On Saturday, Sept. 6, women and non-binary students across the 5Cs gathered together at Lucky’s Coffee Roasters for the Women Who Submit (WWS) Party.
Co-hosted by the 5C WWS affinity space and the Pitzer College Writing Center, the Submission Party celebrates female and non-binary students working to submit their writing to major publications. From poetry to journalism to non-fiction, the WWS space empowers writers across the spectrum to come together and discuss the publication process.
“I think it’s amazing what they’re doing here,” Pitzer alumna Emily Kuhn PZ ’22 said. “Trying to confront that by creating these identity-specific spaces for us to write, submit, band together, share resources and try to bridge those gaps.”
At the event, Kuhn –– co-founder of Pitzer’s student magazine, The Outback –– spoke about how she has often experienced feeling out of place as a queer female writer.
“I feel like something that [women and non-binary writers] often share is an experience of imposter syndrome,” Kuhn said. “As a writer, you can be so dedicated to your craft, but as you’re going through the process of sharing your work, there’s all these different voices that can come up just because of our social conditioning and because the publication rates for women are so much lower.”
Despite WWS being in its early stages, members have already felt the impact of the club’s mission. For many, being in a space in which they are surrounded by other women and non-binary writers with similar goals makes them feel less alone.
Professor Melissa Chadburn began the event by facilitating a workshop for anyone new to the writing and publication process. Meanwhile, attendees who were further along in their writing journey used the cozy ambience of the space to make progress on their current projects.
Often known to students in her creative writing classes as “Professor Honeybee,” Chadburn is currently a visiting professor of English and World Literature at Pitzer. Despite now being a published author, she spoke about how she faced various struggles throughout her journey as a young writer, and was given little guidance on how to go through the publishing process.
“I have a PhD, but I went through all my education without ever really being shown these basic things, like how to submit work for publication, where to submit work for publication and what that looks like,” Chadburn said. “What does a cover letter or a bio look like? So I really want to take away any barriers for women submitting their work for publication.”
Earlier on in her career, Chadburn began working with VIDA: Women in Literary Arts, a feminist non-profit organization dedicated to amplifying the voices of marginalized writers. Women Who Submit was created in 2011 as a response to the VIDA count –– a yearly inventory of the total number of women and non-binary writers published in major journals relative to their male counterparts. This statistic showed a large gender disparity in the publishing world. Since then, WWS has evolved into an organization that hosts workshops and submission parties to increase the number of published women and non-binary writers.
“To have a space carved out where you will be taken seriously regardless of your writing experience or how you write is really important.”
To bring that mission to the 5Cs, Chadburn approached Pitzer Writing Center director Stephanie Liu-Rojas with the idea of creating a WWS affinity space. With the help of Pitzer Writing Center student fellows, the first Submission Party took place in Spring 2025.
Due to the success of each event, Chadburn has continued working closely with Pitzer Writing Student Fellows Lennon Nuttall PZ ’27 and Daisy Schmeling PZ ’27 to make the group an official 5C affinity space. Currently, Nuttall serves as President of WWS while Schmeling has taken on the role of social media coordinator.
“Until I had women to support me, I didn’t really feel like I even had a space in the publishing world,” Nuttall said. “So, that’s why I’m really passionate about Women Who Submit.”
In addition to educating their peers on the publishing process, Nuttall and Schmeling are working to build WWS into a supportive space to workshop ideas and drafts.
Schmeling is working on a poem that she hopes will evoke a child-like sense of wonder in readers. Since it is currently in the editing phase, she hopes that it will be ready to be issued at the next WWS event and be part of a larger poetry portfolio. Like her fellow members, she appreciates having a supportive space to work on her writing.
“I think that women are often very underestimated, especially in the writing field, it’s why women use fake names to publish under so that they’re taken seriously,” Schmeling said. “And to have a space carved out where you will be taken seriously regardless of your writing experience or how you write is really important.”
Facebook Comments