Conversation is how we build community.
Our one-time talks bring you within arm’s reach of your favorite writers, artists, practitioners, and thinkers in an intimate online setting.
We believe in the power, possibility, and connection between online and offline conversations. It’s why we started offering our signature one-time talks in 2022. These intimate conversations brought writers like Ruth Ozeki, Kaveh Akbar, Melissa Febos, Donika Kelly, and others into intimate virtual gatherings with our community. You’ll catch a few glimpses into our past one-time talks below, but be sure to sign up for our mailing list and stay tuned as we release our roster of one-time talks for the second half of 2023 and for all of 2024.
“I was just telling someone earlier today how revelatory it has been for me to have distance be an act of love, and to be like, ‘Alright, one of us is going to stay in a hotel a mile from the house for a couple of nights, so both of us can be unperceived for 48 hours.’ I just didn’t know that was on the menu for me.” —Melissa Febos from her one-time talk with Donika Kelly
These talks are first come, first served, and open to the general public at $50 a seat. Individuals participating in our digital residency will be able to attend all talks for free, and members of our soon-to-be-launched #TSWIRL Club will gain early access to seats once they are released. We will be limiting each talk to 25 seats so as to maintain the intimacy of this virtual space. All past and current TSW contributors and staff will receive a 30% discount on all of our offerings. We will also be holding some seats as scholarship seats, and will announce these for each individual talk.
The first cohort of one-time talks featured Elsa Sjunneson, Kristen Millares Young, Melissa Febos, Kaveh Akbar, Callum Angus, Ruth Ozeki, Donika Kelly, Destiny O. Birdsong, and Jane Wong.
"When I think about my work, I'm always trying to make sense of who and what I belong to. The more I've been writing and living, I've come to the conclusion I belong to myself. I hope my work is an exploration of that. Of me — a Black woman, a Black woman with albinism, a Southern Black woman, and a Christian Black woman who is also queer — saying I belong to myself. And I think there are many ways to say that."
"I need a lot of alone time. It's been a big conversation over the last year: how to navigate it. I think sometimes it's hard for people to say, 'I need to be alone,' and for their partner to say, 'Yeah, obviously.' But actually figuring out what the pace and shape of that is, that's harder."
"I always feel the pressure of what it means to holds my mom's power."