Where Am I? Sitka Story Lab Student Anthology
The Island Institute's Sitka Story Lab program released this new book of Southeast Alaskan student writing in May 2016. Called Where Am I?: Stories of Strange Landscapes, Wrong Turns, and New Worlds, the anthology features fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and zany creative experiments that convey the disorientation and the discovery that young people experience, from being in the wilderness to simply growing up. The young writers come from Sitka, Hoonah, Haines, Wrangell, and Skagway, and are as young as nine years old and as old as eighteen. "The writing ranges from fantastic and playful to emotionally moving and dark," said Story Lab Coordinator Sarah Swong. "I'm impressed at how creative and varied these writings are, and at how open students were to feedback and improving their work." The project offered students the chance to write a piece for publication and to hone their writing with an editor.
The Island Institute's Sitka Story Lab program released this new book of Southeast Alaskan student writing in May 2016.
Called Where Am I?: Stories of Strange Landscapes, Wrong Turns, and New Worlds, the anthology features fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and zany creative experiments that convey the disorientation and the discovery that young people experience, from being in the wilderness to simply growing up. The young writers come from Sitka, Hoonah, Haines, Wrangell, and Skagway, and are as young as nine years old and as old as eighteen.
"The writing ranges from fantastic and playful to emotionally moving and dark," said Story Lab Coordinator Sarah Swong. "I'm impressed at how creative and varied these writings are, and at how open students were to feedback and improving their work."
The project offered students the chance to write a piece for publication and to hone their writing with an editor.
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A Tortured Life<br />
Jade Balansag<br />
I’m carried outside by a man with a smile on his face. The thought<br />
of what will happen scares me. What have I done to deserve this?<br />
I think to myself. Why is this happening?<br />
For most of my very short life, I’ve been trapped in jail –– a box<br />
–– just waiting for this moment of my predetermined fate. We’ve<br />
all grown up knowing what happens ultimately; knowing that one<br />
day, we’ll be in this situation, facing the same ending. Now that it’s<br />
here, the world seems to move in slow motion.<br />
The man drops me on the hard ground. The sight of the line of<br />
executioners here makes me want to writhe in angst, but I can’t.<br />
I can’t move. A tall woman walks out of the crowd. As she turns<br />
around to announce my execution, the man that brought me out<br />
passes containers to everyone.<br />
The woman, who is the head of this operation, ties me up with a<br />
rope from the ceiling. It is here that I know that unlike my last<br />
operation –– where they had opened and filled me with handfuls<br />
and handfuls of small things –– I wouldn’t survive.<br />
I’m ready to face my fate. The first executioner walks up with . . .<br />
a bat. It’s a girl. She’s wearing a blue gown with a sparkly, matching<br />
tiara. She must be the princess. As she preps herself to swing,<br />
I take in the pink and purple decorations everywhere and think,<br />
this is it. An undignified way to die. I examine the executioner one<br />
more time and realize she doesn’t have her eyes covered with cloth.<br />
I see all the excitement in her eyes as she re-positions the bat in<br />
her hands. She just wants a clean swing. She wants to see my lifeless<br />
body torn to shreds. The princess smiles as she strikes.<br />
The line of executioners cheer loudly as I dangle from the rope.<br />
The king yells, “Swing hard!” and the queen claps happily. I realize<br />
I’ll never meet my maker. I feel like crying, but I still can’t move.<br />
32 <strong>Where</strong> <strong>Am</strong> I?
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