ANTHOLOGIES
Taking Our Place in History: The Girls Write Now 2020 Anthology
Girls Write Now is thrilled to be in partnership with Dutton, who produced this year’s anthology. A special thanks to the team at Dutton—Christine Ball,Maya Ziv,Marya Pasciuto and Hannah Feeney, and to Feminist Press and Jamia Wilson, who produced the e-book. Thank you as well to Amazon Literary Partnership for their continued support and for recognizing Girls Write Now as a 2020 grant recipient, which directly funds the production of our anthologies.

The Girls Write Now 2020 class of mentees are using their voices for change in one of the most uncertain periods of modern history. This book invites you into their homes and families, their schools and neighborhoods, their hearts, hopes, and fears. Enter a world where clay creatures take on aluminum oppressors. Get thrown against an elevator wall in the midst of a horror story. Go backstage with a rock band, say goodbye to relatives as you start a new life, stand with an engineer solving a coding problem. Stare out from a coffin—or up at whales in the sky—and fall in love with the color of your skin. Experience tragedy in a mosque, feel the wounds of slavery, know the terror of glass shattering in a World War II village, and see how this next generation of leaders look to the past and write their present to create a better future.
Introduction by
With a Poem by
Read What's Inside
Browse our collection of stories from inside the book. Complete with notes from the author and anecdotes from our mentees and mentors.
Stories from Inside "Taking Our Place in History" Coming Soon!
Stories from Inside "Taking Our Place in History" Coming Soon!
Surviving not Living
As quarantine started in early March, everyone was told to get adjusted to a bizarre lifestyle. Something new, something different to all of us. In this poem, I have expressed how I felt as I was getting adjusted to this new lifestyle.
Mother’s bindi, My bindi
This poem unveils my initial relationship with a specific part of my culture, the bindi, and the change that I go through to fully accept an obscure piece of my identity.
The Human Stages of Life
A collection of poems, letters and photographs detailing what it's like to go through the five stages of human life—childhood, adolescence, adulthood, aging and death—from the perspective of a young girl.
Lyz and Maya Swap Genres
When we first met as mentor and mentee, we began exploring each other’s writing tastes. Sure, we had a lot in common but we also had our strengths and weaknesses as awesome writers. We decided to swap our favorite genres of writing, and provide rules and guidelines for each other to see what developed when we pushed ourselves out of our writing comfort zones.
Moonlight Portrait
"Now they were only one soul, they were complete."
‘Twas Not The Angel On My Shoulder
A riddle in the form of a poem and an answer in the form of flash fiction.
Got Your Back
Mary is a broke grad student whose only excitement is her online relationship with the mysterious "Clay," but Mary has other admirers.
Jaz’s Quest
Jaz, a young time traveler, found herself lost in the future. She's on a quest to find the last missing pieces so she can find her parents.
Lucky
In the context of mortality, the pandemic and the imminent impacts of climate change, it is beyond important to remember how objectively lucky we are to be alive. There is a certain priceless appreciation in simply existing and breathing comfortably within ourselves.
Fourteen Days
This is a collection of haikus written between January 10 and January 23 that captures our combined experiences.
Taking Our Places in History
From the Literary Community
Intersectional Voices in Editorial Print Committee
Every year, the Intersectional Voices in Editorial (IV Edit) Print Committee brings their talents to the task of editing, producing, and promoting this fresh collection of writing from today’s emerging voices. The committee is made up of mentors, mentees, and other volunteers who are passionate about diversifying the publishing landscape.