Category: Featured

Social Media “Blackout” Proves Women Will not be Silenced

Mary Novaria

“Tomorrow, female blackout…” A writer friend sent the missive Saturday evening. The next day, women were to change their Facebook profile pictures to a simple, black square to illustrate to men what a day without women would look like. The scheme was billed as an effort to draw awareness to Read more

Mary Novaria

Mary Novaria's is a two-time Writer's Digest award winner whose work has been featured in Oprah Daily, Washington Post, Spirituality & Health, Cosmopolitan, Feminine Collective, FF2 Media, HuffPost, and elsewhere. She and her husband are empty nesters who live in the mountains of Colorado with their rescue dog, Rooney. She is currently working on a novel.

Forever Love

Julie Anderson

dawn’s morning light heavy dew sparkling on fields made of glass carrying my babies safe in the womb a gentle caress from my husband’s sure hand waiting for twilight to reveal its moon swimming weightless in azure blue watching my children grow strong into their own sensing I love you Read more

Julie Anderson

Julie Anderson is the Creator and Publisher of Feminine Collective. Julie was inspired to create this safe place for women to share their secrets, desires, triumphs and pain as the antithesis of what mainstream media offers women today. In her column Pursuit of Perfection, she explores the importance of rectifying the balance of inner and outer beauty through essays, poems and articles on self-esteem, shame, family, and self- acceptance.

Hummingbird Burial

Paula R. Hilton

We find it too late. Its beak, a delicate sword, stuck in our patio screen. It should be buzzing, vibrating. Searching for the sweetest sip inside every flower. But the busy wings are silent. Stilled. We are busy too. Home for only a few moments between errands. “She’s dead?” My Read more

Paula R. Hilton

Paula R. Hilton explores the immediacy of memory and how our most important relationships define us. Her work has been nominated for Best Small Fictions and has appeared in The Feminine Collective, The Sunlight Press, Writing In A Woman’s Voice, Dear Damsels, The Tulane Review, and elsewhere. Her novel, Little Miss Chaos, was selected as a Best Indie Teen Read by Kirkus, and her first poetry collection, At Any Given Second, received a Kirkus star. She holds an MFA from the University of New Orleans.

Openhearted

Jacqueline Cioffa

Oh, precious heart You don’t fool me The soul is ethereal and the eternal optimist Limitless in its devotion Funny how much it can hurt This precious heart Working hard, pulsating overtime Without segregating or want Asking any old thing Man can be so silly, stupid, eager, greedy, hateful or Read more

Jacqueline Cioffa

A retired, international model, and celebrity makeup artist. Co-Author of Model Citi Zen, the guide. Founder of http://modelcitizenmakeup.blogspot.com/. Author of numerous prose pieces in various literary magazines. Most recently published in Little Episodes Brainstorms the anthology, among esteemed artists Sadie Frost, Melvin Burgess and Todd Swift.

Good Girl

Shannon Williams

“Why are you so quiet over there?” a relative asked in my general direction at a family gathering. I was around 10 or 12 years old and lost in thought. An older relative fully snapped me out of my reverie when she replied, “Shannon’s a good girl. She’s always quiet.” Read more

Shannon Williams

Shannon is an interior designer turned stay-at-home mom who had three kids in two years (boy-girl twins + another little guy). She lives for coffee, reading, pedicures, and a good beer. She is a regular contributor to the Twin Cities Moms Blog and has also had her work featured on Coffee + Crumbs. You can find her working to use her voice by writing her thoughts on motherhood and life over at shannonscribbles.net.

WASTE

Judith Staff

My thoughts are eternally submerged in a mire of self-disgust. I watch, aloof as the filth of this cruelty is accumulating around me, repugnant insults carried on the glistening spittle flying off my tongue. Hate-filled thoughts create a layer of crusty grime, hardening on the floor, in time, I can Read more

Judith Staff

Judith Staff’s background is in teaching and early years education. She still teaches occasionally, though now her main focus is in child welfare and safeguarding children. Her work includes delivering training, presenting at conferences, and engaging in collaborative projects with schools around child abuse awareness and sexual violence prevention. She enjoys writing blogs and poetry on topics she feels passionate about. Judith loves running, gym classes and karate. She is married to an art lecturer and they live in Northamptonshire, England with their three free-spirited children, a 12- year-old son, and daughters aged 11 and 9.

Destroying Patriarchy with its Gift

Sara Easterly

Why am I so triggered by the Kavanaugh news? Why can’t I pull myself away from it all? “Did someone ever sexually assault you?” my husband worries over tea this morning after I wake up at 4:16 am, feeling helpless and unable to sleep. “No,” I say. “But I know Read more

Sara Easterly

Sara Easterly lives in the Pacific Northwest. She has published various articles and essays on motherhood, as well as a children’s book, and is currently working on a mother-daughter memoir. Previously Sara led one of the largest chapters of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI), and she was recognized as 2009 SCBWI Member of the Year. Visit her at www.saraeasterly.com

I Spoke Up: An Un-Famous Woman’s Tale of Sexual Harassment & The Backlash

Terry Martin

Am I really looking at Bill Cosby in chains headed to prison? I am, and I can’t stop crying. Bill Cosby’s sentencing has stirred up so many feelings in me about the bravery of “speaking up.”  I’m going to share my dark, shameful secret with you. I was sexually harassed by my Read more

Terry Martin