Girls Write Now Anthology Committee Book Picks: 2023 Edition!

GRAY LOVE
EDITED by NAN Bauer-maglin & Daniel e. hood

Rutgers University Press

Gray Love narrates stories about the most common themes – searching for and (perhaps) finding love. Forty-five men and women between ages 60 and 94 from diverse backgrounds talk about dating, starting or ending a relationship, embracing life alone or enjoying a partnered one. Those who find new partners explore issues that most relationships encounter at any age, as well as some that are unique to elder relationships.

Nan Bauer-Maglin

Relations: An Anthology of african and diaspora voices
edited by nana ekua brew-hammond

HarperVia

Fresh and electrifying—stories, poems, and essays by African and diaspora writers, edited by author Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond. Relations punctures the human illusion of separation. New and established storytellers reshape the narratives that divide and subjugate, revealing the truth of our shared humanity despite differences in language, identity, class, gender, and beyond. This vital anthology is Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond’s striking vision of a meeting place of perspectives, centered in the African and diaspora experience.

Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond

The Mean$
BY Amy Fusselman

Mariner Books

Shelly Means, a stay-at-home mom and disgraced former PTA president, is poised to get the one thing in life she really wants: a beach house in the Hamptons. When her spouse George wants to cancel the beach house, Shelly goes deeper down the rabbit hole of capitalism: it’s an investment property! It’s a community! It’s a place for their children to thrive! And, for a woman whose labor has buoyed her family for years, this beach house might just be Shelly’s last stand. The Means is a comedy about the suffering inherent in desire, capitalist delusion, and the value of unpaid labor.

Amy Fusselman

COnfessions in b-flat
by Donna Hill

Entangled Press

Optioned for film by Amblin Partners with Octavia Spencer to produce, Essence bestselling author Donna Hill brings us an emotional love story set against the powerful backdrop of the civil rights movement that gripped a nation—a story as timely as it is timeless… The year is 1963. In Harlem, the epicenter of Black culture, the fight for equality has never been stronger. The time is now. Enough is enough. Yet even within its ranks, a different kind of battle rages. One movement, two warring ideologies—can love be enough to unite them? Confessions in B-Flat is a celebration of the hard-won victories of those who came before us, and a stark reminder of just how far we still have to go.

Donna Hill

The Body Liberation project
by Chrissy King

Tiny Reparations

From author and wellness personality Chrissy King, an exciting, genre-redefining narrative mix of memoir, inspiration, and activities and prompts, with timely messages about social and racial justice and how the world needs to move beyond body positivity to something even more exciting and revolutionary: body liberation.

Chrissy King

Cover Charge
by Linda Kleinbub

Autonomedia

Linda Kleinbub’s first book of poems, Cover Charge, embraces the spirit of New York City through chance encounters, unexpected blessings, and the beauty of gardens, city skylines, and distant shores.

Linda Kleinbub

Fixed Stars
by Marisa siegel
illustrated trisha previte

Burrow Press

In Fixed Stars, Marisa Siegel investigates the in-between: windows, porches, drawers, bedrooms, and basements are portals to examine how language shapes and is shaped, and to what ends. With original artwork by Trisha Previte, Fixed Stars is a lush voyage through trauma and toward the reestablishment of hope.

Marisa Siegel

So Glad they told me: Women get real about motherhood
by stephanie springer and jessica smock
Featuring writing by committee member liza wyles

The HerStories Project Press

This collection of essays from 60 mothers—including Girls Write Now’s own Liza Wyles—will empower and unite parents with real, honest advice from women who have been there. Inspired by the viral essay and #SoGladTheyToldMe social media movement, this book aims to change conversations about motherhood by presenting a broader, more realistic, and more balanced image of motherhood so that women will feel less inadequate, adversarial, and isolated.

Liza Wyles

The Celestial Sexpot’s Handbook
by Kiki T.

Grand Central Press

It’s no secret that the art of seduction, not to mention the art of love, is tough and that most anyone can use all the help that he or she can get. Finally, the one and only astrosexologist of Jane and Playgirl magazine, Kiki T., reveals all her stargazing secrets. Here are delicious tidbits of libinous information on how to nail your man, according to his astrological makeup. This ultimate guide unmasks each sign’s love/lust modus operandi–the good, bad, and shockingly ugly–and teaches you how to make it work for you. 

Kiki T.

Catastrophe Theory
by Rebecca Lowry Warchut

Woodhall Press

Due to a rare brain tumor, Vera Garcia’s soccer career is suddenly sidelined at the start of her senior year. When her single mother Eliza, terrified at the thought of losing her only daughter, clings too tightly, both Vera’s identity and her freedom are in jeopardy. They make it to St. Petersburg, Florida for surgery, just as Hurricane Phoenix’s trajectory turns directly toward them. As it churns closer and closer, past and present collide in a whirlwind of love, betrayal, and illusion. Will they succumb to loss, or like the phoenix, reinvent themselves, rewrite their stories, and rise anew?

Rebecca Lowry Warchut

The Shimmering state
by Meredith Westgate

Atria Books

Meredith Westgate’s literary debut follows two patients in recovery after an experimental memory drug known as Mem warps their lives. When Lucien and Sophie meet at The Center, founded by an ambitious yet conflicted doctor to treat patients who’ve abused Mem, they have no memory of how they got there—or why they feel so inexplicably drawn to each other. Is it attraction, or something they cannot remember from “before”?

Meredith Westgate