(Her)oics Anthology

The (Her)oics Anthology is off to the presses and will be released in Winter 2021. We have collected 52 essays from women all over the  US, about very diverse experiences during the Covid-19 Pandemic.  You can see details on all 52 contributors here .

Regal House Publishing (Pact Press) has graciously committed to partnering with Amy Roost and Joanell Serra  (Co-Editors) in bringing this anthology to life. Preorder Copies Here !

We hope to pay every writer who gives their time to the project a stipend for their participation. Our financial goal makes sure every writer gets paid. Please help us make this project and success in supporting writers during this difficult time, and in amplifying voices . These funds will be for the writers, not the editors or publisher. 

Stories connect, inspire, reduce isolation, bridge communities and shape policy. This pandemic has highlighted again how far we have slid from a reasonable and just society—these stories will highlight the challenges women of all groups are facing and demonstrate the many ingenious ways they are coping and rising above. 

We deeply appreciate your support in supporting our writing "Heroines." 

Here are some fun options for donors to receive as well as give.  

Please accept our gifts as a token of our gratitude donating at one of the following LEVELS:

PATRON:$250 or above
Acknowledged as sponsor in the (Her)oics anthology and in promotional materials and podcast, A signed (by editors) special edition (hard cover) copy of Anthology, -PLUS:two trivia tickets- PLUS- one workshop ticket, -PLUS- choice of 1 previously published book by (Her)oics contributors, listed below. 

SPONSOR: $100
A signed, first edition copy of (Her)oics, option to be announced as a sponsor on the (Her)oics Podcast as well as 2 Trivia Tickets or one workshop ticket. 

BELIEVER: $50
A signed, first edition copy of the (Her)oics anthology (Print, Paperback) and one Trivia Ticket.

LEARNER: $40
Your Choice of A spot in a “Powerful Prose” creative writing workshop with Joanell Serra on Sunday September 20, 3:00 – 5:00 PM (Zoom, with surprise guest teachers).
-Or-
A spot in Amy Roost Non-Fiction Book Proposal Writing Workshop on Wednesday, October 7, 5pm-7pm PDT (Zoom).

READER: $30
Choose one of the books by (Her)oics Anthology Contributors/Editors (limited supply) 

Fury : Women’s Lived Experiences During the Trump Era, (Pact Press, 2020), co-edited by Amy Roost and Alissa Hirshfeld (Limit: 3 Copies)
The Vines We Planted by Joanell Serra  (Wido, 2018) (Limit 5 Copies)

GAMER : $20
Two tickets to Trivia the evening of September 24th (6:00 PM PST) Live Online Trivia game with professional host, music and picture rounds, and prizes. These events have been much fun during our time "at home" – Play with a team or on your own!

We welcome contributions of all sizes! Even small donations are a commitment to amplifying women's voices during this challenging time.  

The Editors


Amy Roost conceived of and co-edited Fury: Women’s Lived Experiences During the Trump Era for Pact Press. She is an Annenberg Health Journalism fellow and host of Hazard, a Critical Frequency Network podcast about the health risks of pesticides. She has written for numerous print and online publications including Ms. Magazine, Bitch Media, Narratively, Guideposts, and The Writer. Her Snap Judgment podcast Finding Rebecca (Episode #831) was submitted for a Peabody Award and film rights to the story were purchased by Fox Studios. She is also a contributor to and co-editor of Ritual and Healing: Stories of Ordinary and Extraordinary Transformation (Motivational Press 2013). Amy has received numerous journalism awards for her op-ed columns appearing in Pomerado News publications and she is the recipient of the KPBS Explore San Diego Fellowship. 


Joanell Serra is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, writer, Impact coach, retreat leader and non-profit consultant. She worked in public health during and after the AIDS crisis, and led non-profit programs that support women and youth for many years. . She conducts workshops on writing, mindfulness, self-care and parenting. Her literary novel, The Vines We Planted, came out in 2018 (WiDo). She has been published in numerous literary journals. To join her mailing list or see more of her work, please find her at Joanell Serra Author.

Quotes from the Anthology (We will keep updating these! Come back and see new ones every few days.) 

ED -19  by Camille Beredjick    

If COVID-19 has made one thing clear, it’s that we all deserve to be well, and to modify our lives in order to uphold and savor that wellness. I’ve spent years trying to believe that I’m worthy of recovering; that I can take up as much space as I need in order to heal. When we reach the other side of this, I hope that’s part of my new normal, too.

Covid Chronicle By Babs Greeley

I hold the hand of a woman as she lays dying. I communicate with her nurse via walkie talkie when she needs more pain medicine because the pump is outside the glass door. I wait with her until her breathing becomes easy and gentle. I notice that someone has painted her fingernails bright pink. They were chipped, probably done weeks ago. I imagined her then, maybe laughing and joking and blowing on the polish impatiently to make it dry more quickly.

What is Enough?  By Raluca Loanid

We set up a mobile clinic inside the plant, known also as “La Tomatera,” and tested all 220 workers....Inside the plant there is a constant deafening roar of conveyor belts and forklifts as workers wearing hairnets and cloth masks work elbow to elbow to sort and package thousands of pounds of tomatoes at a breakneck speed. Almost all of the workers are Latinx, many of them middle aged and even elderly. Some are stout and stooped with age, the packing plant being a welcome respite after decades of work in the fields; others are lithe and strong young people, wide-eyed new arrivals to the area who form part of the seasonal Eastern migrant stream from Florida to Vermont.

Newly Sober in the Time of the Corona Virus  By Sari Caine

You left your own Big Book in the back of your Uber on the way to LaGuardia Airport, and you want to believe this is the best of all possible worlds too; in the midst of a global pandemic, you never know who might need to find a Big Book in their car.

Cold Front By Nikki Kahlio

My mother stops clearing branches and wanders over to where I’m sitting on the walkway, and my father follows suit. My mother sits on a higher step, my father on a nearby decorative bale of hay. We are a “quaranteam,” but try to distance properly since I’d been to the hospital.

They talk about the president’s recent idea about injecting disinfectant into our bodies to kill the coronavirus. We look around as if there’s someone to explain.