Writing Wild Issue 13
Words from the Wild Women Writers' Salons
Hello, wonderful wild ones. I hope this finds you well and feeling nourished.
December is here—but don’t worry—the year isn’t over yet. We still have an absolute corker of a salon coming up on Saturday, 14th December, 7 - 8.30 pm UK time. I know it is a busy time of year, and exhaustion levels are high, but this is one for the diary. And if you can’t make it on the night, you can always get a ticket and watch at your leisure during the hibernation period.
Salon 14 - The Shape of Faith
Saturday 14th December, 7 pm—8.30 pm UK time
Join me and guest authors Lamya H. (Hijab Butch Blues), Dr Sara Glass (Kissing Girls on Shabbat) and Suzanne Joinson (The Museum of Lost and Fragile Things*)for a deep dive into how religion and faith shape the stories we tell to ourselves and each other. This is going to be such a rich conversation!
*The lovely Indigo Press is offering ticketholders 30% off on purchases of The Museum of Lost and Fragile Things when you buy directly from them (a coupon code will be shared with all those with tickets).
And remember, if you missed the previous salons, consider upgrading to a paid subscription to access all previous newsletters and private links to the salons for this programme, plus extra interviews with authors, writing prompts and reading suggestions.
Did you know that you can find all the author books and recommended reads on our Bookshop page, or you can buy author books directly (deliverable worldwide) from Sam Read Booksellers?
Wild Women Writers’ Retreat 2025 (Online)
Monday 24th – Friday 28th February 2025
Inspiration. Community. Creativity.
Step into a week of creative nourishment, connection, and exploration at the Wild Women Writers’ Retreat 2025 (Online). This immersive retreat is designed to ignite your imagination, enhance your writing, and support your creative journey — from the comfort of your home.
Retreat Highlights:
✨ Daily creative nurture sessions to fuel your inspiration
✨ Writing workshops with authors from the Wild Women Writers’ Salons programme
✨ Industry insight from publishing professionals
✨ Exclusive guest author appearances and conversations
✨ Focused 1:1 feedback on your project or practice
✨ A supportive, sustainable space for your creative practice
✨ Opportunities to connect and write alongside a vibrant community of wild women writers
Sessions will be held via Zoom from 9:30 am to 8:30 pm UK time (Mon - Thurs) and 9.30 - 3.30 pm (Friday). Daytime workshops will begin at 9.30 and end at 3.30 pm. Evening sessions are 7 - 8.30 pm. Additional optional events are scheduled outside these times. Regular comfort breaks, creative space, and self-care sessions will be built into the week. Workshops and evening sessions will be recorded and available for delayed viewing to offer flexibility for all attendees. The only exception to this is when participants share their work.
The retreat is capped at 30 participants to ensure a nurturing and enriching experience. Writing workshops will be divided into smaller groups to allow for quality creative time.
Secure your spot today and join us for an inspiring week of creativity, connection, and wild writing!
COST
The price for this retreat is fixed at £575. This includes all workshops, evening sessions, and a February Wild Women Writers’ Salon ticket.
This fee allows us to keep the retreat small while ensuring fair compensation for our authors, tech team, and admin staff, who dedicate their creativity and time to making this event possible.
Supported Places
To increase access, we are offering four fully supported places. These are open to low-income carers and/or those living with chronic illness/disability who would otherwise be economically unable to attend. If this is you, please get in touch to find out more.
Want to Pay It Forward?
You can sponsor a place or contribute to our bursary fund. Please get in touch with us to discuss this.
Author Agony Aunt
This month’s question is from a Salon 13 audience member.
Q: If you could look back and give yourself ONE piece of advice for that period between when you sold your book/finished your book and when it came out, what would it be?
Dear Writer,
We put our heads together on this one. We hope our suggestions are helpful to you and anyone else embarking on this for the first time.
Don't be afraid to ask the agent and editor loads of questions.
