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$$PLAIN_TEXT_PREVIEW$$
A Letter from the Director:
”me and you be sisters”
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Director Joanne Gabbin and her sister Doris Hunt at the naming ceremony of Gabbin Hall at James Madison University |
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me and you be sisters
we be the same
me and you
coming from the same place...
only where you sing
i poet.—“sisters” by Lucille CliftonI am writing this note at one of the most difficult times in my life. My sister, Doris Elizabeth Hunt, passed away on February 14, 2026, after several months of illness. Doris was a kind, generous, compassionate, gracious, and faithful woman. She was devoted to her family, a loving wife to her husband of 52 years, a devoted mother and grandmother, and a model member of the Church of God in Christ and her Baltimore community. The celebration of her life was held on February 25, 2026, with more than 1000 in attendance at the New Antioch Baptist Church and many hundreds more online. [Click below to read the full reflection from Wintergreen’s Executive Director, Joanne Gabbin.]
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Save the date for our next Welcome Table Talk:
“I Know a Place: Black Women Artists Imagine Sanctuary.” Join us on March 31, 2026 at 7pm ET for the return of our Welcome Table Talk series featuring Ashunda Norris (Torch Literary Arts) and Desiree Cooper (Wintergreen Women Writers Collective). “I Know a Place” invites Black women artists to consider questions of safety. What is “sanctuary” for Black women? For Black women artists who speak and write and imagine, who graffiti the walls of social conformity?
Opal Moore, Wintergreen Programs & Partnerships Coordinator, will moderate this conversation. RSVP here! You will need a free Zoom account to attend.
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The Virginia Festival of the Book returns from Friday, March 20, to Sunday, March 22 in Charlottesville, VA! Themed broadly around the concept of “Revolutions,” this year’s festival will feature an exciting slate of in-person and livestreamed events, including “Know Within: Poetry and Lived Experience” with Latorial Faison and “Tangle Root: A Play of Shadows” with Kalela Williams. Learn more and register.
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Join the Center for Black Literature for the 18th National Black Writers Conference on March 25-28th at Medgar Evers College, CUNY. The 2026 conference will be themed around “Expanding Conversations on Environmental Justice, Popular Culture, Resilience, and Peace” and will feature roundtable discussions, readings, performances, community conversations, and book signings. Among this year’s conference honorees are Wintergreen Women Camille Dungy and Imani Perry. Learn more and register here.
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Save the date for the 2026 Wintergreen Women Writers Retreat! From Thursday, May 14th to Sunday, May 17th, 2026, we will be returning to Kure Beach, NC. Reservation details will be shared by email.
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What’s New at Wintergreen?
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Wintergreen at AWP: This month, Wintergreen held its inaugural reading at AWP, featuring Lauren K Alleyne, Remica Bingham-Risher, Mahogany L Browne, Carla DuPree (City Lit, Baltimore) Latorial Faison, DaMaris Hill, Amanda Johnston and Patricia Smith at the Maryland Center for History and Culture. Wintergreen thanks Margot Kopera and David Armenti of MCHC for this exciting partnership. Couldn’t make it? Watch an excerpt and read our new event recap.
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Congratulations to Camille Dungy on her new book America, A Love Story (Wesleyan University Press)! Camille’s “first book of poetry in almost a decade” is [a] “powerful testament to living and loving as a Black woman and mother in today's America… explores intimacy, parenting, racism, history, and the natural world with clarity and depth.” |
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Dr. Lisa Winn Bryan will deliver a community lecture on “Black Owned: HBCUs, the Black Church, & the Divine Nine” on Thursday, March 26th at 6pm at the Richmond Public Library. Livestream available. |
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Dr. Lisa Winn Bryan’s poem, Life On Mars, was selected for "Darling Nikki: An Anthology of Creative Works Dedicated to the Memory of Nikki Giovanni," which will be published in April 2026 by Flip the Script Publishing. |
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Wintergreen is pleased to welcome Karl-Mary Akre to the team as our new Communications Associate. Based in her hometown of Atlanta, GA, Karl-Mary is a writer and filmmaker who explores Blackness and belonging in genre narratives of horror, mystery, and sci-fi. She received her MFA in screenwriting and fiction from the Michener Center for Writers at UT Austin. |
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Joanne Gabbin’s recommendation: What It Takes to Heal: How Transforming Ourselves Can Change the World by Prentiss Hemphill. In this life-affirming book, Hemphill shows us how to heal ourselves, connect meaningfully with our community, and embody the values that we hope to see in the world. It asks the revolutionary question, “ What would it look like to have the principles of healing at the very center of what we create?” |
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Mehron Price’s recommendation: Wildness Before Something Sublime by Leila Chatti. In this collection of poems, Leila Chatti weaves together poems in conversation with women throughout time, including herself. Chatti’s fluidity with craft shines through new twists on invented forms such as the golden hinge (a deepening of the golden shovel). This collection treats tenderly the many facets of womanhood. |
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Have a book recommendation, shoutout, or news to share with Wintergreen? Share it with us at info@wintergreenwomenwriterscollective.com to be featured in an upcoming newsletter!
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