The Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County (AHCMC) is pleased to announce Annabel Taylor as the 2025-2026 recipient of the Fran Abrams Creative Writing Award winner! As the recipient of this award, Annabel will receive a $3,000 cash prize and feature one of her pieces at the 2026 Student Awards Ceremony.

AHCMC sat down with her to learn more about her background, interest in writing, and what she sees for her future. 

AHCMC: Let’s start with the basics! Tell us a little bit about yourself.

Annabel: Hi! My name is Annabel. I’m a fiction author, student journalist and rising senior at Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda, MD.

My narrative writing, which also includes short stories, essays and poetry exploring heritage and identity, has earned distinction in The New York Times Tiny Memoirs Contest and has won regional awards from the Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County, Baltimore Science Fiction Society, and Bethesda Urban Partnership.

My passion for telling stories of who we are extends beyond fiction and into my work as a student journalist. As the editor-in-chief of my school’s magazine, The Black & White, I’ve had the privilege of interviewing leading voices — from Connie Chung on her rise to the pinnacle of TV news to Emmy Award–winning documentary director Ilana Trachtman about the Glen Echo carousel at the center of a civil rights protest. I also write for two local publications: The Georgetowner and The Falls Church Independent. When I’m not writing, I’m often reading, crocheting, or filling up the pages of my latest junk journal.

AHCMC: When did you first become interested in writing?

Annabel: First and foremost, I have always been a reader. My parents say I could “read before I could talk.” While I’m not sure about that, all my fondest childhood memories involve reading in some form. It’s almost as if half my childhood was spent folded between the pages of books, traveling to strange lands from under my covers (flashlight in hand, as cliché as it may be), fantasizing about lives so different from mine. I was the kid with the book under my desk in every math class, busy wondering if Matilda would get away with the super glue or nodding in recognition at Judy Blume’s portrayal of the tween years. The books I read evolved with my age. I was soon captivated by the prose of authors like Taylor Jenkins Reid and R.F. Kuang, perhaps subconsciously gearing up to write my own books. During the pandemic, when I was stuck at home and unable to play basketball or see friends, I turned to writing.

It was then that I conceived my first novel, Legacy—a story about a young girl who must leave New York City for her mother’s eerie hometown, East Bendfort, where she soon discovers a dark secret. Since writing Legacy, I’ve written various creative works, including poetry, short stories, scripts, and other work-in-progress novels.

AHCMC: What inspires your writing? Has growing up in Montgomery County influenced your work in any way?

Annabel: Writing is how I conceptualize life events by adding drama, flair, and imagination to the otherwise mundane. It’s very important to me that my main characters are outsiders or underdogs. I want to represent those groups in my writing — people who have been disadvantaged throughout history but persist, lift others up and defy the odds. I have always had an infatuation with the past and how history informs our understanding of the present. But more specifically, I am interested in how historical events shape personal lives and family dynamics. That is why I began writing my anthology “Cracks in the Hourglass,” which includes one story from each decade of the 20th century. The stories give a voice to the supernatural, the painfully real and the utterly fantastical. Whether it be a nuclear family of four navigating the homogeneity of 1950s America or a group of UC Berkeley kids traversing the nation to get to Woodstock, these characters found inconsistencies in the history people think they know. I am also extremely interested in my family’s history. My great grandfather was a pharmacist in Vietnam, and had to leave everything behind when the war broke out. My grandmother then settled in France, where she studied pharmacy and met my grandfather, who had also left Vietnam for France. They still have emotional wounds over the pain of losing their home, community and everything they knew. I am working on fictionalizing those memoirs and creating meaningful stories that accurately portray their experiences.

Growing up in Montgomery County has influenced my work in the sense that I’ve always been surrounded by resources and institutions that encourage education in the arts. My fondest memories include going to the Connie Morella Library in Bethesda, where I now bring my little cousin who loves reading as much as I do. Growing up just 15 minutes from D.C. also exposed me to dozens of museums and historical spaces.

AHCMC: Can you walk us through your writing process? Are there specific genres, forms, or themes you find yourself returning to?

Annabel: My creative writing process involves first coming up with a concept — some formed around real life experiences while others from pure imagination. Then, I outline the characters involved in the story. While I jot down their principal traits and flaws, it’s also important that I have a deep understanding of their quirks, pet peeves, favorite songs and other details. It’s through this character work that I’m able to write stories that matter to me as characters have always taken precedence over plot. I find myself returning to intergenerational stories that ask the question, “What do we inherit from the generations before us, and what do we choose to carry forward?”

AHCMC: What does winning the Fran Abrams Creative Writing Student Award mean to you? How will it support you moving forward?

Annabel: I am so honored to receive the Fran Abrams Creative Writing Student Award – to me, it feels like a culmination of all the years of behind the scenes work I’ve spent writing stories. Writing can often feel like a very solitary pastime but getting to share my work with others and receive feedback from a mentor has been extremely fulfilling, and will certainly motivate me to continue telling stories.

AHCMC: What’s next for you creatively, and what are you hoping to accomplish in the years ahead?

Annabel: My debut novel, Legacy, was recently picked up by the Wild Rose Press and is set to release in mid-2027. It’s been a long time coming and truly a passion project of mine for so many years. I’m currently writing my second novel, a coming of age story which takes place in 1980s Northern California, as well as an anthology of short stories.