What She Said Project

What a beautiful book warming and write in today for writehomebook at queerhavenbooks!

We even got to witness author maryaddisonyates sign her first book!

And we had a bibliomancy practice with friends old and new.

We loved our sharing circle with agapetableorg and look forward to sharing more collabs in the future.

We signed two books, and if you want to play along, I’ve attached some fun instructions for you.

Stay hydrated, and happy Pride, y’all!

We are thrilled to share our new anthology with the world!!

We are just a few weeks away from the end of the semester (that's just one 2-week sprint left to go). We have a lot of paper prototypes in our office.

Exhibit A:
1. Page proofs for a new collaborative anthology with What She Said Project, Write Home. Forty contributors, two editors, two designers, and one technical editor. (sent to print TODAY 🎉)
2. Poster for the season finale on May 14, where we will launch said anthology with our partners at South Carolina Arts Commission.
3. Box prototype layouts and reference texts for our collaborative Foodways project with the Joyner Institute for Gullah and African Diaspora Studies.

And this was just what we cleaned off the desk from yesterday! Maybe we should make a list of everything that happens in the Press in 24 hours...

There are a THOUSAND reasons that we of the love MMelanie McGehee

Here are 3:

1. She’s an excellent writing workshop leader. Don’t believe my word for it. Ask folks who have her teaching for them monthly!

2. She’s a HILARIOUS storyteller. In fact, she is one of two people I ask to read my work if I cannot make it. That’s how much I trust her!

3. She’s an excellent writer.

Don’t take my word for it. Read her most recent published essay here: https://www.thesunlightpress.com/2026/04/05/epiphany/

Congrats, Melanie McGehee, writer!!

Epiphany - The Sunlight Press I’d spent a lifetime keeping a mental tally of all the things that my mother did not teach me.

Hi friends!

Updates coming in!

1. “Write Home” Anthology will be published in May, and we will be giving you updates about virtual readings/in person opportunities soon!

2. Summer Writing Cohort:

✨ Tired of starting and stopping your memoir or personal essays? ✨

GROW: The Garden of Stories is a 4-part summer writing series designed for women with busy lives who are ready to return to their stories without shame.

What you'll get:
• A renewed connection to your voice.
• Up to 4 new pieces of nonfiction writing, rooted in your real life.
• A flexible writing practice that bends without breaking.
The GROW Method: Root into your truth (Ground), reach for avoided stories (Reach), let the writing be messy (Open), and honor your voice (Witness).

Summer Resets: Join us for four one-week sessions starting May 18-22, June 1-5, June 29-July 3, and August 10-14.

Can't attend live? You get full access to session recordings and a supportive Community Garden.

Pricing: Drop-In Week is $99. Get the Full Summer Pass for $347 (save $49!) and tend your writing all summer long.

We cap this at 10, so let us know if you’re interested.

4. Fall Writing Circle dates will be announced soon!

AND, our own Melanie McGehee, writer was recently published! Did you see?? Link in comments to read.

It hit me all at once: for better AND worse, my hunch 10 years ago was right: colorectal cancer had a new group (young people) and was doubling down on people I care about (in particular, Young Black folks and rural folks).

So, I do what I do, and I started researching.

Chadwick’s death solidified what I knew, and set me on a mission to get this info out.

I tried to quit, but the mission would not let me.

I kept going back to the 8 essays, ones I partially published but never really said the whole truth…until one day in 2023 when I decided to talk to my editor in a publishing conference hallway.

At that moment, I decided to move from talking about it to BEING about it.

And now, almost 10 years after starting this medical journey, I’m here. With a #1 book!

I’m so grateful to be alive to see all this bloom.

Grateful.

*tshow

Dear friends,

We are hoping you will help secure the little book with a big mission by buying a .99 ebook (wherever you buy them), and THEN leaving a review? 5 stars would be so helpful!

In two days, we have already reached #1 in two categories!

Your help is invaluable to get this to the folks who need it.

Thank you!

And, remember, you do not need to be 45 to advocate for a colonoscopy if you have any symptoms. If I had waited til 45, I’d be dead.

I’d like you alive to make beautiful things and getting up to good trouble!

Xo~
S

*tshow