Uncertain Girls in Uncertain Times - by Donna Bellew & Joyce Chen (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

Uncertain Girls in Uncertain Times is an anthology that encourages young women launching into adulthood to imagine deeply, create bravely, and find the confidence to build a meaningful life in this uncertain and chaotic world. Each one of the forty contributors brings their voice and experience to reflect on a poem that has held particular significance in their life, sharing words of wisdom, vulnerable admissions, and life lessons. Reflections range from practical advice to philosophical musings, from stories of triumph to somber tellings of the tougher days, while the selected poems fill in the gaps, offering access to invaluable, timeless wisdom. Interwoven between the poems and essays are snippets of conversation between a mother and her daughter, who is beginning her own launch into adulthood, held over the course of a year.

Review Quotes

Uncertain Girls in Uncertain Times emerges as an anthology of our foremost voices and advocates who ignite the wisdom of our time, like the clear flash of a match. Amid the corpuscles of the unknown, the love of strangers, the ossification of danger, the pellucidity of peace, the anthology dares to hold the face of this country, its long history and structural realities, for the possibility of a new kind of existence. With dignity, we arrive at the delicate and moss-grown truths of silence, stillness, death, and life--of faith and kindness, joy, and liberation
--E. J. Koh, author of The Liberators and The Magical Language of Others

About the Author

Donna Wolf is a community activist, organizational consultant, executive coach, mother, and lover of poetry. She is passionate about poetry and connecting people through words and across experiences. She has sat on and chaired numerous nonprofit boards. She is past board chair of Copper Canyon Press and currently sits on the Town Hall Seattle and Copper Canyon boards. She lives in Seattle.

Joyce Chen is a writer, editor, and community builder who draws inspiration from many coastal cities. She was the 2022-2024 Hugo House writer-in-residence and was a 2019-2020 Hugo House Fellow. Her work has been published in Rolling Stone, Poets & Writers, Lit Hub, Narratively, and Slant'd, among others, and she contributes book reviews to Orion and Hyphen magazines. She has received support through Hugo House, VONA, Tin House, Artist Trust, Vermont Studio Center, Centrum, and Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, and she is the executive director of the Seventh Wave, an arts and literary nonprofit that champions art in the space of social issues. She resides in Seattle with her partner, their tiny dachshund, and many leafy plants.