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Honoring Dana A. Williams

Girls Write Now Fall 2025 Awards

On October 9, 2025, we honor professor, dean, and editor Dana A. Williams at the Girls Write Now Awards ceremony hosted at Diane von Furstenberg Studios.

Dana A. Williams is Professor of African American literature and Dean of the Graduate School at Howard University.

She is former president of the College Language Association and the Modern Languages Association, and is the author of Toni at Random: The Iconic Writer’s Legendary Editorship, In the Light of Likeness—Transformed: The Literary Art of Leon Forrest.

She is also the editor of several books. Her work has been published in prestigious journals, including PMLA, CLA Journal, African American Review, Early American Literature, American Literary History, and the Langston Hughes Review.

More About Dana

Introduced By:

Abby West

Abby West is the VP, Editorial Director for Amistad, an imprint at HarperCollins. She drives the editorial direction of the nearly 40-year-old imprint, including all of Zora Neale Hurston books, such as Their Eyes Were Watching God and the newly published The Life of Herod the Great. Her recent titles include Toni at Random by Dana A. Williams, My Father’s House: An Ode to America’s Longest Serving Black Congressman by John Conyers III, and Positive Obsession by Susanna Morris. Abby was previously Director of Inclusive Content Programming at Audible and co-founded the Black Employee Network, an Audible ERG. She is a recovering journalist, whose years at prominent media organizations such as Audible, Essence, Entertainment Weekly, and People gave her a love of stories that explore, empower, and celebrate the narratives that often go untold. She also serves on the board of the Children’s Law Center of New York.

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