Head to a She Writes birthday bash near you

On June 29, She Writes, the largest community and resource for women writers online, will celebrate its one-year anniversary.

Since the launch of She Writes, with 40 founding “alpha” members, including Amy Sohn, Hope Edelman, Katha Pollitt, Gretchen Rubin, and Alix Kates Shulman, growth has been explosive. The site now boasts nearly 10,000 members from 30 countries and all 50 states, including well known writers like A.M. Holmes, Francine Prose, Kathryn Harrison, and Jacquelyn Mitchard.

To celebrate the one-year anniversary on June 29, local groups will host meet ups in 16 cities—including London, Nashville, St. Louis, Austin, San Francisco and New York. In addition, She Writes founders Kamy Wicoff and Deborah Siegel will announce a contest, The Passion Project, open to an emerging author and member of She Writes who has a non-fiction project in the works.

Click here to find a meetup near you in one of the cities listed below:

Orlando, Florida! (our latest city)
Chicago, IL
St. Louis, MO
Denver, CO
Portland, OR
Seattle, WA
San Francisco, CA
Central Coast, CA
Philadelphia, PA
Austin, TX
Nashville, TN
New York, NY
Washington, D.C.
Boston, MA
Madison, WI
Los Angeles, CA

If you can’t attend a local meetup, connect with other SheWriters on Blogtalkradio.

The site was founded by Wicoff, a Columbia MFA in Creative Nonfiction, in partnership with Siegel, a PhD in English and American literature. “As authors ourselves, we know how much heavy-lifting writers are expected to do when it comes to marketing and promoting their books,” said Wicoff. “She Writes changes that, providing a place where writers can help each other, and find curated services and support.”

She Writes offers one-on-one consulting by a hand-picked team of experts in publishing, book marketing, social media, website design, agent-advisement, editorial advice, author photography, and more. Members have already organized themselves into over 200 groups based on geography, affinity, genre, and profession, with new groups forming constantly.

Jessica K. Smith Founder and CEO; Executive Director

Jessica Keenan Smith is a patient advocate and epilepsy community leader with more than 15 years of experience. As Founder and CEO of Living Well With Epilepsy and Executive Director of ASENT she bridges the gap between the scientific and patient communities, with a particular focus on the needs of the epilepsies. Jessica Keenan Smith is Founder and CEO of Living Well With Epilepsy, an award winning online resource for people affected by epilepsy to share stories and access in-depth information on the disease. Since 2009, Living Well With Epilepsy (https://livingwellwithepilepsy.com) has been featured in Forbes, Wired, NBC, NPR and the cover story of Epilepsy Advocate Magazine and has partnered with companies such as UCB, Lundbeck, Sunovion, Eisai, and more. Ms. Smith is also the Executive Director of the American Society for Experimental Neurotherapeutics (ASENT) (https://asent.org), an organization that brings together leaders from industry, academia, government and advocacy who are engaged in bringing drugs and devices to market across all neurologic disease states. In this role she is responsible for leading a successful scientific journal and annual scientific conference with speakers from all over the world.

See Full Bio