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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Etched Scars: Memories of Child<br />
Jing O’Brien<br />
We were once children:<br />
hands small, innocent,<br />
unscarred by anger<br />
that stains stories red.<br />
Eyes were wide, trustful,<br />
until lies planted<br />
gardens ruled by weeds.<br />
They ripped hearts from chests,<br />
and twisted them unrecognizable<br />
into knots tied from<br />
our imperfections.<br />
They forced weapons on<br />
to skeleton frames;<br />
we became armies<br />
of weakened machines.<br />
Time has stained our hands<br />
like painted sunsets<br />
bleeding in shadows.<br />
As discarded boys,<br />
who will fade and fall<br />
like the autumn leaves,<br />
we will etch our scars<br />
on innocent hands.<br />
Jing O’Brien is an 8th grade student at Wrangell Middle School.<br />
Southeast Alaska <strong>Student</strong> <strong>Anthology</strong><br />
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