Girls Write Now On the Other Side of Everything: 2023 Anthology is now available to purchase in stores and online
June 1, 2023
Yesterday, Girls Write Now hosted the launch party for Girls Write Now On the Other Side of Everything: 2023 Anthology at P&T Knitwear, a bookstore, cafe, and podcast studio in the Lower East Side. The event was live streamed on Facebook and Zoom to our community across the country. Attendees had the opportunity to browse the bookstore, purchase their own copy of the 2023 anthology, and enjoy Girls Write Now themed cookies. The crowd included mentors, mentees, Girls Write Now board members, publishing partners, friends, and family.
The event began with an introduction in Ojibwemowan followed by a land acknowledgement given by Fellow Annabel Young. Anthology committee member and mentor, Kiki T., then kicked off the night with an introduction to Girls Write Now and this year’s anthology before turning it over to the mentees who were chosen to read their writing.
The reading program included introductions by mentors and staff leads before each mentee read their piece. As Girls Write Now’s first hybrid event, some participants joined virtually while others presented in-person. The first three performers were the honorable mentions and winner of the Art of Kindness Poetry Contest: Sanya Afsar, Asma Al-Masyabi, and Ariel Zhang. They were followed by mentees Sidney Strong, Naomi Eyre, Izabell Mendez, Roxie Gosfield, Olivia Kim, and Alex Berman reading their pieces from the 2023 anthology.
Lashanda Anakwah and Rachel Cohen, a mentee alum and mentor alum who were originally paired at Girls Write Now in 2010, spoke at the event to share their journey as a pair. Lashanda currently serves as an editor at Tiny Reparations, an imprint of Penguin Random House started by Girls Write Now honoree Phoebe Robinson. She spoke about how her mentorship with Rachel positively shaped her career and creative journey, and encouraged others to join her in applying to be a mentor for the upcoming 2023-2024 year.
The evening’s program concluded with a moving speech by Chrissy King, the author of The Body Liberation Project who wrote the foreword to the 2023 anthology, in which she said that Girls Write Now “was exactly what I needed when I was a teenager.” After the program ended, Chrissy headed to the podcast studio with Editor-in-Residence Kathryn Destin to record a bonus episode of the Girls Write Now podcast Speaking In First Draft.
Stay tuned for more photos and videos from the 2023 anthology launch party in the coming weeks!
