Rebecca Dykes Writers is committed to ending gender-based violence

one word at a time.

In collaboration with the Highlights Foundation and other organizations, our retreats, workshops, and scholarships support the creativity and wellness of writers who are telling stories about violence against women and girls for young readers.

“Shame must change sides.”

Gisèle Pelicot_Credit Aline Dessine

Rebecca Dykes Writers stands with Gisèle Pelicot and her fight to end shame for survivors of gender-based violence. Her bravery and fearless vulnerability is an honor to witness.

2025 Retreat

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2025 Retreat 〰️

Our 2025 retreat is up on the Highlights website and people are already signing up!!! We are so thrilled to bring Winsome Bingham onto the team and to have Azra moving into faculty (What?! Get ready, y’all!) along with the RDW core team of Yvonne, Heather, and Bethany. Jane will be there, too! 💙

News! Jane receives Elizabeth Emblem from King Charles on Becky’s behalf

Current and Past Faculty

Our 2024 retreat at the Highlights Foundation was an incredible experience, filled with nourishment, healing, and deep insights. Thank you to everyone who brought their full selves to this experience and the support of Highlights and Jane Houng that allowed so many writers to receive a scholarship!

Our first retreat in 2022 at Highlights Foundation for writers working on stories about VAWG for young readers is the foundation for all the work we do. Thank you to all who supported us as we embarked on this healing journey!

Our Sanctuary This November

The Scholarship

2022 was the inaugural year of the Rebecca Dykes Writers Scholarship to End Femicide.

Each year, one writer is chosen to attend our workshop for free. This includes all travel fees, room and board. Our focus is on stories told for children and teens about violence against women and girls, particularly femicide. If this is you, and you have a story to tell, click below to learn more. Marginalized writers and writers with financial need are especially encouraged to apply. Note: US-based writers only.

However! Many scholarships are available through the Highlights Foundation! Most of the writers who attend this retreat receive some form of financial aid. Click here to learn more.

If you would like to support the work we do, you can go here to donate to the Rebecca Dykes Writers Fund, which supports these additional scholarships and helps bring in faculty.

The Workshop

We offer a trauma-informed experience with mental health professionals and expert teachers on hand to support you as you explore storytelling around trauma and grief in a beautiful space devoted to nurturing writers for children.

Our workshop invites female-identifying writers who are creating work for children and teens - all genres and experience levels are welcome. We dive deep into the challenges of working on this subject matter for young audiences, providing mental health and writing support through hands-on exercises, loads of resources, consultations, group-work, lectures, and more. There is plenty of time for REST, play, connection, and filling your well. (And the food is DELICIOUS).

Our Inspiration

In her poem Ode to Lebanon, Rebecca Dykes began her expression of hope for the country she would one day be murdered in with these words: I came here with a blank sheet - of your history, culture and your people who I was yet to meet…

Her mother, children’s writer Jane Houng, founded Rebecca Dykes Writers in the hope of using story to protect women and girls. In addition to her work with writers, Jane works in Lebanon and around the world to support communities of vulnerable women. Click below to learn more.

 

Me too.

-Rebecca Dykes

Posted to her Facebook page on October 16, 2016 - exactly two months before her murder