Hello and Welcome to Audacious Women, Creative Lives!
Join 1100+ subscribers in this vibrant, growing community.
Hi! I’m Anne. I left academia and life as an empty-nester to pursue my dream of travel and being an actual, real, full-time writer—finally, at the age of 52!
Drawing on my three decades as a scholar of women writers and a teacher of literature and writing, I share inspiring stories of women writers and artists who made bold choices, bucked convention, or simply lived and wrote outside the lines.
I also offer support and guidance to those who want to make a leap, of any distance, into a more creative life.
What is This Community About?
The premise is simple: women writers and readers thrive in supportive communities. We learn from each other. We grow bolder. We gain the strength to go against what is expected of us.
Audacious Women, Creative Lives is a place for inspiration, conversation, and exploration.
How a Subscription Works:
Every other Saturday morning, you will receive an email newsletter in your inbox.
The newsletter will feature a thought-provoking story of a woman writer who dared to break the rules, or a work by a woman writer. Some examples:
I also share my thoughts on what we face as women writers, informed by my own experiences and what I have learned from thirty years of teaching women writers and coaching writers. Some examples:
In each letter, you will be invited to join the conversation in the comments section at the end.
We also have been doing biweekly Discuss Threads where we can explore topics in more depth.
Subscribe and you will be part of a growing community that will soon include more features that allow us all to connect more and learn from each other.
Paid subscribers make this community possible for $45/year. Less than an evening out for two.
Paid subscribers also receive access to the full archive of posts, going back to December 2022.
Paid subscribers also help this community grow. With more contributions, I’ll be able to write more frequent posts, host regular chats, hold workshops, and perhaps start a book club. All of that could be on the horizon with more support.
Founding Members, who contribute $100, also receive a free coaching session with me on writing, life transition, or any other matter you think I could be helpful with (for far less than my hourly coaching rate).
Free subscribers are also important members of this community. All are welcome! Sharing this newsletter with others and encouraging them to subscribe is another way to support it!
Why Am I Writing a Newsletter About and For Women Writers?
I always wanted to be a writer, but I didn’t know how. So I became an academic, studying the women who had managed to do it. I read about their successes and failures, their efforts to overcome the taboos against women taking up the pen, their difficulties gaining the attention of the male literary elite.
I wrote three books about women writers, as well as editing four others. It was a fulfilling career as a researcher and teacher. I loved teaching classes with titles like “The Stories of Women’s Lives” and “Scribblers and Mad Geniuses.”
But I wasn’t really living the life that I wanted to live. I was afraid. Of so many things.
Then I got sick (with Meniere’s, an autoimmune disorder). I learned I was carrying decades of stress in my body. My body was telling me that I had to free myself from my very stressful life in order to survive. (I knew in my bones that if I stayed, I’d end up with cancer, like my father and brother, or a growing cascade of autoimmune disorders that plague women, in particular, who have lived with chronic, unpredictable stress.)
So in 2022, I packed my bags when my daughter went off to college, and I hit the road. I traveled around Europe for a year in search of a new life. What I found is tremendous peace and a new home—in writing.
I was inspired by a slew of fabulous women writers who had left the U.S. in search ways to live as women writers outside of convention. I am currently writing a memoir about that year and the women writers who carried me through.
A writing project on its own is tremendously satisfying, but it’s missing one important thing: community. Writing is terribly lonely, if you let it be. I already had a newsletter about my writing and research on women writers. During my year of travel, it became more about my life and the places I explored. It was often a lonely life, and the responses from my readers became a lifeline for me.
I’ve heard a growing desire from many readers for more stories about inspiring women writers and for the lessons I’ve learned on my writing journey. So that is what this newsletter now focuses on. I’m excited about growing this community even more!
Why Focus on Women Who Write?
Why not just write about writing? Well, plenty of people are doing that, for one. Substack is full of them. And women face particular challenges in becoming writers in the first place, let alone sustaining a career, getting recognized (and paid well) for their work, not to mention achieving a lasting reputation. I’ve learned about all of this through my research on women writers of the past, but also firsthand as I’ve struggled to think of myself as a writer over the years.
The questions that first motivated me to go to graduate school and study women writers were not merely academic. They were personal. I wanted to know:
What does it take to be a woman writer?
How do women navigate what their cultures expect of them as women with the writers they want to be?
How have women managed the difficult balance between life and work?
Is it possible for a woman to devote herself to writing, to fully realize herself as a writer, when being a woman is so damn hard?
How do women gain the hutzpah to reject cultural norms for women and do the most unladylike things that being a writer requires—things like:
withdrawing into oneself
spending time alone in the world
taking time away from focusing on others
and telling the truth of their experiences?
These are questions I asked for nearly three decades as a graduate student and then a professor. Now I would like to explore them with you!
Is this a community only for “women”?
No. I know that most of my current subscribers identify as women. But plenty of men subscribe too. All are welcome. Many of the struggles common among women will be recognizable and relatable to many men as well, I’m sure. Women aren’t the only ones who feel “imposter syndrome,” for instance. But they are more prone to it, having fewer models historically (although the internet is certainly changing that!).
When I taught courses on women’s literature, there was usually one male student (sometimes two) who would sign up. They were always tremendously welcome. And I think they learned a lot from the experience of being in a room full of women!
What Readers Are Saying
“Your latest post really hit a nerve! The pressures of housekeeping! I immediately took myself out to dinner. . . . I have a writing project that I’m struggling with too. Your adventures are inspiring!” – Robin
“You are an outstanding writer and perhaps my long-lost twin? I wrote a 100,000 word ‘novel’ about a long-lost woman architect that I return to from time to time, then we disconnect. I love traveling anywhere and everywhere. I have two children in college. Sign me up to read drafts of your memoir! And keep up the wonderful work you’re doing!”
“I mean to do this [buy a subscription] before! Your work is inspiring.” –Donna
“Your writing in every genre is invariably rich, elegant, and important.”—Sheila
“Today’s email about Sarton and solitude really struck a chord. I’ve been spending this year trying to figure out ‘what’s next’—how I want to structure my life—and this was inspiring and helpful.”—Monica
“You inspire me to think of my life as a journey that is far from complete!”—Etta
“As I read your letters I feel more drawn in. . . . It’s also the freewheeling spirit that appeals to me along with your choices of women writers.”—Elaine
“I look forward to Anne’s letters; they’re inspiring and remind me why I liked her so much in grad school. Her adventures in Europe have inspired me to make a similar move (but to a different continent!)”—Rebecca
“I’ve really loved reading about your travels and sojourns through writing, solitude, and the significance of women writing. I write on similar topics and love to find a kinship in the work of other writers.”—Freya
“I love your project of describing the peripatetic woman writer—and how yours intersects with other women’s lives and books and places. Keep at it and keep sharing!”—Victoria
“Such an adventure you are on, Anne. Glad to have a way to feel a part of it. I appreciate your ability to bring a depth of focus to what catches your attention.” –Peggy