Do prepare yourself - particularly as a memoir writer - for the arrival of your substantive or structural edits that will come from your editor after you submit your first draft, and which you have to respond to before they sign off your work and move it to copy edit stage (and release the next part of your advance as a result!). All the praise you may have received until then gives way to a much more useful but much harder type of exchange: you can expect many tough questions/suggestions about what needs more said and what needs to come out altogether. Be prepared for another big challenge if you have a subject which requires a big legal read. Sometimes, you have to change a few sentences; other writers have had to rewrite their books entirely, and some even decided to return their advance and decided against publication at this stage!
Make sure you have a meeting with PR and marketing six months ahead of publication and have a good plan together that you all feel happy and comfortable with so that you can be clear on your responsibilities and theirs.
Even a good PR person needs a lot of input from a writer. Find a balance between getting stuck into planning for your publicity activities and going off and forgetting about it for a while.
Lower your expectations — keep your feet grounded, even if your publisher promises you the stars.
Do something else—other fun things, rest, or focus on other projects—so you don’t get in a position of obsessing about what you can’t control and making the whole process more stressful than it needs to be.
Act on what you can when you can in good time; let go of what you can’t control; enjoy it. Even in the best-case scenario, it will be tiring when the book does come out and in the weeks before if you have a press to do, so you need to rest, recuperate, and prepare yourself in whatever way works best for you.
Don't forget to enjoy it. Be the writer. Once the writing is finished, you can focus on preparing to launch it, building an audience, etc. Enjoy the part of the journey where you are just working on the book, being a writer. Everyone has different circumstances, and each part of the journey has its stresses. Whatever is happening in your personal life will impact how you work, but if you can, let go of as much of the outside world as you can and give yourself a chance to bed into it.
Believe in yourself and what you're writing. Your writing is utterly unique and should be celebrated, no matter the outcome(s).
Got a question?
Are you writing a memoir or creative nonfiction or hoping to start?
Are you facing writer’s block or struggling to keep motivation?
Are you just starting on, or stuck in, the eternal submission process?
Is your debut out, but you’re unsure where to start with your next book?
Or maybe you have a burning curiosity about something bookish that you want to ask.
Don’t be shy! Use the message box below to send your questions, and our Author Agony Aunt (s) will choose one to answer in the following newsletter.
Time travel … to Salon 13 — Mother, Myself
Heratfelt gratitude to our wonderful November salon guest authors, Caro Giles, Tanya Shadrick, and Alice Kinsella, for their wisdom, courage, and open-hearted insights. Together, we explored the tensions and delicate balances between motherhood, creativity, and identity and reflected on the act of writing (and publishing) from this place. It was an empowering, thought-provoking evening filled with honest reflections and deep connection.
Thank you to everyone who joined us and held the space so gently and generously. Hosting this conversation, as always, was an absolute honour.
Did you miss the salon but want to listen to this inspiring discussion? Upgrade to a paid membership to access the recording!
Want more from our authors? Here are some contacts and resources …
Alice Kinsella You can subscribe to Alice’s fantastic newsletter Mam(mal), to receive regular more of her gorgeous writing and inspiration
Caro Giles You can subscribe to Caro’s fantastic and insightful newsletter Unschooled for more writing and investigation into the creative life behind the caregiving
Tanya Shadrick is on a creative break right now, but you can dive into the archives of her incredible creative community inspired by The Cure for Sleep.
Wild Women Writers' Salons is a reader-supported publication. To access all recordings of the 2023-24 salons, author interviews, writing prompts and more — and support our work — please consider becoming a paid subscriber.
Coming Very Soon…!
Wild Women Writers’ Salon 14 — The Shape of Faith
Exploring how religion and faith shape the stories we tell to ourselves and each other
Saturday 14th December, 7 pm (UK time) — Online & recorded for delayed viewing
Join me, Victoria Bennett, and guest authors Lamya H (Hijab Butch Blues), Dr Sara Glass (Kissing Girls on Shabbat), and Suzanne Joinson (The Museum of Lost and Fragile Things) as we explore the intricate role of religion in shaping personal and collective narratives. This conversation delves into how belief systems impact identity, relationships, and the stories we tell ourselves and others.
