Acknowledgments

In our Young Writers Publish program, 826NYC develops creative writing projects with classes of students and teachers in schools throughout New York City. Ninth and tenth grade students from the Academy for Young Writers bridged the worlds of the imagination and the day-to-day with two distinct writing projects. While the ninth graders bent the rules of reality in science fiction letting us travel through space and into the distant future, the tenth graders dug deep in their own experiences and crafted compelling personal narratives. It Could Have Been Way Worse than It Was is a compilation of the original work of these students. A huge thank you to the 826NYC teaching artists, Daniel Goulden and Jaydra Johnson, for creating classrooms where students were able to build new worlds and explore their own, in thoughtful, truly original prose. Your support and encouragement helped our young writers tap into their imaginations and memories to produce such exciting and moving work, and your care in helping them brainstorm, write, and revise throughout this project was invaluable. We are particularly grateful to Lucia Brockway, Anicka Charles, Alex Cuff, Kesha Kennedy, and Jaclyn Reyes for their support of this project. Thank you for inviting us into your classrooms, and collaborating with us through successes and challenging moments. Your hard work and steadfast dedication to your students allows them to flourish as incredible writers and thinkers. Thanks as well to Rachel Jacobs for supporting the creation of the fantastic artwork featured on the cover and throughout the book. Thank you to Joanne Beckford, Terra Cabey, Chandra Datadeen, Akoni Drysdale-Ash, Zebastian Florimon, and Marsy Orellana for contributing the beautiful artwork featured on the cover of this book. Thank you to our writing mentors, Eunice An, Arrianne Bautista, Kate Brennan, Sammy Gibbons, Carol Goldberg, Jess Mayer-Jones, Katherine Peach, Remoy Philip, Ronnie Wolff, and Ling Zhu, for keeping up with these young writers and nurturing their growing texts. At 826NYC we depend on the dedicated volunteer editing and design cohort that make our publications a reality. Thank you to Vanessa Friedman for overseeing the editing, proofreading, and design of this book. Thank you to Kelly McComas for designing such a beau-

tiful book for our students. To copy editors and proofreaders Chris Ahearn, Rakhee Bhatt, Madison Durham, Kiran Josen, Nicholas Martinez, Melanie McFayden, Kris Pajarito, Katherine Peach, Allison Singer, and Robyn Smith, for their careful attention to each of the student’s pieces, thank you. For their ongoing support of 826NYC’s school-based programs, huge thanks to 826 National, the Amazon Literary Partnership, The Jane Friedman Anspach Family Foundation, Con Edison, The Find Your Light Foundation, The Hawkins Project, International Paper, The Rona Jaffe Foundation, The Kettering Family Foundation, The Minerva Foundation, The Resnick Foundation, The Yelp Foundation, and Youth, Inc. This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. The program is also made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature. Additional support comes from the National Endowment for the Arts. To find out more about how National Endowment for the Arts grants impact individuals and communities, visit www.arts.gov. 826NYC is grateful to the many individuals who support our work. To see our full list of supporters or make a donation, please visit https://826nyc.org/donate-us/. Thank you especially to the 826NYC staff for their behind-the-scenes support of this project, from curriculum development and the book-making process to volunteer recruitment. Finally, thank you to the students at the Academy for Young Writers for taking risks with your writing and sharing your words and worlds with us. Writing can be a challenging and hopefully fun process, and your dedication to your craft and your vision shines through in these pieces. We are all excited to see what you’ll write in the future!