Synopses & Reviews
This is a very special issue of the
826 Quarterly, a more-like-twice-yearly publication containing fiction, non-fiction, and poetry written by authors ages 6-18. This issue celebrates the 10th anniversary of 826 Valencia, an educational non-profit based in San Francisco, CA, and contains the best of the best student writing from across the last decade. This Quarterly has it all: short fiction from some of the first writers to start their careers in 826 workshops, middle school love poems in all their mushy and yucky-ness, hard-hitting student journalism about mermaids and Martin Luther King, Jr., a teenager's view of growing up in San Francisco's Mission District. Themes range from the serious subjects that youth wrestle with, like coming of age, to forays into love and poetry about outer space. This issue also features a play about the president that gives great insight into high school life in 2003, another script in which Darkness helps a young girl, stories about horse books and silk pouches, and some 826 Valencia all-time favorites including letters to the first family. Complete with a forward penned by the elusive Lemony Snicket, this issue is packed with pieces guaranteed to inform, entertain, and inspire readers of all ages.
Review
"Love is like a soda.
You open the can,
its full of fizz, and its delicious.
After some time,
it tastes plain (like water)."
— from the book
Synopsis
This edition of the 826 Quarterly contains fiction, non-fiction, and poetry written by authors ages 6-18. The pieces are selected from all the 826 programs (drop-in tutoring, workshops, in-schools, projects, field trips) and at-large submissions. Pieces are chosen in a traditional literary journal style by an editorial board comprised of students and volunteer tutors.
Like all writing coming out of 826 Valencia, this is by kids for kids, in a language that doesn't talk up or down to the readers, but straight across. Some of the pieces are straightforward, some unusually experimental. The writing is advanced and the themes explore issues that kids are actually interested in and that adults are sure to enjoy as well.
About the Author
Lemony Snicket had an unusual education and a perplexing youth and now endures a despondent adulthood. His previous accounts and research have been collected and published as books, including those in A Series of Unfortunate Events, 13 Words, and The Composer Is Dead.
Emilie Coulson has worked with student writers at 826 Valencia since 2007. She is a teacher and writer, and in her current role as Director of Education, she works with a team of staff and volunteers to deliver free writing programs to Bay Area youth and publish their work in chapbooks, magazines, newspapers, and other publications.