This qualitative self-study focused on the mentoring experiences of three junior faculty members and their mentor. Using portraiture as the methodology, we created dialogic word "portraits" to illustrate our mentoring processes based on retrospective reviews of emails, discussion transcriptions, and free-writes. The portraits were examined for patterns relating to power, powerlessness, and the process of negotiation that involved race, gender, mentor credibility, novice authority, frustration, disagreements, and ultimately, collaboration. Part of a larger investigation that focused on power and powerlessness in the institution and with the mentor and the ways these concerns were negotiated, this article reports on the mentoring relationships that supported the junior faculty members' efforts to write for publication, including this article.