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Applications due 7/26. Apply now for our award-winning writing program.

 

Center for Story & Witness writers celebrating the close of a Stories We Tell workshop at Sojourner Family Peace Center in Milwaukee, WI. 

The Stories We Tell, a testimonial writing workshop for survivors of gender-based violence, is heading to Dallas Sept. 13 & 14. Apply today!

Developed to help those who have lived through or witnessed gender-based violence or other human rights violations use their voices, faces, and stories to call the public to greater compassion and — more importantly — social action, our Center for Story & Witness (formerly The Voices and Faces Project) testimonial writing program is supporting a new generation of activists seeking to use story to create social change. We're not just training writers. We're creating a global community.


We ground each of our writing workshops in a simple belief: That we are here to be heard. 


During each immersive, two-day Stories We Tell testimonial writing workshop, a cohort of emerging and established artists, writers, activists, and survivors come together to read and discuss culture-changing literature from across history and various social justice movements…take part in a series of innovative, real-time writing exercises…and share creative work in moderated, expert-led workshopping sessions. Over 1300 writers from across the African and North American continents have graduated from our writing program.

 

Media neutral and genre inclusive, with a focus on memoir, fiction, poetry, non-fiction, op ed, and essay writing, our trauma-informed and creatively ambitious program was created to support survivors of injustice who seek to use their personal stories to create political change.


Meet our workshop co-creators, Anne K. Ream and R. Clifton Spargo. 


Our testimonial writing program was co-created by novelist R. Clifton Spargo, a lecturer in creative writing at Yale University and graduate of the acclaimed Iowa Writers' Workshop, and activist Anne K. Ream, author of Lived Through This, her memoir of a global journey spent listening to survivors of gender-based violence.


THE STORIES WE TELL:

A testimonial writing workshop for survivors and witnesses to gender-based violence.

 

September 13 & 14, 2025

The Jensen Project

Dallas, TX

APPLICATIONS DUE AUGUST 26, 2025

Random House editor Jamia Wilson and Center for Story & Witness Co-founder R. Clifton Spargo in dialogue on March 19, 2025.

The future isn't going to write itself: Our conversation about story, social justice and the art of bearing witness.

Today, more than ever, the voices of those most impacted by social injustice need to be heard. But how do we confront those who seek to “disappear” stories that speak truth to power? And how can we use our own stories to bridge ideological divides in times of deep political conflict?


On March 19 in Brooklyn, NY authors Jimmie Briggs, Anne K. Ream, and R. Clifton Spargo — co-founders of Center for Story & Witness—joined Random House Executive Editor Jamia Wilson for a powerful public conversation exploring these very questions.


Special thanks to our hosts Rachel Foster and Alain Kodsi, and to Events @ Stone Park, for hosting this powerful, purposeful gathering. And Jimmie, Anne, Clifton, and Jamia? As ever, we appreciate your wisdom and insights.

Center for Story & Witness friend and Storyplace CEO Ivana de Maria.

A Story Changes Everything: Ivana De Maria and Anne K. Ream at the World Without Exploitation National Convening.

We know from history and social justice movements - particularly the movement to end human trafficking - that the stories of those who have lived through injustice are one of our most powerful tools for creating social and legal change. But how does the act of sharing our truths alter the person doing the truth-telling? And how can we make loving space for those seeking to share their painful, powerful, and deeply necessary stories of survival? 


On, June 6th, Ivana de Maria, an actress, producer and CEO of StoryPlace; and Anne K. Ream, explored these and other questions during a mainstage dialogue at the World Without Exploitation National Convening in Washington, DC, an annual gathering of movement leaders, policymakers, and opinion shapers driving the global movement to end human trafficking. 


Congratulations Anne and Ivana and thank you, World Without Exploitation, for your extraordinary leadership in the movement to end human trafficking. 

Janet Goldblatt Holmes, Center for Story & Witness Outreach Coordinator

Get to know our Center for Story & Witness team: Meet Janet Goldblatt Holmes.

As a survivor of sexual violence who’d been silent much of her life about abuse suffered as a young woman, Janet says that “something triggered, in a good way,” when she found Center for Story & Witness.


 “Creative programs are so important to a survivor’s healing,” she says. “After taking part in The Stories We Tell testimonial writing workshop myself, and being completely changed by it, I wanted to help other survivors discover it.” In that spirit, Janet has been a driving force behind the development of the writing program in Canada and the United States, dramatically expanding communications and outreach.

UPCOMING EVENTS

THE HAROLD WASHINGTON LITERARY AWARDS:

Keynote by National Book Critics Circle Award-winner Sandra Cisneros; opening remarks by Selection Committee Co-Chairs Anne K. Ream & Bette Cerf Hill.


September 5, 2025

A Printers Row Lit Fest Event

The Union League Club

Chicago, IL

THE FUTURE ISN'T GOING TO WRITE ITSELF:

A Center for Story & Witness dialogue on using story to create social change featuring Jimmie Briggs, Ruchira Gupta, Anne K. Ream, and R. Clifton Spargo. 


September 6, 2025, 4p-5p CST

Printers Row Lit Fest

Joseph & Bessie Feinberg Foundation Stage

Chicago, IL

FIGHTING FOR JUSTICE & JOY:

How survivors of gender-based violence are changing the world, and themselves, by sharing their stories. A keynote presentation by Anne K. Ream.


September 30, 2025

ICASA Statewide Conference

Springfield, IL

THE STORIES WE TELL: 

A testimonial writing workshop for survivors of gender-based violence.

Co-led by Anne K. Ream and R. Clifton Spargo.


September 13 & 14, 2025

The Jensen Project

Dallas, TX


October 3 & 4, 2025

National Center for Missing and Exploited Children

Washington, DC


October 11 & 12, 2025

The Jackson School at Yale University

New Haven, CT


October 25 & 26, 2025

Sanctuary for Families

New York City, NY


November 8 & 9, 2025

FreeFrom

Los Angeles, CA





ABOUT CENTER FOR STORY & WITNESS


At Center for Story & Witness (formerly The Voices and Faces Project) our mission is to cultivate and share stories that bear witness to gender-based violence and other social injustices in order to change minds, hearts, and public policies. Through our testimonial writing workshops, our narrative advocacy trainings, and our performances, publications and campaigns, we seek to create measurable social change through the power of narrative.

 

For 16 years, we have been awarded the America’s Best Charities Seal of Excellence, a designation given to organizations that meet the highest standards of public accountability and program/cost effectiveness.



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