Weaving a Web of Support for Widows Worldwide
     

A widow is a congresswoman in the United States and a young, black-scarved, street-fighter in Fallujah. She is poor; she is rich; she is famous; she is invisible. She is the old woman abandoned by her family to the City of Widows in India and the woman of Haiti who must sell her home to pay for her husband’s funeral.

Did You Know?
The stories of widows inspire us. They are ancient, postmodern, tragic, real and fictitious. WidowSpeak gives voice to and makes visible the stories of our Nigerian mothers, Slovenian grand-mamas, Muslim sisters, Cambodian aunties, step-mamas of Watts and grand-aunties of Ireland. Woven together, these diverse stories yield a better understanding and awareness of the widow's walk and a glimpse into our shared humanity.

WidowSpeak wants to hear from you. We want to read your stories of widows, hear your news about a neighborhood widows’ group or an international widows’ project.


Sponsor a Widow’s Story

Do you have a grandmother, mother, auntie, sister, friend, who is a widow?

A tax-deductible donation to WidowSpeak, in the name of a widow, will include her image and story to the WidowSpeak project.

Contact annmarie@widow-speak.org to begin writing your widow's story, and help to create a web of support around widows worldwide.


WidowSpeak Blog

Are you a prolific writer and have much to say about your experience as a widow? You can change the face of widowhood and help others to better understand the unique and sometimes painful role widows must play in today's world.

Consider becoming a WidowSpeak Blog contributor! The only requirements are a need to share frequent stories and anecdotes as well as the capacity to do so in a clear and concise manner via proper English grammar and spelling.

A target blog post frequency should be about one story per week or more. Post lengths do not generally need to exceed 100 to 500 words, though occasionally shorter posts can be fine too.

If you feel you can effectively contribute to the WidowSpeak Blog, please send an inquiry to annmarie@widow-speak.org.


Widows' Web

The Widows’ Web is seeking stories by widows or about widows. Do you have a story to tell about a widowed grandmother, auntie, sister or mother? We would like to hear it and make it available for other widows to read.

Submission Guidelines
Please follow these guidelines when submitting work for the WidowSpeak storybank. All writers are encouraged to submit original works. We will accept both unpublished and previously published work.

Stories should include
Cover letter with a brief biography (200 words)

Contact information (address, phone, e-mail)

We are currently seeking
Narratives, short stories or poems

Non-fiction, fiction, folklore or myth

Written in or translated into English

No more than 5000 words in length

Email to
annmarie@widow-speak.org


Widows in the Hood

Tell us about a widows’ project you know about and would like to see featured in the Widows in the Hood section of the WidowSpeak website. We are seeking regional and international projects benefiting widows and their children.
annmarie@widow-speak.org


Widows in the Arts

Have you watched a movie about a widow lately? Read a book with an interesting widowed character? Did you paint a picture of a widow you admire? Send it to us so we can include it in Widows in the Arts.
annmarie@widow-speak.org


Widows in the News

Do you have news about widows in your neighborhood, your region, your country? Please submit stories of interest with their applicable contacts.
annmarie@widow-speak.org


Gallery

We are seeking images of widows. Do you have an image of a widowed grandmama, auntie, sister or mother? We would love to include it in our gallery of widows.

Please submit photographs of widows with their names, the dates of their lives and at least a one-sentence story about them.
annmarie@widow-speak.org


If you need assistance in converting your story or photograph or artwork into a digital format, please contact us for help or alternatives.
annmarie@widow-speak.org