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!
Writer in the dark
Before I found writing, I was lost. After that, I was found.
Under Water
Some moments never stuck, others are vividly blazed. These are memories are stained-covered with tears, laughter and my heart. Invaluable and reflected across page.
Girl, missing, presumed alive
This microfiction charts the journey of a girl overwhelmed by expectations as wildfires rage around her.
The Blue Book
Blue indicates many notions, more chaotically, heightening the euphoria and dysphoria of a relationship to the independent entity of nature. "The Blue Book:" encompasses a lesson learned from a peaceful world, the loudest voice.
He & She
One Girl… One Love… where did it lead her?
Greed
This poem exemplifies how human greed destroys the planet, and the beings that have nothing to do with humans’ actions are the ones who suffer.
Moving Up
As Elery adapts to her new job at the publishing firm, she looks back on her previous job at the local bookstore. The skills she gained stacking books may be more useful than she thought.
College Essay
An insight into a journey of communication and the challenges that come with it.
Confinements of Society
This is a college essay about diversity, confinement and the upbringing within a small, narrow-minded community.
Where We’re From
New York skyscrapers are far from the sky-scraping Smoky Mountains, and in combining our stories, we shared our fierce pride for our homes and the inherent poetry there is in growing up in these places.
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.