Mothers and Mentors: The Art of Nurturing
Real Women Write
Sharing Stories, Sharing Lives
in Prose and Poetry from Story Circle Network
When we share our stories with fullness and honesty, we often discover
that we’re less alone and more connected than we might ever have believed.
— Michelle Obama
Real Women Write is an annual anthology by SCN members, including fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, which showcases the talent and creativity of our own writing women. Story Circle Network values every woman’s story, and in Real Women Write we publish writing about both the individual life in all its uniqueness, and a woman’s life as it’s understood by all women. The 2023 issue will be published in November, in both print and digital formats through Amazon. This year’s theme will be:
Mothers and Mentors: The Art of Nurturing
Life doesn’t come with a manual, it comes with a mother.
— Anonymous
A mentor is someone who allows you to see the hope inside yourself.
— Oprah Winfrey
Nurturing means to “care for and encourage the growth or development” of any life, which provides nourishment to all life everywhere. There is global suffering from a lack of care, yet as individuals we feel the power of mentors and nurturers in our lives, and we ourselves help life to thrive. That is an essential part of being human.
In 2023, Real Women Write reflects on the varied ways—good, bad, or ugly—that we give and receive guidance and care, and the significance of nurturing in our lives. This may include the choice to be or not to be a mother, to teach/coach or to be a student, to take a beginner under your wing, to raise an animal, and much more. Writers may also consider what it means to want for care, to lack what we need and receive no support, to be without a guide.
What part has nurturing played in your life? Who or what has nurtured you? How have you experienced mothering and/or mentoring? Contributors’ answers to these questions will provide ideas and inspiration as all of us work to build a healthier world.
Watch this page for updated information about our 2023 RWW anthology.
See entry details on our Submissions form when it is open: May 1 – July 1, 2023.
The 2022 issue is currently available here.
Members have access to the entire archive of our anthologies. Join us or log in.
See Story Circle Network’s other books here.
