Storymend Creative Co. is a creative media company for the stories we write and the stories we live. We produce books, podcasts, essays, and film, and help other writers and creators produce their own.
Essays on the stories we write and the ones we live, published every week.
Read the JournalThe Storymend podcast on mental health, faith, and what we carry.
Listen to the podcastBooks published under the Storymend name, beginning with the debut novel Where the Water Stays Still in July 2027.
About the novelDocumentary and film, beginning with Black women and mental health.
Coming soonDevelopmental editing for writers and creators shaping a book, essay, or project. By inquiry.
Ask about editorialKeynotes and workshops on storytelling, voice, and mental health, plus a limited number of community sessions.
Book a talkIndependent coverage of book festivals, film festivals, author events, and more across DC, Maryland, and Virginia, through written features and podcast interviews.
Invite us to your event
Six women. Two family lines.
One inheritance nobody named.
A multi-generational novel about family, faith, mental illness, and the quiet work of breaking generational cycles. The novel explores what happens when one family finally confronts what has been carried in silence — and what it takes to keep that pain from becoming someone else’s inheritance.
Debuting in July 2027 from Storymend Creative Co.
A hidden current runs beneath the surface of my heart, and it’s pulling me under.
From the novel
“Crazy” was never the insult they thought it was.
Honest conversations about life, faith, mental health, relationships, identity, and everything in between — through the lens of Black women.
Hosted by Shatara Jewell.
A Storymend Creative Co. podcast.
Storymend exists for the stories people carry quietly: family, faith, mental health, identity, the things that are hard to say out loud. We believe those stories deserve depth, honesty, and care, and that telling them well can help repair what silence left behind.
We also help other writers and creators produce their own work. We listen closely, ask exact questions, and protect what’s already working. The story stays yours, from the first conversation to the last edit.
Shatara Jewell
PMHNP-BC
Shatara Jewell is a novelist, psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner, U.S. Navy Nurse Corps officer, and founder of Storymend Creative Co.
Her work brings mental health and storytelling into conversation. Through years of caring for people in some of the most difficult moments of their lives, she became interested in how we make meaning from what happens to us—especially when an experience feels too complicated, painful, or unfinished to put into words. That curiosity became the foundation for Storymend.
Shatara writes about family, identity, mental health, faith, and the ways the past lives on in the present. Her debut novel, Where the Water Stays Still, is planned as the first book from Storymend Press. She is also the author of the children’s book Imena and TJ Go to Therapy.
She is a member of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Incorporated, and an associate member of Hampton Roads Black Media Professionals, an NABJ affiliate.
How burnout shows up, why it’s easy to miss in yourself, and what recovery really asks of us, from the perspective of a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner.
“Dialogue. Strengthen. Thrive.” Mental Health Symposia
Jacksonville (NC) Alumnae Chapter, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.
April 2026
A personal essay on how the expectation to always be strong keeps Black women from mental health care.
Published in The Mighty as Shatara Jewell-Mackey
Read the essayPress, speaking, and media inquiries: hello@storymendcreative.com
We’re bringing the podcast to Suitland to interview authors and capture the day on camera. Come meet more than 40 Black authors, and come say hello.
Saturday, November 7, 2026 · 11am–3pm
Creative Suitland Arts Center
4719 Silver Hill Road, Suitland, MD
The Storymend Journal
A weekly essay on the stories we tell and the lives that shape them.
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Weekly essays about life, identity, mental health, creativity, and the experiences that shape our stories.
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