The Searching for Home Collective is growing from a Boston-based literary salon into a broader community for poets, writers, readers, and artists seeking meaningful creative exchange.
We are looking for thoughtful, dependable people who want to help shape what comes next—from creating intimate gatherings in Boston and New York City to helping tell the collective’s story online.
You do not need to have led a literary organization before. We are looking for people who care deeply about poetry, community, and building spaces where creative work can be shared with honesty and intention.
There Is More Than One Way to Belong
Joining the collective and helping lead it are two different ways of participating.
Membership is for poets, writers, readers, and artists who want to attend gatherings, receive invitations, and become part of the community.
Getting involved is for people who would like to contribute time, ideas, skills, or leadership as the collective grows. You may be interested in taking ownership of a defined role, supporting occasional events, or simply beginning a conversation about where you could be most useful.
Help Build the Collective
For those interested in organizing, leading, creating, or contributing behind the scenes.
Explore Open RolesWays to Get Involved
We are currently prioritizing the following areas. These roles can evolve around the right person’s strengths, availability, and ideas. They are intended as meaningful creative partnerships—not rigid job descriptions.
Boston Chapter Lead
Boston is the home of the Searching for Home Collective and the place where its first community is taking shape. We are looking for someone who wants to help carry that momentum forward by developing thoughtful, recurring in-person programming.
This person would collaborate with Elizabeth to shape workshops, salons, readings, open mics, and other gatherings that reflect the collective’s values. The role may include helping identify venues, coordinate event logistics, welcome participants, and develop a sustainable rhythm for Boston programming.
This could be a good fit for someone who:
- – Lives in or near Boston
- – Loves bringing creative people together
- – Is organized, communicative, and reliable
- – Wants meaningful ownership over a growing literary community
- – Has ideas for intimate, inclusive, and artistically substantive events
What you would gain:
Creative ownership, early-stage leadership experience, founding-team recognition, meaningful relationships within Boston’s literary community, and the opportunity to shape the collective before its programming becomes established.
New York City Chapter Lead
The collective’s appearance at the NYC Poetry Festival is the beginning of a deeper connection with New York—not a once-a-year visit.
We are looking for someone who wants to help turn that momentum into real local programming. This person would work with Elizabeth to imagine what a New York City chapter could become, build relationships with local poets and venues, and help organize gatherings that feel intimate, intentional, and distinctively Searching for Home.
This could be a good fit for someone who:
- – Lives in or near New York City
- – Is connected to or curious about the city’s literary community
- – Enjoys developing new ideas and building something from an early stage
- – Can help coordinate gatherings, partnerships, and local outreach
- – Wants to create spaces that value depth over performance or networking
What you would gain:
A meaningful role in founding the collective’s first chapter outside Boston, creative influence over its direction, founding-team recognition, and the opportunity to build a literary community rooted in genuine artistic exchange.
Social Media & Digital Storytelling Lead
The collective already has a strong voice. We are looking for someone who can help bring that voice to life more consistently online.
This role would focus primarily on Instagram, with the possibility of supporting Substack cross-posting and other digital storytelling. It may include creating or scheduling a few posts each week, sharing event coverage, highlighting members and poets, promoting opportunities, and finding visual ways to explore the collective’s central question: What does home mean to you?
This could be a good fit for someone who:
- – Understands Instagram and visual storytelling
- – Has a strong editorial or aesthetic sensibility
- – Can work within an established voice without making it feel overly polished or promotional
- – Enjoys poetry, art, literature, and community-centered storytelling
- – Can contribute consistently, even if only for a few hours each week
What you would gain:
Creative ownership of a growing literary brand, portfolio-building experience, founding-team recognition, close collaboration with a poet and writer, and the opportunity to help define how the collective is understood publicly.
Events & Community Support
Not everyone wants to lead a chapter or take ownership of an ongoing role. We also welcome people who would like to help with individual events, community outreach, photography, welcoming attendees, venue research, partnerships, or other occasional needs.
This is a flexible way to contribute while getting to know the collective and discovering where your interests might fit.
This could be a good fit for someone who:
- – Wants to contribute without committing to a formal leadership role
- – Has a specific skill, resource, connection, or idea to offer
- – Enjoys supporting gatherings and helping people feel welcome
- – Is interested in becoming more involved over time
What you would gain:
A low-pressure way to participate behind the scenes, stronger relationships within the community, experience supporting literary programming, and the chance to help shape future opportunities.
Why Get Involved Now?
The Searching for Home Collective is still in its early stages. That means the people who join the team now will not simply inherit an established system—they will help create it.
The collective is currently founder-run and free to join. We are building toward regular programming in Boston, developing a meaningful presence in New York City, expanding our editorial and digital work, and working toward becoming a registered nonprofit so that we can support writers and sustain programming more effectively.
Joining at this stage offers the chance to shape the culture, structure, and future of the organization before those decisions have already been made.
This is not about scaling as quickly as possible. It is about building something thoughtful enough to last.
What We Value
Care over urgency
We want to build thoughtfully rather than perform constant growth.
Reliability over perfection
You do not need to know everything, but communication and follow-through matter.
Collaboration over hierarchy
Roles should have real ownership while remaining connected to the collective’s shared mission.
Depth over visibility
We care more about meaningful artistic exchange than appearances, metrics, or networking for its own sake.
Room to evolve
These roles can grow and change as the collective and the people involved learn what works.
These are currently volunteer roles. Because the collective is in an early, founder-funded stage, compensation is not yet available. We want to be transparent about that from the beginning. As the organization develops funding and moves toward nonprofit status, we hope to create paid opportunities where sustainable and appropriate.
Start a Conversation
You do not need to arrive with a formal proposal or be certain which role is right for you. Tell us a little about yourself, what draws you to the collective, and how you might like to contribute.