Written by: Kelly on August 17, 2015.

Remember the time I sold an anthology of feminist essays to Algonquin Young Readers? It’s been a few months since I’ve talked about it here on STACKED, and that’s for good reason: I’ve been working on collecting the most dynamic, exciting, wide-ranging voices to contribute.

One of the goals of this collection is to have a solid group of essays, as well as art and comics. One of the other goals was to also reach out to “big name” and celebrities to get their voices into the collection, too. I won’t lie and say that part was easy, but I will say that has been one of the most enjoyable, eye-opening, and educational elements of putting together this collection. I have learned about negotiating on rights, among other things. Because some of these negotiations aren’t complete yet, I don’t feel comfortable sharing, but needless to say, I’m very excited by the “big” names who will be included in the collection.

But I’m not going to be a complete meanie in this post. I DO have a roster of contributors who have signed, sealed, and delivered contracts to me for inclusion in Feminism For The Real World. Curious who they might be?

I’m excited to share, in alphabetical order, the authors and artists who will be included in the anthology. Their pieces range in topic, in voice, in structure, and in approach, and the ones I have seen so far have blown me away. I cannot wait to see the whole of this come together, and more, I cannot wait for this collection to get into the hands of teenagers — especially teenage girls — in spring 2017.

I’ve linked to the websites or work of the contributors, so you can check out what they’ve been working on and what it was about their work, their voices, and their perspectives that made me want to include them:









Illustrators and Artists





It’s an honor to work with this roster of writers and artists. I’ve admired so much of their work and their insights, that being told “yes! I’m interested!” to contributing to my collection was nothing short of flattering.

This is my dream project, and I’ve learned so much so far, both from the contributors and my editors. I cannot wait to talk more about this as the project proceeds, but one thing that stands out to me is something I talked a bit about earlier this summer: the course I took in college as my capstone, where the final project was developing an anthology, has played a tremendous role in my thinking about this particular collection. But more — and maybe more importantly — it made me rethink some of the things I learned or analyzed in that particular class. Like in librarianship, you learn about ideals and perfect case scenarios in the classroom. You ask a lot of “why did they fail to do this or this or this?” in regards to imperfection in creation.

But the truth is, when you’re in the thick of things, when you’re actually on the ground making and doing, there are so many confounding factors that muddy the process. Nothing will ever be perfect; it can’t be. Instead, you make it the best thing you can make it, and you take pride in that. The process of asking myself questions, of asking questions of those who know better or who have more experience, has been enlightening and humbling.

I’m very proud of this so far, and I’m only going to be more thrilled as further pieces click into place. I cannot wait to see it all come together.