Rebecca H. Wang holds a B.A. in Romance Languages and Literature from Wesleyan University and lives in New Jersey with her husband and two kids. Her memoir about surviving postpartum sepsis is forthcoming from She Writes Press in the fall of 2027. For more info, be sure to visit Rebecca's website at RebeccaWang.com.

 

Rebecca's Inspiration for ther winning submission, New-Gen Mixed Kid:

One thing I always tell my friends who are about to become first-time moms is that everything is a phase—and that that's a double-edged sword. Anything that's hard or uncomfortable is bound to end eventually, but so will anything that's going well. Just when you think you've gotten the hang of one thing, a new challenge arises. With my first grader, I was just thinking we were in a really smooth patch. He was reading and writing, acing his math quizzes, making new friends, and so on. But then the question about lightening his skin came up, and the unhappiness over being half Indian. I thought I would have more time (like, years) before we'd be discussing such things. I should have known better than to get complacent.