We’re proud to publish our annual anthology, Taking Our Place in History: The Girls Write Now 2020 Anthology, available for purchase on May 19th through McNally Jackson Books.
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.
Read excerpts from the anthology here.
The introduction of Taking Our Place in History is written by Christine Ball, the Senior Vice President and Publisher at Dutton, Putnam, and Berkley, an imprint of Penguin Random House. Rupi Kaur, the internationally bestselling poet, illustrator, performer, and author of milk and honey and the sun and her flowers, dedicated a poem to the young writers of Girls Write Now.
PARTNERING WITH DUTTON & AMAZON LITERARY PARTNERSHIP
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.
Girls Write Now anthologies have received praise from Gloria Steinem, Roxane Gay, Meg Wolitzer, Elaine Welteroth, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Jia Tolentino, Emma Straub, Jenny Zhang, Zadie Smith, Melissa Harris-Perry, Emma Cline, Morgan Parker, Emily St. John Mandel, Janet Mock, and countless others. Says People magazine, “It’s hard not to be inspired.”
The Girls Write Now anthology series has been recognized as the Outstanding Book of the Year in the Independent Publisher Book Awards, and has earned additional honors from the International Book Awards, National Indie Excellence Awards, Next Generation Indie Book Awards, the New York Book Festival, the San Francisco Book Festival, and the Paris Book Festival.
PRAISE FOR TAKING OUR PLACE IN HISTORY
“Too many girls are living their lives as a whisper, Girls Write Now teaches them to turn the volume all the way and let the world hear and see their stories, ”
— CLEO WADE, author of Heart Talk: Poetic Wisdom for a Better Life
“The written word has often been the only outlet for women and girls to express their authentic stories and unique voices in so many societies across the globe. Girls Write Now harnesses that power, nurtures it, and amplifies it so that these singular voices can become generations.”
— ROBIN THEDE, Creator, Writer, Executive Producer and Star of A Black Lady Sketch Show
“The voices of girls and gender nonconforming youth have historically been downplayed, belittled, or lost to us—but they refuse to disappear any longer. Girls Write Now is giving a loudspeaker to these crucial voices, their wants and desires, and preserving them, putting them right in the stream of history, where they have always belonged.”
— ILANA MASAD, author of All My Mother’s Lovers
“The young women and gender non-conforming youth whose work fills these pages are not only tomorrow’s greatest writers, speakers, activists, and thinkers—they are also today’s. Here are the voices shaping the world.”
— JULIA PHILLIPS, author of Disappearing Earth
TAKING OUR PLACE IN HISTORY TOOLKIT
A big thank you to our wonderful mentor alum Livia Nelson, who created and designed these assets for Taking Our Place In History! Feel free to download them to use on social to spread the word about the anthology.
A Big Thank You To Our 2020 Anthology Editorial Committee!