The event is recorded with English subtitles and has captions enabled.
** Buy a ticket for Salon 14 and receive a coupon code to claim 30% off orders for The Museum of Lost and Fragile Things bought through The Indigo Press**
Introducing our Salon Guests
Salon 14 - A Story of Faith
Lamya H
Lamya H (she/they) is a queer Muslim writer and organiser living in New York City. Their work has appeared in the Los Angeles Review of Books, Salon, Autostraddle, Vice, and others. She has received fellowships from Lambda Literary and Queer|Arts. Lamya’s organising work centres around creating spaces for LGBTQ+ Muslims, fighting Islamophobia, Palestine and prison abolition. In her free time, she eats lots of desserts baked by her partner, plays board games with whoever she can corral, and works on her goal of travelling to every subway stop in the city. She has never run a marathon. Hijab Butch Blues is their debut memoir, published by Dial Press/Penguin Random House in 2023, and won the Brooklyn Public Library Book Prize and a Stonewall Non-fiction Book Award, and was a finalist for Lambda Literary and Publishing Triangle Awards.
Hijab Butch Blues
When Lamya is fourteen, she decides to disappear. It seems easier to ease herself out of sight than to grapple with the difficulty of taking shape in a world that doesn't fit. She is a queer teenager growing up in a Muslim household, a South Asian in a Middle Eastern country. But during her Quran class, she reads a passage about Maryam, and suddenly, everything shifts. Written with deep intelligence and fierce humour, Hijab Butch Blues follows Lamya as she travels to the United States, as she comes out, and as she navigates the complexities of the immigration system - and the queer dating scene. At each step, she turns to her faith to make sense of her life, weaving stories from the Quran together with her own experiences: Musa leading his people to freedom; Allah, who is neither male nor female; and Nuh, who built an ark, just as Lamya is finally able to become the architect of her own story.
A truly original voice, asking powerful questions about gender and sexuality, relationships, identity and faith, and what it means to build a life of one's own.
A Roxane Gay Book Club Pick 2023
Dr Sara Glass
Dr Sara Glass is a psychotherapist and author based in NYC. She holds a PhD in Psychology from Capella University and a Master’s in Social Work from Rutgers University, with specific expertise in treating complex trauma and PTSD, providing art and play therapy to children and adolescents, as well as general experience treating a range of human struggles such as anxiety, depression, relationship challenges, and stress. She is the current clinical director of Soul Wellness NYC, a private psychotherapy practice in Midtown Manhattan, and also serves as a Clinical Supervisor for Jewish Queer Youth — a non-profit organisation that supports and empowers LGBTQ youth.
Her debut memoir, Kissing Girls on Shabbat, was published by Simon & Schuster in 2024.
‘A searing testament to the strength in claiming one’s destiny.’ —The Washington Post
Kissing Girls on Shabbat
Growing up in the Hasidic community of Brooklyn’s Borough Park, Sara Glass knew one painful truth: what was expected of her and what she desperately wanted were impossibly opposed. Tormented by her attraction to women and trapped in a loveless arranged marriage, she found herself unable to conform to her religious upbringing, and soon, she made the difficult decision to walk away from the world she knew.
Sara’s journey to self-acceptance began with the challenging battle for a divorce and custody of her children, an act that left her on the verge of estrangement from her family and community. Controlled by the fear of losing custody of her two children, she forced herself to remain loyal to the compulsory heteronormativity baked into Hasidic Judaism and married again. But after suffering profound loss and a shocking sexual assault, Sara decided to be completely faithful to herself.
Kissing Girls on Shabbat is not only a love letter to Glass’s children, herself, and her family—it is an unflinching window into the world of ultra-conservative Orthodox Jewish communities and an inspiring celebration of learning to love yourself.
