Write New Worlds

“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” –Maya Angelou

At Faith Matters Network, our mission is to heal the healers. A huge part of healing is telling your story. From our own lived experiences, we know that spiritually grounded leaders deserve the spaces and resources to tell their stories through the written word. Writing nurtures our spiritual sustainability by helping us to:

• Retreat from the hustle of our everyday lives to process past experiences 
• Reflect to gain perspective on the future and explore our dreams and visions
• Share our voice in the public square, especially the stories and truths that are not being heard

As a resource for our community, we have curated this list of retreats, workshops, and residencies to support your writing in 2024. Whether you are just starting out with writing or are an established author, we hope this list will spur your imagination and encourage you to take advantage of opportunities that will help you to write new worlds.

Writing Retreats

• Kirkridge Retreat and Study Center (Pennsylvania, USA): 
  • For BIPOC LGBTQ+ Women: Healing the Heart through Writing 
  • Gay Magic: Writing Down Our Queer and Trans Lives 
  • Writing Table Retreat
• List of Writing Retreats for BIPOC Writers
  
• Lillian E. Smith Center at Piedmont University (Georgia, USA)
• Wild Heart Writing Retreat (Taos, NM, USA)
• Pocono Mountains Artists and Writers Retreat  
• Writing Retreats from The Porch (Tennessee, USA)
• Writing Retreats from Fabled Retreats (In PA and Cape May, NJ, USA)
• Ghost Ranch: Exploring and Writing Ecopoetry in the Environment (New Mexico, USA)
• The Writing Room (International locations)
  
• The Creative Writers Workshop (International locations)

Writing Residencies 

• List of Retreats and Residencies for Black Writers 
• Sundress Academy for the Arts (Tennessee, USA)
• Blue Mountain Center
• MacDowell
• CantoMundo Retreat (for Latinx poets)

Classes and Workshops 

• Wild Seeds Retreat Workshop for Writers of Color (Online)
  
• The Porch Classes and Writers Meetups (Includes affinity spaces) Scholarships are available. (Online and Nashville, TN, USA)
• Corporeal Writing (Online)
• Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity (Canada)
• Op-Ed Project 

Grants for Writing

• Louisville Institute First Book Grant for Writers of Color
  
• Walter Grant
  
• Funds for Writers Directory
  
• Grants from the Speculative Literature Foundation