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!
Thanksgiving
How does holiday tradition shape shift with tragedy?
A New World
This is the story of a young girl, uprooted from her familiar, comfortable home in New York City and placed in what was to her an unbearable new world.
in sickness and in health
A body in the woods finds meaning within the insects that swarm it.
I Once Thought I Knew Myself
This piece offers a discussion on how 2020 was a year that gave me time to reflect on myself.
Kill Them with Laughter, Kill Me with Peanuts
Allergies make you vulnerable. In my case, more mentally than physically, despite the physical severity a peanut poses. The piece below takes the reader inside my mind as I fear for my life.
The Rise of Fame, The Fall of Family
After spending the past year becoming a rising star, Daisy comes home plastered on the front page of The Times. Her parents disapprove of Daisy’s lifestyle, forcing her to choose between them and her fame.
To Be A Princess
I never realized that my dream of becoming a princess as already been fulfilled long before I was born.
Welcome To The Neighborhood
This story is an excerpt that explores the effects gentrification can have on a community and its foundational members. Clem has been living in this neighborhood forever, and it suddenly changes before her eyes.
Oma’s Hands
“Oma” is the German word for grandma. These two short memoirs are the beginning of a larger collection centering around my Oma and how my perception of her has changed over time.
The Smiling Eyes
Like the title of this anthology, I often feel like I am the other side of everything as I navigate my life in the USA as a Korean immigrant.
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.