 6 pm ET. 

With Lisa Freedman’s and Dorothy Randall Gray’s guidance, we will center, breathe, and acknowledge and feel into the abundance of the Guild’s offerings and their legacy. Then, with the help of carefully-chosen poem prompts, we will freewrite our memories and stories that express the Guild’s role(s) in our lives as writers. We will also hold communal space for the grief that may be present as we say goodbye to one way of being together and transition towards a still-emerging way to write and create and be together.

This opening round of remembering and sharing will set the ground for future events designed to honor the Guild, hosted by WWC. As is often heard at Guild gatherings, “one story frees all stories.” The future events will include (but not be limited to) a reading of the IWWG Anthology and a ceremony with presenters from all over and from all ages to celebrate the Guild’s legacy. 

Details for the Aug. 28 Event

Presenters: Lisa Freedman & Dorothy Randall Gray (bios below) 

4 to 6 pm ET

Location: Zoom

We will share our Guild stories, make a group toast to the memory of the Guild, and collaborate on a spontaneous group poem to honor the Guild, using Dorothy’s technique of collecting seeds as we listen to each other’s freewrites in breakout rooms and in the main Zoom room.

Lisa Freedman is an author, writing coach, and professor at The New School. She founded and directs Breathe/Read/Write, an online community that weaves mindfulness, writing, and staying open to and responding to world events. Her current studies include Tibetan Buddhism and the path of the compassionate warrior. She has taught and presented extensively, including for the International Women’s Writing Guild, New York Zen Center, United Nations, Extinction Rebellion, and many others. 

Dorothy Randall Gray 

Bestselling author of Soul Between The Lines, Sharing The Same Sky and several poetry collections, this award-winning artist, global activist, master teacher and spiritual coach twice served as LA Poet-in-Residence, and National Poetry Month representative. Her expressive, somatic and creative writing workshops have inspired thousands of at-risk youth, incarcerated populations, experienced and beginning writers throughout the US, India, Iceland and China. Dorothy's art and poetry are in the permanent collection of the LA County Museum of Art. She has also exhibited at the Brand Library & Art Center, Craft Contemporary Museum and the Getty Museum. She is Executive Director of Women Writers and Artists Matrix, and passionate about the healing and transformative power of writing and art.