About the Writer's Nest
The Association first introduced The Writer's Nest at our 2025 annual convening, An Honour Song: Feminist Struggles, Feminist Victories! Inspired by the tradition of Women of Color feminisms, we aim to honor writing our stories and ourselves as a practice of acceptance and feminist world-building.
We evoke Toni Cade Bambara’s loving practice of signing her letters “TCB”—a play on the letters of her name and a reminder to take care of [our] blessings —in designing pockets of time to do just that - to invite us to redesign our relationship to writing (whether that be reflexive work, scholarly drafts towards publication, or poetic crafting) where the expectation to produce does not eclipse how, as Gloria E. Anzaldúa’ asserts, “the world [we] create in the writing compensates for what the real world does not give [us]”.
And so, we offer our NWSA Writing Nest as a space for dedicated time to write from and through the intersections of our socio-political and reclaimed identities, nurture the creative power that emerges from nepantla—the in-between — and recommit ourselves to Adrienne Rich’s call to “re-vision” ourselves as authors, creatives, radicals, and disruptors willing to rise to the “challenge and promise of a whole new psychic geography to be explored” when we pour into our collective honour song.
You may need time to work on your existing projects, inspiration to return to the written word, or perhaps insights/feedback from your peers and we hope you can nestle yourself in the nest and do just that; come for resources, guided writing prompts and invitations, and grounding discussion!