About
Photo caption: Members of the Sisterhood, 1977. (front row from left) Nana Maynard, Ntozake Shange, Louise Meriwether (back row from left) Vertamae Smart-Grosvenor, Alice Walker, Audrey Edwards, Toni Morrison and June Jordan. From the June Jordan Papers, 1936-2002; MC 513. Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.
Purpose
The Black Women Writers in Europe Workshop is a four-day writing workshop for Black women writers currently residing in Europe and the UK.
Black women writers have influenced the cultural and literary scenes of Europe for ages, from Jessie Fauset to Audre Lorde, yet there appears to be no functioning and/or operating organized writing workshops or communities exclusively for Black women writers within Europe and the UK.
We want to change that.
Format
BWWE takes place September 15-18 in Monferrier-sur-Lez, near Montpellier in the south of France.
The format will include:
Workshop sessions where writers give and receive feedback on submitted work
Generative/free creative time (prompts will be provided to work on at your own pace)
Shared activities to foster closer connections, i.e. preparing meals, short hikes, and yoga
Though our surroundings will be beautiful, please note that this is not a luxury writing retreat. Writing and honing our craft together takes precedence over gorgeous photos for social media (though there will be time for that too!).
Timeline
Fri, March 3 Application Opens
Mon, April 3 Mon, May 1 ! Application Deadline Extended
Early June Notifications go out. All applicants will hear from us before the end of the month, whether you are invited this year or not.
Sept. 15-18 BWWE Residency Workshop!
Cost
The retreat costs 450 euros per participant.
This covers food, lodging, and materials for the retreat. It does not include travel. Coming from within Europe or the UK to the Montpellier airport or by train, plan for around 200 euros for travel, which is a very high estimate.
Each participant, including the hosts, will pay the same amount. We are not profiting from this. The experience and our gathering together is our priority.
If you are concerned about cost, please let us know. We are working hard to make this affordable!
DONATE
A large part of our mission is to make this experience affordable to participants. We appreciate anything you can give to help offset the costs of housing, onsite transportation, and food.
If you believe in this mission and feel inspired by our vision, can you help us raise 7,000 euros to make sure that cost doesn't prohibit the attendance of any of the talented writers chosen to attend?
The Hosts
Jeannetta Craigwell-Graham is a Caribbean/African-American writer currently based in Ebeltoft, Denmark. She is a 2021 Tin House Winter Workshop Scholar and Hurston/Wright Writer’s Weekend participant. Her work has been published or forthcoming in Indiana Review, X-R-A-Y Magazine, New York Writers Coalition Black Writers Program Journal, Andika Ma, an Owl Canyon Press Anthology. She enjoys writing stories which use speculative/horror themes to explore the harsh realities of being other. Jeannetta is currently working on a werewolf novel.
Joy Notoma is fiction writer based in Toulouse, France. She is a 2022 Kimbilio fellow, a 2023 Roots.Wounds.Words fiction fellow and was a finalist for the Epiphany Zine Fresh Voices Fellowship for emerging writers. She is an alum of Tin House and The Hurston/Wright Foundation workshops. Her writing has been featured in Epiphany Zine, The Woodward Review, Longreads, Catapult, among other publications, and is forthcoming in Ploughshares. She is a workshop leader with New York Writers Coalition and Crow Collective, in addition to leading two writing groups with participants who live in eight different countries. She is currently working on a novel.