Friday, March 13th, 2026

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Friday Feature

H. WordSmith Reads

Where Writers Begin: The Quiet Power of the Circle

Dear Friend of the Page,

Before there was a website. Before there was a structure. Before, Dear Friend

of the Page had a rhythm of Sundays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.

There were tables.

Library tables. Coffee shop tables. Folding tables in community rooms.

And sometimes there were no tables at all — only the small glowing squares of a Zoom room where strangers gathered with notebooks in their laps and the same quiet question in their hearts:

Can I really do this?

This is where many writers begin.

Not in solitude, but in circles.

Writing is often imagined as a solitary act. A writer alone with their thoughts, their pen, their page.

And yes — there is solitude in the craft.

But writing traditions, especially within Black literary history, have always been communal. Voices sharpen in conversation. Stories deepen when they are heard. Courage grows when someone across the table nods and says,

"Keep going."

“Writing does not happen in a vacuum. It happens in a relationship.”

Long before books were bound and placed on shelves, stories moved through gathering spaces.

Church basements. Front porches. Beauty shops. College reading rooms. Kitchen tables where elders spoke and younger ears listened.

These were the first literary salons. These were the first workshops. These were the places where language was tested aloud.

When I first began writing seriously, I did not yet have a blog or a platform or a carefully shaped structure.

What I had were circles.

I sat at library tables with other writers who were trying to figure it out just like I was.

I entered Zoom rooms where we read our words out loud, sometimes with confidence and sometimes with shaking voices.

We listened to one another. We offered small encouragements. We returned the next week and tried again.

Those spaces mattered more than I realized at the time.

They were proof that writing does not happen in isolation.

It happens in a relationship.

A Living Literary Tradition

Many of the literary movements we study today began in rooms that looked very much like the rooms we gather in now.

Writers sitting together. Reading aloud and sharpening one another's thinking.

During the Harlem Renaissance, writers gathered in apartments and salons across Harlem to share their work and challenge one another to go deeper.

Young writers listened while elders spoke about craft, politics, and the responsibility of telling the truth.

The tradition continued across generations — through university workshops, community writing groups, kitchen-table poetry circles, and now through digital spaces that allow writers across cities and continents to gather.

The tools change.

The circle remains.

An Invitation to the Circle

If you are a writer reading this today, I want you to know something important.

You do not have to begin alone.

Somewhere near you, there is a library table. Somewhere online, there is a Zoom room. Somewhere, a small group of people holds notebooks, trying to shape their thoughts into language.

Find them.

Or gather two friends and begin a circle of your own.

Great literary traditions are often born this way — quietly, without announcement, around a table where someone finally says:

"Would you like to share what you wrote?"

The page matters.

But so do the people sitting beside us while we learn how to fill it.

We are Friends of the Page, and we write the work forward.

Circle Practice

If you are building your own writing circle, begin with three simple agreements:

• Everyone writes• Everyone listens• Everyone leaves with their courage and dignity intact

Small circles sustain great writers.

Until next time,

Honey WordSmith

H. WordSmith Reads