Announcing 2022’s Top 5 STEP Finalists!

The publishing industry has been widely criticized for its lack of BIPOC voices. At She Writes Press and SparkPress, we are well aware of the need for more and broader representation of BIPOC authors on our lists.

In an effort to address this issue head-on we launched the She Writes Press and SparkPress Toward Equality in Publishing (STEP) contest in 2018 to offer a publishing package (plus a 500-book print run) to publish on either She Writes Press or SparkPress.

Meet the lovely finalists of our fifth annual contest below, and show them some love on social!

Grishma Shah, author of An Anagrammed Destiny

Grishma Shah was inspired to write this story not only as a daughter of Indian immigrants, who spent part of her childhood growing up in motels/convenience stores, but also as an expert on globalization and culture. After years as an academic—publishing, researching, teaching, and traveling, she believes that nothing educates, enlightens, informs or propels us forward like a good story. Consequently, she has been moonlighting as a storyteller.

About An Anagrammed Destiny: 

When Aanya arrives in India, ready for a new beginning, she is in awe of the glitz and glamour of expat living, but on her very first day, in the still of her apartment, tears salt her welcome cake. The cake, a celebration, a symbol of her career accomplishments, a salute to her triumphs and yet, she has never felt more alone—not even on her darkest days. Luckily, when she pitches her work to Abhimanyu, the self-made, down-to-earth Director of Events at the Taj Palace Hotel in Mumbai, they are mutually charmed. But before Aanya can find the strength to reciprocate, she is thrust into reliving her past. Can a second act of fear, thousands of miles from New York, help Aanya reconcile and move forward?

Lally Pia, MD, author of Doctor of Doctors

Lally Pia, MD, is a Child and Adolescent psychiatrist at a non-profit mental health clinic in Sacramento. Doctor of Doctors is her debut memoir. She is a member of California Writers’ Clubs (Sacramento, Fremont), Elk Grove Writers and the Davis Writers’ Salon. She received Honorable Mention in a Writers Digest competition in 2020, provided a workshop on Seeing Through Your Character’s Eyes in June, 2022, and was recently a finalist for America’s Next Great Author.

About Doctor of Doctors:

Lally is in a rut. A coup closed her Ghana medical school, followed by a botched U.S. Green Card, so at age twenty-two she is separated from her family in California. With no money, nowhere to stay, and ethnic conflict raging in Sri Lanka, she is a refugee. She moves to South Wales and marries John Russell, but he is controlling, with traditional views about a woman’s place. They move in with Lally’s parents in California. Lally is alarmed by John’s anti-American sentiments and escalating verbal abuse. She becomes a U.S. citizen and leaves him. Plunging into welfare with two daughters, she works at a mortuary, but dreams about becoming a doctor. Eleven years later, she graduates as a child and adolescent psychiatrist.

Lily Wang, author of A Taste of Crimson

Lily (Ziyan) Wang is a student at the business school of the University of Toronto who dreams of publishing her novels. She enjoys reading literature and writing fantasy or crime with a dash of romance. Readers have described her works as “descriptive and well-paced” and “an emotional rollercoaster” with an “interesting and suspenseful” plot that highlights themes. A young writer, she’s passionate about reflecting our world through a fictional one. She hopes to improve on distinguishing her characters’ voices from each other, honing her storytelling abilities, and capturing readers’ attention from chapter one.

About A Taste of Crimson:

This is a story about a band of serial killers. Celestia, code name Red, experiences life as a murderer-high school student, where she feels human warmth from Eden and animosity from Arkis and, gradually, her new life lessons as a moral person make her question what she was taught as a killer. When her friend dies in a murder-suicide, Red becomes the centerpiece of not one, but two plots to settle an old score between Arkis and Violet, the founder of the Coins Clique. As the house of cards crumbles, Celestia watches as each member’s long-buried past become their undoing and vengeance takes, from them all, the increasingly human lives they had come to love.

Mia Cash, author of Color in the Lines

Mia’s love for the written word began at an early age, her childhood in Colorado spent perusing Barnes and Noble to find her favorite books. As an English major at Stanford University, she further developed her literary skills and graduated from the prestigious Honors in the Arts program where she wrote the first draft of her novel, Color in the Lines. The novel, which was a finalist for the 2018 Hurston/Wright Award for College Writers, is Mia’s love letter to the Black family. Mia is based in Boston where she lives with her college sweetheart and perpetual supporter, Devon.

About Color in the Lines: 

In Color in the Lines, Anthony, a darker-skinned Black teen, seeks to defend his sense of Black authenticity from his lighter-skinned sister and mother after his darker-skinned father’s death. Though the family initially shares Anthony’s grief, the addition of a new, light-skinned stepfather in the family drives the characters apart as they confront their own biases about race, color, and family. Through the unique pain and joy of family bonds, this novel tackles not only a family’s obligation to one another but also what it means to belong to a truly “Black” family.

Instagram: @writebymia
YouTube: Write By Mia
Website: https://www.writebymia.com/

Stephanie Curry, author of All Our Wars

I have recently published essays on Refinery29 and The Opal Club. I have also reported for the Tombstone Epitaph in Southern Arizona. As a bi-racial Mexican American who grew up 60 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border, I was inspired to major in Journalism and minor in Latin American Studies at the University of Arizona in order to better understand the tumultuous political climate of border regions.

About All Our Wars: 

When a surprise announcement elevates Sofia De Luna, the estranged daughter of a Mexican cartel leader, to head of the family, she must choose between honoring her murdered mother’s wishes or protecting her family. As the political world shifts, Andres Herrera, an old family enemy, leverages his secret past with Sofia while her family clutches their last tendrils of power. Once a rogue DEA agent exposes the dark lengths Sofia’s family will go to keep their power, Sofia is caught between embracing the life she denounced, cementing her family’s violent legacy, or rewriting their history, no matter the risk.