We are gathering stories from Siblings who have or are experiencing loss and grief—through estrangement, disconnection, distance, or death—for a collection built on remembrance, reverence, and care. These submissions of creative nonfiction will result in a collaborative anthology for Siblings, from Siblings: a space to be seen, heard, and held.
Sibling grief is a shared experience, not just a private wound, yet it remains one of the least spoken, least held forms of loss. This anthology aims to bring those stories forward as part of our collective memory, offering Siblings a living archive that transcends the label of forgotten mourners. Here, the love and longing that remain have a place to exist, in community and company alongside other Siblings and their stories.
We are especially attentive to the harmful impacts of police violence; disability-related inequities in resources, access, and support; foster care; incarceration; institutionalization; addiction; disappearance; and deportation. These are not only private griefs—they are systemic and cultural wounds, and they deserve to be named as such. When held with care, communities can co-create new ways of being, remembering, and healing. Community storytelling nourishes momentum for collective healing and social change.
In the legacy of cultural caretaking, this anthology is grounded in the belief that Sibling culture is abundant and our stories deserve a seat at the grief table, too. Whether your grief is from yesterday or years ago, raw or historical, loud or quiet, ambiguous or disenfranchised, we are still here, no matter how unreachable our Siblings are.
In Summer 2025, we completed The Hearth’s Community of Storytelling certificate training. As we sat in a circle with 40 other storytellers-in-training, our first exercise was to bring a sacred object and share the longing connected to it. Although we traveled to the training together, we kept our objects a secret until the introductions.
In that moment, we realized we had both instinctively brought sacred items belonging to our siblings, and our shared longing was rooted in the profound complexities of sibling grief and love. This anthology is our Community Storytelling Project, but more importantly, our soul work, our way of sharing stories that deserve to be honored.
We recognize that sibling grief is often overshadowed by narratives that prioritize parents, partners, or children. This silence creates a void of isolation and invisibility in a culture that frequently overlooks the emotional needs of those navigating ambiguous and disenfranchised loss. We believe storytelling in community is a salve for what cannot be fixed—now, or perhaps ever. It invites memory and imagination to sit side by side, opening doors where loss so often feels like a wall. This anthology is our way of ensuring that sibling stories finally have a seat at the table.
We welcome submissions from writers, poets, illustrators, and graphic artists in the following formats: Poetry, Creative Nonfiction, Illustration, or Comic Art. We adore the imagination found in fiction; however, to keep this anthology rooted in the raw, authentic voices of sibling storytelling, we are only accepting personal narratives and creative nonfiction for this project.
We will not accept pieces that cause or perpetuate harm toward individuals or communities, including submissions that rely on discrimination, dehumanization, or exploitation in any form. Work that includes experiences of violence, trauma, or oppression is welcome when accompanied by content notices to provide care, intention, and respect for the people and communities represented.
We only accept work created by human beings; submissions generated by artificial intelligence (AI) will not be considered. If you’re unsure whether your submission fits our vision, we encourage you to submit it anyway—we would love to take a look and let you know.
Submission Due Date
Expected Publication
Worldwide submissions
Previously shared work welcome (blogs, Substack, social media), as long as it hasn’t been formally published elsewhere
Simultaneous submissions accepted (please notify us if accepted elsewhere)
Multiple submissions (use the submission form for each)
Poetry
Creative Nonfiction (short essay, memoir, etc.)
Illustration or Comic Art
File Types Accepted
Written Work Guidelines
Image Guidelines
Contributor Bio (maximum five sentences)
Social Media Handles (Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn)
Cover Letter (maximum five sentences)
Share about yourself, provide additional context, or introduce us to the heart of your work.
Mailing Address
Preferred Payment Method
Consent for Editing
We believe your voice is the expert on your experience. Any editorial suggestions are made only to support clarity and intent. We will always collaborate with you before finalizing any changes.
Contributor Honorariums
We are actively seeking community support—including this GoFundMe and local partnerships—to offer a $50 honorarium per submission.
We are committed to honoring every voice that reaches out to us. Because we want to give every submission the focused care it deserves, please allow for a response time of at least one month from the date of your submission. Every person who submits will receive a personal response via email regarding the status of their piece. All email communications will come from sibstorytelling@gmail.com.
We believe in the power of your stories and want you to keep them. All contributors maintain full ownership and copyright of their work. We simply ask for one-time, non-exclusive rights to include your piece in this specific collection. All rights revert back to the contributor immediately upon publication.
Our vision for this project includes financial compensation for our contributors. We’re actively seeking community support to make this possible by fundraising through this GoFundMe, with an intended honorarium of $50 per submission.
This anthology is rooted in the belief that our stories are more powerful when supported by the collective. To reach our intended honorarium goal of $50 per contributor and cover production costs, we are actively engaging with the community in the following ways:
By leaning on these respective communities, we aim to not only fund this project but to ensure these stories reach the hands and hearts of those who need them most.
This anthology will be self-published and printed through Amazon KDP and IngramSpark under the publishing imprint of Krystle May Statler. We have chosen to utilize KDP and IngramSpark specifically to ensure the widest possible distribution and ease of access for our contributors and community across different regions. To ensure your stories and art are presented with the reverence they deserve, Krystle May Statler will serve as the book designer, Grace Stopher will serve as the project's graphic designer, and additional creatives will support as needed. Together, we will oversee the layout and visual identity of the anthology, ensuring a cohesive and beautiful home for our collective sibling stories.
KRYSTLE MAY STATLER (she/her) is a Black-multiracial interdisciplinary artist, designer, and poet living in Portland, OR. She’s the author of Prayer for Relief (2024), a poetry collection that attempts to make sense of the nonsensical in the aftermath of the loss of her older brother, BJ, by the hands of the Inglewood Police Department in 2019. In addition to grief impacted by police violence, Krystle’s life and work are shaped by estrangement and distance. Through these lived experiences, she seeks to create spaces where all forms of loss can be heard, held, and honored.
GRACE STOPHER (she/her) is a writer, artist, designer, gardener, and Sib. Through art and community storytelling, she explores what it means to grow up alongside siblings impacted by I/DD, Autism, foster care, and adoption — and the ways loving a sibling shapes who you become. The complexity of human experience is a through-line of her work. Grace lives in Portland, OR. Learn more at gracestopher.com.