The Writing Program for Black Women Writers

A digital writer’s residency for Black women crafting the stories only we can tell.

This is a creative home for Black women who write.

Whether you're in the thick of your first short story or knee-deep in the third draft of a novel, our writing program is here to meet you where you are and walk with you forward. Designed and taught by experienced writers, our classes, workshops, and seminars center your voice, your process, and your place in the long, layered tradition of Black storytelling.

With offerings that range from fundamentals to deep craft exploration, you’ll find space to learn, experiment, sharpen your skills, and be in community with others who understand both the joy and labor of the work.

All programming is held virtually, so you can join us from wherever you are. The course catalog is updated regularly with new offerings—from multi-week classes and one-day seminars to generative write-ins that help you stay connected to your practice. Browse what’s currently available and find the spaces that speak to you.

 

Find a Class

What are you working on?

Craft
Fiction
Non-Fiction
Special Events
 

Built on what we’ve learned, inspired by what we can imagine.

Rooted in the art, always in conversation with legacy

We hold deep respect for storytelling as both a skill and a cultural contribution. Our classes are rigorous, nuanced, and designed to add to the ongoing richness of the Black literary tradition.

Built by Black writers

Every offering is created and taught by writers who know the beauty and complexity of shaping stories from our vantage point—and who bring their lived experience, publishing knowledge, and creative practices into the classroom.

Designed for every part of your path

From first pages to final edits, you’ll find courses that support your growth across genres, experience levels, and creative rhythms. Whether you’re trying writing on for the first time or fine-tuning your craft, you’ll find space here.

 
Upcoming Classes
It's Crazy Out Here: An Introduction to Insanity in Black Literature | 4-Week Online Writing Workshop
This writing class for Black women writers takes a deeper look into why we go mad, how society views that madness, and how to write a mad character.
Fiction
It's Crazy Out Here: An Introduction to Insanity in Black Literature | 4-Week Online Writing Workshop
$229.00
Sold Out
Speculative Fiction and Ancestral Exploration | 4-Week Online Writing Workshop
This four-week course for fiction writers, nonfiction writers, and even poets will be a journey through histories of different cultures and their folk tales. We’ll explore the work of P. Djeli Clark, Suyi Davies, Álvaro Enrigue, and Nuzo Onoh.
Fiction, Speculative
Speculative Fiction and Ancestral Exploration | 4-Week Online Writing Workshop
$299.00
Testify! The Personal and Political Power of Crafting Essays | 4-Week Online Writing Workshop
Testify! The Personal and Political Power of Crafting Essays | 4-Week Online Writing Workshop
Non-Fiction
Testify! The Personal and Political Power of Crafting Essays | 4-Week Online Writing Workshop
$249.00
Tell It Like It Is: Writing Verse Journalism | 2-Week Online Writing Workshop
Tell It Like It Is: Writing Verse Journalism is a transformative 4-week generative poetry writing course designed to explore how poets narrate news stories through their unique voices, personalizing current events and sharing vulnerability with readers. This approach to journalism emphasizes the poet's voice, offering an intimate and often provocative lens through which to view the world.
Non-Fiction
Tell It Like It Is: Writing Verse Journalism | 2-Week Online Writing Workshop
$129.00
Writing with Toni Morrison’s Beloved | 4-Week Online Writing Workshop
Learn how to wield fiction’s unruly parts using Toni Morrison’s Beloved as your guide. Anyone can learn how to write fiction well, and in this course, you will learn how to mix fiction’s ingredients like cake and make your stories work every single time.
Fiction, Craft
Writing with Toni Morrison’s Beloved | 4-Week Online Writing Workshop
$269.00
Intimate Genealogies: Crafting Story from Memory, Myth, and Artifacts | 2 Day Online Writing Workshop
In this writing workshop for Black women writers, we'll build full scenes from fragmented memories, family photographs, tall-tales or the “characters” we may have never known in an effort to cultivate intimacy with our own artifacts.
Craft, Non-fiction
Intimate Genealogies: Crafting Story from Memory, Myth, and Artifacts | 2 Day Online Writing Workshop
$149.00
 
 

Meet your instructors.

Our program leaders are experienced writers and editors who bring their expertise, care, and lived experience into every class they teach.

 

Get Published

Share your work, expand the archive.

Our literary journal publishes short fiction and nonfiction by Black women writers—and we want to read your work next. Many of our contributors are students who’ve developed their pieces through our classes and workshops, so if you’re building something you believe in, this could be your next stop.

Submissions are open and ongoing.

Get Inspired

Explore the stories our writers are dreaming up, discovering, and making real on the page.

Head to The Online Journal

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