Our mission is to build a supportive writing community for women and non-binary writers. We write. We share inspiration. We encourage. Together, we create an energizing community space for writers:
- Plume: A Writer’s Podcast: Our podcast features successful women and non-binary writers, from emerging writers to bestselling novelists and award-winning poets. Our conversations and literary roundtables showcase hard-working talented writers, as we seek advice, insight, and inspiration to bring us back to our collective community. Along the way, our goal is to help writers believe in their voices and projects.
- Our Weekly Drop-in Zoom Group: Now in its third year, this is a virtual drop-in support group, where writers check in about current projects and share writing challenges and triumphs. We also write together in response to a new writing prompt each week.
- Our Plume Slack Channel: This is an online virtual space where women and non-binary writers can share resources, ask questions, connect with other writers, share writing prompts and projects, and offer and receive support in a safe, private space.
- Plume’s Monthly Accountability Group: Plume’s newest community-building addition, the Accountability Group, is designed for writers tackling large-scale writing projects. We meet to set goals, discuss strategies, offer encouragement, and help hold ourselves and each other accountable.
Through Plume’s literary community, we seek to uplift, showcase, and encourage women and non-binary writers wherever they are on their creative writing journey. We’re here to fan each other’s flames.
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Crystal K. Odelle
We first experienced Melanie’s writing through Albuquerque’s creative writing series Bad Mouth. I remember Jenn saying to me, “Have you watched this week’s Bad Mouth writer video? She’s really good!” And she was right. I was mesmerized by Melanie’s work, which she read with such warmth and strength. I knew we had to see if we could get her as a featured writer for Plume. We’re so glad she said yes! We hope you enjoy this interview with Melanie.Plume: When did you know you were a writer?Melanie S. Hatter: I’m not sure there was a specific moment. At a very young age, I wrote in a diary—notes from my day, what I had for dinner, things like that. I knew I wanted to write a book one day. I studied journalism as a practical way to make a living as a writer, while getting the chance to experience the world and hear people’s stories. So, I suppose when I got my first paying job as a newspaper reporter, I felt like a real writer. I worked part-time at the Daily Press as an undergrad at Hampton University. P: Where do you get your ideas?MSH: From many places. Experiences from my own life. I find news stories especially inspiring. My latest novel, Malawi’s Sisters, was inspired by the shooting death of a young Black woman in Michigan. I wrote a short story after reading about a woman kidnapped and held hostage in Colombia. And I wrote a story inspired by my fascination with police shows like CSI. People and places also bring story ideas. The first novel I ever wrote was inspired by a house I used to drive by on my way to work. I began to imagine who lived there and what their lives were like. The novel, by the way, was awful and will never be published, but it had a beginning, middle and an end, and encouraged me to write another book, which did end up getting published—The Color of My Soul.P: Where do you write? Has this changed in 2020?MSH: It hasn’t changed much. I have a home office, where I used to write my fiction, but now that my day job has me working there (I work with a nonprofit in D.C.), I take my laptop to the couch or dining table to switch things up and write during lunch breaks and weekends. I generally like … Read more
