Sister Writes is a creative writing and literacy program dedicated to marginalized women in downtown Toronto. Founded by writer Lauren Kirshner in 2010, with the support of Sistering, a drop-in center empowering ordinary women in extraordinary situations, Sister Writes provides women with the opportunity to work with professional women writers, develop creative potential, hone literary and leadership skills, receive mentorship, and build self-esteem. Hailed by The Toronto Star as a groundbreaking program, Sister Writes is one-of-a-kind in Toronto. Now in its fifth year, Sister Writes provides an artistically empowering and collaborative creative writing program for homeless, underhoused, low income or marginalized women, and women who face extraordinary circumstances or life transitions. Through the support of our sponsors and the assistance of our guest writers, Sister Writes offers a range of hands-on programming that is free and inclusive: The Writing Workshop; The Mentorship Program; and our newly launched Outreach Program, which brings one-off creative writing workshops to women’s agencies across Toronto. Since 2010, our longest running program, The Writing Workshop, has provided over 300 free creative writing workshops in the community for budding women writers, and published seven literary magazines. Our guest workshop leaders have included acclaimed authors, poets, and journalists Jenn Cowan, Bernice Eisenstein, Lisa F**d, Catherine Graham, Ibi Kaslik, Emily M. Keeler, Jamila Allindina, Katherine Leyton, Brooke Lockyer, Hoa Nguyen, Emily Pohl-Weary, Grace O’Connell, Souvankham Thammavongsa, Andrea Thompson and Lindsay Zier-Vogel. Sister Writes is proudly supported by the Ontario Trillium Foundation, Toronto Arts Council, Ontario Arts Council, Sistering, and the Toronto Public Library.
