Our Mission Statement:

The Story Circle Network is dedicated to helping women share the stories of their lives and to raising public awareness of the importance of women's personal histories. We carry out our mission through publications, a website, classes, workshops, writing and reading circles, and woman-focused programs. Our activities empower women to tell their stories, discover their identities through their stories, and choose to be the authors of their own lives.

The Story Circle Network is made up of women who want to explore their lives and their souls through life-writing—writing that focuses on our personal experience, through memoirs and autobiographies, in diaries and journals, in personal essays, in poetry. The Network is for every woman who aims to claim the power of her experience, who wants to map her journey, and who is determined to name herself. The Network is for you.

The Story Circle Network was founded in early 1997 by Dr. Susan Wittig Albert and received its 501(c)(3) status shortly afterward. We are guided by a board of directors and incorporated as a Texas not-for-profit corporation. Our activities are funded by the annual dues of our members, through our educational activities, and by the generous gifts and grants of our supporters (such as the $100,000 grant that supported the Older Women's Legacy Circle Project). Our National office is located in Austin, TX, and our membership is made up of hundreds of women around the country who share their experiences in Story Circles in their local communities, through our Internet Chapter, and through the Story Circle Journal, our eletters, book review website, and online classes. To fulfill our mission, we offer classes, workshops, story circles, reading circles, retreats, and conferences in the Austin TX area, and encourage Story Circle members to organize similar activities where they live. Check the Austin-Area Events to see how you can take advantage of our activities in Texas. And please visit our site often, because we continue to develop new features to serve our members and the growing community of women memoirists.

Would you like to become a member of the Story Circle Network? All you have to do is fill out our on-line form and mail your membership dues to our office (see address below). Maybe you're interested in convening a Story Circle in your local area. If so, you might want to read our Facilitator's Guide, which is full of good ideas and plenty of inspiration for starting your own group. Or perhaps your women's or church group would like to sponsor a workshop or retreat in your local area. Need more information? Contact us via email: programdirector at storycircleonlineclasses.org or phone: 512-454-9833 or write to: