Mentorship Program
The Women in Horror Arts & Media Association Mentorship Program connects horror and dark literature creators with experienced professionals who can offer craft, career, and industry guidance.
Our mentorship program aims to help women and gender-diverse creators strengthen their craft, navigate the business of horror, and build more sustainable creative careers. Mentors may offer guidance on structure, atmosphere, voice, and revision, as well as contracts, pricing, submissions, pitching, budgeting, and evaluating professional opportunities. The program also creates access to practical knowledge, relationships, and professional networks that have not always been equally open to everyone in horror.
Mentorship provides guidance and support, but participation does not guarantee publication, representation, employment, funding, or any other specific professional outcome.
Mentorship is offered at no cost to accepted mentees who are active members. Mentors serve as volunteers. Applications are open year-round.
How it Works
All individual memberships include:
Mentorship here is not a course with a graduation date. It begins with a structured period that establishes the relationship, then continues for as long as both people find it valuable.
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Phase one, the first six months. You and your mentor set goals, meet on an agreed cadence, and check in with the program periodically. This is the committed phase.
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The review point. At six months, you and your mentor are each asked separately whether to continue, conclude, or request a new match. All three are good answers.
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Phase two, ongoing. If you both continue, the relationship moves to a lighter, self-directed footing with no required cadence and no end date. You reach out when you have something to work through.
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Specialized Mentor Sessions. Alongside your core match, mentees may request up to four specialist consults per year: single sessions with a different mentor on a question outside your mentor's expertise.
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Group workshops and panels run on a rolling calendar and are open to all active mentees.
Who It's For
Mentees are adults 18 and over who are women, including cis and trans women, and nonbinary and gender-fluid adults working in horror writing, filmmaking, or another horror arts and media field. No publication, production, representation, or festival credits required.
Mentors are qualified professionals of any gender who support the association's mission, meet the program's experience and safety standards, and agree to the Code of Conduct.
What this program does not do
Mentorship is guidance; not a brokerage relationship. Please read this before applying.
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A mentorship match is not guaranteed. Submitting an application does not guarantee acceptance.
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Mentors cannot guarantee publication, representation, production, funding, employment, festival acceptance, or any other professional outcome.
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Mentors do not serve as your attorney, therapist, agent, employer, publisher, producer, or guarantor of outcomes unless a separate written professional relationship explicitly establishes that role.
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Discussion of contracts, rights, and creative-business basics is general information only. It is not legal advice.legal advice.
Code of Conduct
Every participant, mentor and mentee alike, must read and agree to the WiHAMA Mentorship Program Code of Conduct as part of their application. It covers respect, confidentiality, professional boundaries, scope of role, and how to raise a concern.
Read the Code of Conduct
Original Work Only
Work brought to this program must be your own. Writing or creative material generated with AI tools will not be accepted for mentorship, and applications including such material will be declined. Mentors are giving you their time and craft knowledge, and that exchange only works on work you actually made.
Questions About the Program?
Questions about the program: membership@womeninhorrorassociation.org