Herstory's Beginnings

Herstory began in 1996 when our Founder and Executive Director, Erika Duncan, discovered that community writing circles centered on creating empathy in a reading stranger could enable people who had never written before to craft powerful literary works. She found this technique forged strong connections across barriers of race, class, and culture. By imagining aloud the moment a “Stranger/Reader” would enter each participant’s story, followed by playacting what would inspire that stranger to care, both seasoned writers and those with little formal education transformed memories into memoirs. This discovery had profound ramifications, leading to grassroots literary circles where all could play an equal part, generating empowerment, healing, and advocacy through guided memoir.

 

The Anthology

In Life, We Trust is an anthology that brings together writing that has emerged from Herstory workshops over twenty-five years, from the earliest gatherings in the Veterans Hall at Southampton Cultural Center on Long Island to more recent participants who wrote with Herstory in schools, jails and refugee camps. The collection draws from a dozen prior Herstory publications, as well as from live events and ongoing virtual workshops active at the time of writing.

If you have any questions, please contact lmigoya@herstorywriters.org