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RISE SPEAK CHANGE

THE GIRLS WRITE NOW 2017 ANTHOLOGY

This year’s Anthology theme perfectly captures why communities like Girls Write Now must exist: to rise, to speak, to change. Such seemingly small words but, without them, where would we be?

In my first job out of college, teaching English at an underprivileged school, I was handed a decades-old curriculum filled with stories from suburban life. I didn’t blame my students for being disengaged. And when girls in my seventh-grade class needed enrichment reading, I would lamely offer recommendations of books I had loved growing up in rural Wisconsin.

I moved to New York to pursue work in book publishing. I was driven by what had, by then, turned into a burning question I needed to address: Where were the voices of girls today? I met with many agents and editors who listened politely but firmly told me “those books” would not sell. So when I finally found Girls Write Now a few years into my time here, it felt like coming home to a place I had been searching for all those years. This community, this Anthology, is what I knew was missing. And I’m so thankful that it is in the world today.

Rise Speak Change exemplifies the mentor-mentee relationship: Those first moments when we rise from our workshop chairs to meet for the very first time . . . The early meetings when we begin to share our stories through words on and off the page . . . And the later ones where we freely discuss our dreams and encourage one another to change, to evolve, to rise yet again.

We are all called to Rise Speak Change in our own spheres of influence. We have seen these past few months how powerful women’s voices can be, but also how much work still lies ahead. This Anthology of new voices raising new questions is essential to finding a path forward. My hope is that this book itself can be an agent of change. Share it with a young woman who might feel alone. With a man who is looking for perspective to understand the experience of growing up female and underserved. With a friend who is looking for a spark of creativity. Or an English teacher whose girls are desperate for new stories with which to identify.

My former mentee Mariah joined me for an Anthology committee meeting as we were in the process of working on this book. On top of her busy workload as a junior in college, she told me about the LGBTQ club she was starting on campus; how she’d gone straight to her college’s president to request a pledge from him to protect the rights of transgender students there. Mariah exemplifies how the work that begins within Girls Write Now goes far beyond its walls and even these pages. We mentor these young women, and their words, to empower them to see their lives in new ways, their ideas in print, and their ability to make a mark on the world. I hope this collection inspires you to rise as well.

—MEG CASSIDY, Anthology Committee Chair