Suzanne Joinson
Suzanne Joinson is the bestselling author of two novels, A Lady Cyclist’s Guide to Kashgar and The Photographer’s Wife. She is currently a Reader (Associate Professor) in Creative Writing at the University of Chichester, where she teaches fiction and creative non-fiction, with a particular interest in ‘Life Writing’. The winner of the New Writing Ventures Award, she was also longlisted for the IMPAC International Literary Fiction Award and is a member of the Folio Academy. She has published work in The New York Times, the Guardian, and Conde Nast Traveller, and her books have been translated into sixteen languages. She lives with her family in Sussex.
The Museum of Lost and Fragile Things
Suzanne Joinson grew up in a 1980s council estate in Crewe, where her parents were followers of The Divine Light Mission cult. This clash of class and counterculture destroyed her family, leaving a legacy of turmoil and poverty.
Years later, she attempts to reclaim what she’s lost and piece together the impact of a childhood infused with esoteric yoga practices, psychedelic encounters, and meditation techniques.
The Museum of Lost and Fragile Things explores mother-daughter relationships and inherited class-based trauma in a moving, delicately woven account of coming to terms with a complicated past.
‘Surprising and persuasive.’ — The Telegraph
** Buy a ticket for Salon 14 and get a coupon on the night to claim 30% off orders for The Museum of Lost and Fragile Things through The Indigo Press**
Introducing our Salon Host — Victoria Bennett
Victoria Bennett is a disabled writer, carer, and mother. A firm believer in everyone’s right to write their own story, she has dedicated much of her working life to nurturing spaces where people can do just that, founding Wild Women Press in 1999. When not juggling writing, care, and chronic illness, she can be found where the wild things grow, tending her new apothecary garden in Orkney.
Her debut memoir, All My Wild Mothers: motherhood, loss, and an apothecary garden, was published by Two Roads/John Murray Press in 2023. An intimate memoir of motherhood, grief, and care, it is a testimony to the love and radical hope that can grow in even the most broken places and, in doing so, holds a quietly positive manifesto for a changing world.
Nautilus Book Award Winner 2024.
'...A fascinating, tangled read on gardening as resistance and using ancient ways to heal in the modern world'... -- AMY LIPTROT, author of THE OUTRUN
‘A treasure map back to 'living' for those who have been away too long…’ — DONNA ASHWORTH, author of WILD HOPE
What are the Wild Women Writers’ Salons?
The Wild Women Writers’ Salons are on the last Thursday of every month (except December) and include day and evening events. This programme concludes on December 2024.
The 2025 Wild Women Writers’ Salons will resume in February 2025 with a new programme of inspiring monthly conversations.
With a treasure chest of excellent writers from across the globe, these are different from your regular Zoom sessions or author events. Together, we're creating a welcoming and inspiring space to gather and engage in meaningful conversation and reflection, where writers can share and explore their inspirations and writing journeys.
Each salon will feature three (and sometimes four!) fantastic guest writers. Here’s a sneak peek of what you can expect:
Dive deep into the world of words.
Hear authors share their works.
Get a behind-the-scenes look at the creative process.
Real talk about publishing highs and lows.
Engage in some heart-to-heart during the Q&A session.
Remember, ticket sales and paid subscriptions help value and pay all the fantastic people making these salons possible—from behind the scenes to the fabulous authors!
Be part of the growing Wild Women Writers’ community
Why Upgrade to Paid?
The salons are entirely unfunded. All paid subscriptions support the work behind the scenes to make the Wild Women Writers’ Salons and the newsletter happen. In exchange for your support, you receive access to:
access to all previous newsletters with recordings of all the salons;
additional interviews with our guest authors on their writing and inspirations;
further reading/resources and book suggestions from our guest authors;
writing prompts from our guest authors;
listed opportunities and courses;
the chance to be part of a nurturing community of creative practice!
Please consider upgrading to a paid subscription today.
Writing Wild (Wild Women Writers' Salons) is a reader-supported publication. By taking out a paid subscription, you support the work behind the scenes to make this project possible. Thank you.
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