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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HANNAH THOMAS<br />
oozed from his mouth and crawled across the floor to meet my<br />
ears.<br />
“Was I not what you were expecting?”<br />
I was not sure how he knew I was there. But I supposed there was<br />
no point hiding now. I stood up and saw the gnarled slash through<br />
his left eye my father had left on him. In that moment all my<br />
seething white rage bubbled to the surface. He was going to die.<br />
He was going to pay. He took my father away from me, my home,<br />
and now he was threatening every innocent’s existence.<br />
“I must say I’m a little disappointed. I was expecting a mysterious<br />
great warrior, not a mind-sickened old hermit.” I walked slowly<br />
towards him.<br />
“Do not let your eyes be so easily deceived, nor your ears hear the<br />
lie. I assure you I am every bit an evil demon as the world pictures<br />
me.”<br />
“I’ll believe it when I see it.”<br />
“Then come closer. Don’t worry, I don’t bite without warning.” An<br />
icy drip ran down my spine. His buckteeth stood almost to the<br />
bottom of his chin, ragged and greatly discolored, and there were<br />
several other teeth, sharp as the antler’s tip, twisting their way<br />
across his face.<br />
I came closer and stood in line with the torches. He reeked of<br />
death and sweetly sick meat. He was sick, a deep sickness, and<br />
there was no cure for one so far gone. I looked in his one eye, and<br />
it was hollow. It had color, but looking directly at it was like staring<br />
into a bottomless pit. No remorse, no enjoyment, not even anger.<br />
That’s what made him such a good leader for the Muldairians,<br />
that’s what made him the perfect evil overlord. He simply didn’t<br />
care.<br />
Southeast Alaska <strong>Student</strong> <strong>Anthology</strong><br />
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