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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At the BAR: Big A** Rock<br />
Denver Evans<br />
“Annie, take this and find Mom, I’ll catch whatever floats by. And<br />
you! Start a fire, get sleeping bags, and warm clothes,” Danny, my<br />
cousin, younger than me by two years, filled the shoes of a leader in<br />
those very seconds.<br />
Proudly, I stared on, watching him wade out in the freezing Big<br />
Salmon river, snatching floating objects. Meanwhile his sister, a<br />
flash of red hair and rope, sprinted to the water’s edge, a worried<br />
pup loping after her. Adrenaline pumping and instincts I knew<br />
were there but never saw kicked into gear, pushing me toward<br />
our beached canoe, ripping open bags and stuffing a lighter in my<br />
lifejacket.<br />
Thorn bushes, uneven ground, thick firs. This is what I had to work<br />
with. First, I brought out my inner herd of tusked leather, tromping<br />
through the bushes, scraping my bare calves in the process. Pine<br />
needles crunched under my toes, finalizing my decision not to start<br />
a fire. While doing this, I communicated with Danny, telling him<br />
that starting a forest fire was not on my agenda, no matter how<br />
mad he would be at me later. He leaped out onto a sandbar, sinking<br />
both his leg and his hopes of a fire on the sands.<br />
We heard hollering down the bank, jerking both of our heads in<br />
the direction. Danny flung himself into a sprint, pushing back roses<br />
as he tried to help his mom, who was pinned between the warped<br />
canoe and the later to be named, “Big A** Rock”. Like a good duck<br />
hound, she grabbed the SPOT device, our only lifeline of communication<br />
outside the river. Annie threw a paddle, tied to a rope,<br />
at the water-¬unconfident lady, praying to reel her in. Hudson, a<br />
dorky Yukon mutt charged at the water, determined to rescue his<br />
new mama. Thankfully, Annie grabbed his scruff and threw him<br />
back before he leaped into the rushing current.<br />
Southeast Alaska <strong>Student</strong> <strong>Anthology</strong><br />
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