ACknOWledgMents

In our Young Writers Publish program, 826NYC develops creative writing projects with classes of students and teachers in schools throughout New York City. 11th grade students from the High School of Fashion Industries explored a variety of genres including scene writing, poetry, short fiction, and memoir, to create this collection that from page to page is hilarious, moving, thoughtful, and all-around beautiful. Our Odysseys is a stunning collection and a tribute to the ingenuity and diverse talents of these young writers.

A huge thank you to the 826NYC teaching artist, Daniel Goulden, for creating classrooms where students were able to explore so many genres and write freely on a variety of themes. Your support, encouragement, and consistency helped our young writers tap into their imaginations and memories to produce such moving work, and your care in helping them brainstorm, write, and revise throughout this project was invaluable.

We are particularly grateful to Kevin Kearns and Nancy Moore for their support of this project. Thank you, Kevin, for inviting us into your classrooms and facilitating such a smooth collaboration. Your hard work and steadfast dedication to your students allows them to flourish as young writers and thinkers.

At 826NYC we depend on the dedicated volunteer editing and design cohort that make our publications a reality. Thank you to Amy Dupcak for overseeing the editing, proofreading, and design of this book. Thank you to Ling Zhu for designing such a beautiful book for our students. To copy editors and proofreaders Nisha Lauren Aoyama, Ennis Bashe,

Mina Huang, Dena Levitz, Chloe Rappe, and Dannie Ruth, for their careful attention to each of the student’s pieces, thank you.

This program is supported by 826 National, the Amazon Literary Partnership, The Jane Friedman Anspach Family Foundation, The Cornelia T. Bailey Foundation, Con Edison, The Find Your Light Foundation, The Hawkins Project, International Paper, The Rona Jaffe Foundation, The Literary Arts Emergency Fund, The Minerva Foundation, The Resnick Foundation, The Seth Sprague Educational & Charitable 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. This project is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts. 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 High School of Fashion Industries for taking risks with your writing and sharing your words with us. Writing can be a challenging – but hopefully fun! – process, and your dedication to your craft and your vision shines through in these pieces. We’re all excited to see what you’ll write in the future!

Joshua Mandelbaum, Janna Cisterino, Rico Denard, Amy Dupcak, Chris Eckert, Brendan Jacobi, Summer Medina, Amani Nephew, Stella Raffle-Wax, Mandy Seiner, Naomi Solomon,

Education

bOArd Of direCtOrs

Michelle McGovern, Ted Wolff, Jen D’Ambrosie, Kathryn Yontef, Michael Colagiovanni

Liza Steinberg Demby

Jamal Edwards

Simone Frasier

Amir Mokari

Kwaku Owusu

Sheila Peluso

Danielle Sinay

Andrew Sparkler

Alyson Stone

David Tuffy

Thom Unterburger

Sam Valenti

President

Vice President Treasurer Secretary

teAChing Artists

J’miah Baird

María Barrios

Amanda Dettmann

Amy Dupcak

Willie Filkowski

Daniel Goulden

Varud Gupta

Jaydra Johnson

Nicholas Martinez

Hua Xi