Skip to main content

You make this possible. Support our independent, nonprofit newsroom today.

Give Now

A Poem Anthology For Gutsy Girls

caption: Anthology co-editor Karen Finneyfrock
Enlarge Icon
Anthology co-editor Karen Finneyfrock
Courtesy of Inti St. Clair

If you could go back in time, what would you want to say to your teenage self?

Writers Karen Finneyfrock, Rachel McKibbens and Mindy Nettifee decided to gather poems they wished they'd had when they were younger.

"If we could give [teenage girls] one charm to tuck into their pockets, it would be courage," reads an excerpt from the introduction of their new anthology, "Courage: Daring Poems for Gutsy Girls."

Novelist, poet and teaching artist Finneyfrock reads two poems from the anthology: "The First Time I Hit a Boy" by Mindy Netiffee, and Daphne Gottlieb's "In Case You Ever Need It, It Is Here."

Finneyfrock is the author of two novels for young adults, "Starbird Murphy and the World Outside" and "The Sweet Revenge of Celia Door," and the poetry collection, "Ceremony for the Choking Ghost."

Why you can trust KUOW