How To Be A Sapphic Writer: Connecting with a community

Hello gang! Today I present to you a way to be part of an entire community of sapphic writers, offer avenues to get involved, get connected, and get inspired! This post is for anyone who is sapphic and who likes to write. No skills or published works necessary, just passion!

What is Sapphic Writers?

Sapphic Writers is an online community of such self-identified people, connected through Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. The administration team consists of six core members (myself included) who facilitate multiple ways for sapphic writers to connect and uplift one another, including writing feedback circles, quarterly zines, and weekly writing prompts.

Who is Sapphic Writers for?

This collective is for any sapphic woman or nonbinary person interested in writing. Our community ranges from published authors to hobbyists to people simply exploring their writing skills. We are trans-inclusive and work hard to make sure the community is welcome to all sapphic people.

A brief history of Sapphic Writers

The Sapphic Writers Collective formed on April 15 in the thick of global lockdowns. Our founding member, Emrys, forged the collective from the inspired feedback of a post in the “This is why I’m a Lesbian” Facebook group, in which Emrys asked fellow lesbians if they would join a group for sapphic writers, responses of excitement poured in, and Sapphic Writers Collective was born.

As solely a Facebook group, Sapphic Writers gathered a few core members in addition to Emrys, who quickly grew the group to other platforms and ideas. After the launch of their second zine the following September, the scope of the group and work behind the scenes exploded, leading core members to recruit others willing to take on some volunteer work. That’s where I came in!

What we do at Sapphic Writers

Here at Sapphic Writers Collective, we provide avenues of support, connection, and inspiration within the global sapphic writing community by offering workshops, publication opportunities, and activities aimed at this underserved community of writers. (Does that sound like a good mission statement? We’re about to slap it on some funding forms—wish us luck!)

Quarterly zines

Our quarterly zine publishes short stories, poetry, creative nonfiction essays, visual art, and other creative pieces exclusively by sapphic writers and artists. Each zine is PDF-downloadable on our website. For our December zine, Closeness, Glasgow Zine Library will be hosting a zoom zine launch party on our behalf, complete with readings from the zine’s writers. Secure your free ticket for this fun event (where I will be reading an excerpt of my piece!) on Sunday, January 24 at 2pm EST.

In addition, we are currently accepting submissions for a mini-Valentine’s zine up until January 31. At this time, we are not able to pay contributors, as the collective has no funds, but we are in the works of registering the organization, securing a bank account, and setting up for funding in the future! (In which paying zine contributors is a top priority.)

Sapphic Soirees (Informal writing groups and structured feedback circles)

Two times per month, we host virtual writing and feedback groups for our community, TBA at the start of each month. This January, we have a writing group on Saturday, January 16 at TIME facilitated by our fantasy guru, Julia. Here, members will have a chat about their projects, share any writing successes and/or challenges faced in the past few weeks, and provide a space for everyone to write together (with a prompt!) You can register with Eventbrite for the meeting link.

We will host a feedback circle on Friday, January 29 at TIME where members can submit work prior to the feedback session, and I will facilitate an encouraging critique amongst participants. The feedback sessions are limited to eight members per month, so make sure to reserve your spot early!

Weekly content

On our three core social media channels, we share consistent, weekly content aimed at engaging and inspiring our community. This ranges from Monday’s Sapphic Readers, a weekly sapphic book recommendation from core members and the community, to Wednesday’s weekly writing prompts, publication opportunities from other organizations, and other relevant content.

Podcast

We put out podcasts on different writing topics and events. We currently have two episodes; the first showcases the work of writers from our past zine and the second follows a discussion amongst the core team and our identities as sapphic writers. You can listen to these episodes on soundcloud.

Upcoming projects at Sapphic Writers

In our 2021 meeting, we proposed the launch of several exciting projects to come this year. This includes the following fun, ambitious ideas:

• A monthly blog on writing topics specifically for the sapphic writing community (launching this month!)
• Sapphic Readers: A book club for sapphic books (launching soon!)
• Sapphic Seminars: Virtual seminars in which core team members and guests host mini teach-ins on their specialty topics (to start in the second half of the year)
• Open mic nights for poets
• A December writing festival with events, activities, and competitions, celebrated with Pride

My role at Sapphic Writers

As the community, comm & admin coordinator at Sapphic Writers, I work with community outreach, do some social media running, and administrative work. This means that I host feedback circles, run the Twitter account, write the monthly blog, aid with other projects as needed, and use my meticulously annoying organization skills to keep all of our tasks updated on Trello.  

How to support Sapphic Writers

As we are not yet a formally recognized organization (with a bank account), we cannot yet accept monetary donations. However, you can support the collective by simply following our social medias on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, sharing this info with your sapphic friends interested in writing, and by signing up for our newsletter!