“Please someone cut a square and put me in a quilt
That I might keep some child warm”

Nikki Giovanni (writer, poet, and Wintergreen Woman)

The Wintergreen Women Writers Collective is a 501(c)3 organization that gathers Black women writers in a creative community committed to publishing, preserving, and celebrating their work.

Since 1987, Wintergreen has offered a place to write, reflect, and be in fellowship. Founded by Dr. Joanne Gabbin as a response to the isolation many Black women face in literary and academic spaces, Wintergreen began as a radical act of care—a retreat, a support system, a circle of voices lifting each other up.

More than 70 writers from across the country have taken part in our gatherings over the last four decades. From cultural programming to archival work, Wintergreen holds sacred space for the deep work of literary and cultural creation.

News

Welcome Table Talk #5: Parables and Provisions: Feeding the Soil and the Soul

Wintergreen Women Writers Collective and Torch Literary Arts are embarking on an intergenerational three-year project for Black women writers called Welcome Table Talks.

Letter from The Director: A Frederick Douglass Moment

Wintergreen’s Executive Director, Dr. Joanne Gabbin, reflects on the legacy of Frederick Douglass and his ever-relevant call to action.

“And So We Gather” by Leah Glenn Dance Theatre

The Carver Community Cultural Center presents the Leah Glenn Dance Theater’s “And So We Gather” featuring Wintergreen Women Leah Glenn, Latorial Faison, Joanne Gabbin, Opal Moore, and Hermine Pinson.

Letter from The Director: me and you be sisters

Wintergreen’s Executive Director, Dr. Joanne Gabbin, reflects on the passing of her sister Doris Elizabeth Hunt.

Welcome Table Talk #4: I Know a Place: Black Women Artists Imagine Sanctuary

Wintergreen Women Writers Collective and Torch Literary Arts are embarking on an intergenerational three-year project for Black women writers called Welcome Table Talks.

Wintergreen Women Writers: A Reading at AWP

The Wintergreen Women Writers Collective presents its inaugural reading at AWP 2026, co-sponsored by the Maryland Center for History and Culture in Baltimore, MD.

Letters from The Team: One Spark

The Wintergreen team reflects on the life and legacy of Rosa Parks.

Welcome Table Talk #3: Thinking About Love and the Divine

Wintergreen Women Writers Collective and Torch Literary Arts are embarking on an intergenerational three-year project for Black women writers called Welcome Table Talks.

Letter from The Director: Phillis Wheatley Peters, Founding Mother

Wintergreen’s Executive Director, Dr. Joanne Gabbin, reflects on the life and legacy of Phillis Wheatley Peters

Welcome Table Talk #2: Stories from our Past: Genealogy as Creative Inspiration

Wintergreen Women Writers Collective and Torch Literary Arts are embarking on an intergenerational three-year project for Black women writers called Welcome Table Talks.

Welcome Table Talks: Wintergreen Women Writers Collective and Torch Literary Arts embark on an intergenerational three-year project for Black women writers

Wintergreen Women Writers Collective and Torch Literary Arts are embarking on an intergenerational three-year project for Black women writers called Welcome Table Talks.

“i hope i die warmed by the life that i tried to live.”

Tribute to Nikki Giovanni

Wintergreen Women Writers Collective awarded $750,000 from the Mellon Foundation.

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Bookmarks

Spotlighting the Collective’s writers and the stories behind their work

The Wintergreen Library

A Bound Woman is a Dangerous Thing

by DaMaris B. Hill
Toni Morrison and the Geopolitics of Race, Place, and Be/longing

by Marilyn S. Mobley
Dolores is Blue / Dolorez Is Blues

by Hermine Pinson
Bigger: A Literary Life

by Trudier Harris
Nursery Rhymes in Black

by Latorial Faison
Black Summers

Edited by Desiree Cooper
Furious Flower

by Joanne V. Gabbin
Lot's Daughters

by Opal Moore
America, A Love Story

by Camille T. Dungy
Ground Provisions

by Shauna Morgan
AfroSurrealism

by Rochelle Spencer
The House Where My Soul Lives

by Maryemma Graham
Honeyfish

by Lauren K. Alleyne
Meditations and Ascensions

Co-Edited by Brenda M. Greene
The Muse Is Music

by Meta Duewa Jones
Black in Blues

by Imani Perry
In Search of Annie Drew

by Daryl Cumber Dance
Black Girl You Are Atlas

by Renée Watson
Vinyl Moon

by Mahogany L. Browne
I: New & Selected

by Toi Derricotte
Make Me Rain: Poems & Prose

by Nikki Giovanni