Herstory on the Inside:
Workshops for Women in Long Island Jails

Since 2004, Herstory Inside has been providing memoir writing workshops to incarcerated women on Long Island to help them reshape, reframe, and reclaim the events of their lives in ways that are both powerful and empowering. Writing memoir, more so than working in other literary genres, allows incarcerated women to transform the often traumatic personal histories that have brought them to where they are into illuminating narratives of self-discovery. Herstory workshops provide a safe space “on the inside”—a rare find behind the walls of a correctional facility—for women to revisit, without judgement from others, the childhood sexual abuse, violence, and addiction they may have experienced and that typically line the road to incarceration for women. The self-reflection inherent in sustained memoir writing offers women the chance to move forward on a different path—one characterized by strength, resilience, healing, and hope.