Among the many new books published each season is a shelf full of notable anthologies, each one showcasing the work of writers united by genre, form, or theme. The Anthologist highlights a few recently released or forthcoming collections, including Both/And: Essays by Trans and Gender-Nonconforming Writers of Color.
The People’s Project: Poems, Essays, and Art for Looking Forward (Washington Square Press, September 2025), curated by Saeed Jones and Maggie Smith, collects verse, nonfiction, and illustrated meditations on envisioning a path ahead for action and communal care amid domestic crises of democracy, division, and human rights. The anthology comprises original and selected reflections from twenty-six writers, including Hala Alyan, Victoria Chang, Tiana Clark, Joy Harjo, Marlon James, Ada Limón, Imani Perry, Sam Sax, and Danez Smith. In their introduction, Jones and Smith write, “The People’s Project is our attempt to honor the fact that, terrified as we are, we are nonetheless proud to understand the stakes of our work. No way forward but through, together. As it should be.”
The stakes of literature are also front and center in Both/And: Essays by Trans and Gender-Nonconforming Writers of Color (HarperOne, August 2025), edited by Denne Michele Norris, who is the editor in chief of Electric Literature. Both/And offers an impassioned ensemble of voices, each exploring what it means to live as a trans or gender-nonconforming person of color today. Filled with stories of queer joy, heartache, rage, and self-discovery, the seventeen essays in this anthology are authored by writers, scientists, activists, and drag queens. Contributors include Akwaeke Emezi, Meredith Talusan, and Tanaïs. In her introduction, Norris writes: “We’ve been here, telling our stories in our own words, our voices rising to the rafters, ringing so loud that we’re impossible to ignore.”
In another anthology that speaks to joy and resilience amidst political turmoil in the United States, America’s Future: Poetry & Prose in Response to Tomorrow (Washington Writers’ Publishing House, September 2025), editors Caroline Bock and Jona Colson compile work from 164 diverse voices with ties to Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia. The anthology opens with prose from Maryland Congressman Jamie Raskin and is followed by a collaborative poem called “To Write Is to Flower” by Miho Kinnas and E. Ethelbert Miller. In the foreword, Bock and Colson write, “This anthology is a meditation on tomorrow—it challenges us to confront the struggles we’ve inherited, question the uncertainties of our present, and create possibilities for a future we dare to imagine.”
