# ✨ Join Us: Femigritude Literary Lab Invites You to Get Involved! ✨

**Empowering African Women Through the Written Word**

The **Femigritude Literary Lab** is calling on writers, organizations, sponsors, and allies to join a powerful movement centering African women—particularly young women and girls—as essential voices in literature, healing, and social transformation.

## 🌍 About the Lab & Our Founder

**Initiated by [Diweng Mercy Dafong](http://barefield.ua.edu/2026/01/20/french-student-brings-research-to-life-with-visit-to-burkina-faso/), PhD Candidate, Department of Modern Languages & Classics, The University of Alabama**, the Femigritude Literary Lab (FLL) was born from groundbreaking research and direct collaboration with Burkinabè women writers, artists, and intellectuals.

During her first research visit to Burkina Faso, Dafong worked directly with women and girls in refugee camps, partnered with **Mots d'Elles** (Burkina Faso's national association of female writers), and organized the inaugural **Concours d'Écriture Diweng Mercy Dafong**—a writing contest that gave young girls a platform to express their experiences, confront crises, and begin healing through creative expression.

### Our Mission

The Lab creates spaces where African women use writing as a tool for:

- **Healing and self-reclamation**
- **Analyzing lived realities**
- **Challenging erasure**
- **Envisioning alternative futures**

We believe that in the face of violence, migration, and insecurity, women are not peripheral witnesses or passive victims—they are central thinkers, creators, and architects of survival and societal reconstruction.

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## ✍️ **FOR WRITERS: Submit Your Work**

We invite **young African women and girls**, including high school and university students, to share their creative voices through:

- **Short fiction**
- **Essays**
- **Poetry**
- **Creative nonfiction**

**Themes we explore:**
- Migration and displacement
- Women's roles in crisis and survival
- Healing and reconstruction
- Resilience in the face of social challenges
- Imagining new futures

### 📬 How to Submit

Submissions are accepted through our **annual themed competitions**, including the **Concours d'Écriture Diweng Mercy Dafong**. Our second edition is expanding to include university students in Burkina Faso and is supported by the Outstanding Service by Graduate Student Award from the Barefield College of Arts & Sciences at The University of Alabama.

👉 **Visit:** [https://sites.google.com/view/femigritude-literary-lab/home](https://sites.google.com/view/femigritude-literary-lab/home) for current calls and guidelines.

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## 🤝 **FOR PARTNERS & COLLABORATORS: Get Involved**

There are many ways to support and collaborate with the Femigritude Literary Lab:

### 1. **Collaborate Ethically**
Join as a partner or collaborator, centering your involvement on ethical support of young women's creativity and story ownership. We prioritize respect, consent, and empowerment in all collaborations.

### 2. **Participate in Workshops**
Help organize or facilitate workshops and shared creative spaces where young women and girls can heal and reclaim their voices through writing.

### 3. **Support or Sponsor Initiatives**
Provide financial support, resources, or sponsorships to sustain Lab activities, contests, and programming that empower emerging female voices. Our second writing contest already has committed juries, collaborators, and sponsors—join us!

### 4. **Become a Community Partner**
Join organizations like **Mots d'Elles** (Burkina Faso's national association of female wr...

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