To truly understand Girls Write Now, zoom out and observe a complex, multidimensional organism, constantly and consciously in the making. Its contours come into focus, and each word dissolves and evolves: Girls becomes a spectrum across gender, race, age, and income; Write spans genres, media, and disciplines; Now stretches across three decades and counting. Resolved into its component parts—G.W.N.—its very being refracts: a nonprofit but also an incubator of art, a developer of professions, a community that heals. Made for writing and mentoring—and, in turn, for training, curating, and fortifying coalitions of artists, educators, and leaders. Rooted in New York City, branching outward: statewide, nationally, and even globally. Dubbed the Collaboratory: intimate, versatile, cutting-edge; designed to move with AI, a volatile marketplace, and our own psychees. For Girls Write Now, Metamorphosis is not only the title and theme of this anthology. It is a state of being.
“Reading, writing and being encouraged to do both is what made being a young woman tolerable for me. The teachers who fostered my young self-expression remain the heroes of my life. Girls Write Now is doing the essential, joyful work of nurturing the next generation of writers, and of giving them not just the tools, but the permission, to tell the truth about their lives. This organization means so much to me, both personally and creatively. As the beneficiary of a transformative and life-affirming education in creative writing, I know firsthand the gift that kind of mentorship and community can be—both for the writers and for all of us lucky enough to read them.”
—LENA DUNHAM, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Famesick
“As writers we often wrestle with ‘What’s the point?’ It is clear Metamorphosis: 2026 Girls Write Now Anthology is exactly the point. The voices in this anthology are the ones we must listen to. They remind us to keep fighting for the world these young girls deserve. They are our future and our hope.”
—PAOLA MENDOZA, coauthor of Sanctuary
“There is nothing that makes me feel more hopeful, earnest, and enlivened than reading young women’s writing. With women and femmes voices being silenced, creativity undervalued, and what feels to me like a pervasive ambivalence clouding our daily lives—this anthology feels like coming up for air. Sharp, witty, heart-centered, and profound, Metamorphosis: 2026 Girls Write Now Anthology will remind you of everything that actually matters in our one and only soulful, complex, and (hopefully) art-filled life.”
—HALEY JAKOBSON, author of New York Times Editors’ Choice Old Enough
“We have the most creative generation in history coming up. Girls Write Now is capturing the voice of the next generation of storytellers. Here’s a moment to slow down—and listen.”
—CHRISTINA HAWATMEH, founder and CEO of Scopio, a marketplace of global images, and author of The Year Time Stopped and If Women Ruled the World
“Girls Write Now creates an inspirational platform for expressive young women’s voices to be honored and heard as they join those who have come before them . . . in shaping the future for all.”
—RANDEE ST. NICHOLAS, photographer, director, and author of from without . . . and from within
“For too long the value of female voices has been diminished; Girls Write Now shepherds young women to stand firmly in the power of their words through the mining of truth, the sharing of stories, and the beautiful web of community. As a woman, and a writer, I can think of no greater gift.”
—RACHEL FROST GENISE, playwright of Lapdog and Becoming a Woman
“In an age of censorship and silencing, Girls Write Now arms young writers with the most powerful tool—a pen and a page—to tell their own stories, in their own words; to find their voices and be heard. A vibrant and vital collection that gives me great hope for the world.”
—MELISSA FALIVENO, author of Tomboyland and Hemlock
