Unlock Your Narratives: Contributing to Anthology Essays and Blogs // with Meghna Bhat

Stories move people.

People change systems.

--Favianna Rodrigues, 2023 CA Arts Summit

Writing our stories in a blog or an anthology essay has the power to shape our culture.

Writing, sharing, and listening to true, personal stories can be powerful in fostering empathy, bringing communities together, and deepening our understanding of others’ experiences.

Authentic true stories can show up in our lives in so many ways. The art of writing authentic and personal stories for essay submissions to anthologies and blogs may appear similar to those found in long-form mediums; however, the process and elements involved are unique.

How much should we write about our true stories in these shorter forms of creative writing platforms to engage our audiences? How can we zoom into a moment from our lives to maximize our call to action in our story?

Grounded in a trauma-informed, culturally sensitive, and safe space where imperfection, messy, and incomplete writing will be embraced and welcomed, participants will leave the class with two final(ish) drafts of blogs or essays.

Participants will have time to share with peers and facilitators, sufficient time for feedback and reflections, and be provided with resources and strategies to own their narratives.

"I participated in two different story-writing workshops with Meghna and thoroughly enjoyed my time with her. She is a very patient instructor/facilitator making sure everyone follows along with what she is saying. She is an effortless facilitator who comes prepared. She doesn't waste participants' time and keeps the conversations/work moving along. She is highly inclusive and makes sure the space you are in is a safe and brave space. She creates conditions of belonging for everyone. She is very empathetic and made sure I felt comfortable sharing my story. I really enjoyed learning how to structure my story from her. She guides you and nudges you along but is not overbearing. Her feedback is very constructive and gentle which helps you further refine what you are writing. I highly recommend Meghna." SURABHI JAIN, Independent Consultant | Chief Catalyst, Surabhi Jain Consulting

Week By Week

Week 1: Unpacking Authentic Storytelling, and identifying stories from your own lives for this class

In this class, we will:

• Explore the purpose, structure, and elements of blogs and anthology essays

• Define, explore, and reclaim the aha moments from our lives, and the communities we want to engage with

• Identify our writing goal and purpose of taking this class: blog or anthology essays.

• Write a rough draft or outline of our true personal stories written from a first-person voice based on grounding and interactive writing prompts.

Week 2: Revisit Examples of Blogs/ Essays, and Identify Elements to Write and Reclaim Our Short Narratives

In this class, we will:

• Examine the emerging elements and themes from current blogs and anthology essays.

• Identify elements that would be helpful to highlight the underlying message of our blog/ essay.

• Ask important questions: Who are we writing for? Why this topic/ story? What impact do we envision? 

• After some quiet dedicated writing time, we will have an opportunity to share a pitch of our short narrative with peers in breakout rooms and receive specific compassionate feedback as requested.

Week 3: Discuss and strengthen our narratives through mutual compassionate feedback.

In this class, we will:

• Start the session by providing time to share a revised rough draft or outline of our short narrative. (blog or essay) with the group, and continue receiving reflections and compassionate feedback.

• Identify milestones as well as hiccups we experienced while writing the short narratives.

• Write a rough draft on a second topic of a blog or essay (during dedicated quiet writing time and story prompts) using the elements we learned in previous sessions.

• Share our second narrative (or an updated draft of the 1st narrative) with different peers in breakout rooms for more feedback and reflections.

Week 4: Final-ish showcase, and discuss our next steps and resources to continue with our writing journey. 

• Share one of our final-ish writing pieces (blog or essay) with the group.

• Identify the next steps and goals to continue reclaiming our short narratives.

• Discuss resources and tools to help our writing journey.

"I had the privilege of working with Meghna during the Gulabi Stories project in 2022 and what impressed me most was how she created an incredibly supportive and empathetic environment for all participants. She led us through the process of unpacking difficult personal narratives with so much care and understanding, checking in at every step to ensure we felt safe and validated. Her thoughtful questions not only helped us reflect on our own experiences but also inspired us to see the power and impact of sharing our stories. I highly recommend Meghna—whether as a workshop facilitator, keynote speaker, or story coach—because of her remarkable ability to foster vulnerability, trust, and meaningful growth in her sessions. One particular highlight was the reflective exercise she used to guide us through our storytelling, which made me feel included and heard while learning a new way to give voice to our stories." PRIYA DHANANI, Queer Social Justice Feminist Activist

Who Should Take This Class

Storytelling in this session means true, personal stories shared from their lived experiences using a first-person voice. This class is ideal for anyone who wishes to start blogging or writing essays in an anthology and is open to learning creative writing beyond our books, novels, and other long-form publications. However, this course especially invites those who are new to creative and non-fiction writing and don’t know where and how to start writing. In this interactive course, participants will be guided into breaking down the elements of storytelling in alternative communication platforms such as blogs, anthology essays, and Op-Eds. This class is also ideal for anyone who has to write social impact blogs or anthology essays and doesn’t know how to write their lived experiences in these formats. 

Format

Course materials will be delivered through a hybrid of weekly Zoom sessions, WetInk, and Google Doc resources sent via email.  Zoom sessions are scheduled for April 2, 9, 16, and 23 from 4 to 6 pm PT and will be recorded and made available to students only. 

About The Facilitator

Meghna Bhat, Ph.D. (she/her) is a social justice consultant, writer, multidisciplinary storyteller, feminist educator, and an aspiring cultural practitioner based in California. Born and raised in India and currently living in the US, Meghna's experiences encountering and witnessing gender injustice deeply motivated her to be an outspoken advocate, writer, and storyteller. She believes in the power of arts, writing, and storytelling in creating community dialogue, shifting culture, and fostering ongoing decolonized narrative change. Meghna is a published author, including academic publications, anthology essays, articles, and blogs. Her story “Metamorphosis” was published in the 2024 SANCTUARIES anthology of survivor stories published by South Asian SOAR. Her articles have also been published in Ms. Magazine, an international feminist platform. As a 2022 Seeding Creativity artist grant recipient, Meghna created Gulabi Stories: A South Asian Healing Initiative, which taught, coached, and empowered South Asian storytellers to reclaim their narratives of healing.

Dr. Bhat facilitated a warm, vulnerable, and culturally relevant writing space that inspired me to identify, write, capture, and share a moment of community in my life - which aligns with my desire to share more stories of joy outside of my identity of survivorship. RISS M