The Project & Anthology
Braving Veracity is a not-for-profit project sponsored by didaink to support emerging women writers and memoirists in the Brandywine Valley of Pennsylvania. The anthology series is a platform for women writers who are interested in memoir and personal essay. Each Braving Veracity volume has a theme that is announced quarterly. Calls for submissions are announced on the website and via social media, local libraries, and other venues. All royalties earned from the sale of each volume of Braving Veracity go directly to the featured writers.
Didaink’s Guiding Philosophy
“The story wants to be told”:
sage advice from author Crescent Dragonwagon who mentored Dida’s writing during a difficult time.
Our job as writers is to craft ways to illustrate our true stories on the page with literary techniques. Memoir also gives us the opportunity to help others who may be struggling with the same problems we’ve faced.
So why does it take us so long to share our stories with others? Usually, the answer goes something like this: I’m not a good enough writer. My life is too complicated. Besides, who cares about my life? Internal dialogue like this can play over and over in our minds, and we begin to think it’s factual. But when you have the writing tools to unearth what is unique about your true story, your internal dialogue changes.
Once the writer learns and uses the tools available in their literary garden shed, they can root their story and let it grow in a reader’s mind; the work becomes visceral, palpable, and relatable.
The stories of our lives can be difficult to illustrate and share — there’s no doubt about it — but writing our true stories can also be freeing, enjoyable and empowering. In the pages of Braving Veracity, you will capture and illustrate the details and scenes from your childhood, your adolescence or teen years, or any moment in your life that you wish to share with didaink staff.