Author: Elisabeth
During the Spring term of 2025, The Story Works volunteers would often begin workshops by saying, “The story you write today might end up published!” As “oohs” and “ahhs” erupted from the classroom, that promise was met with the release of How Can We Make This World Worth Knowing?: An Anthology of Student Writing from Around the World in April 2026. This anthology was edited by the International Alliance of Youth Writing Centers, a coalition of over 60 youth writing labs from around the world, many of whom contributed pieces of student writing from their respective organisation.
India Claudy, managing editor of the anthology, reached out to me last summer requesting a sample of our student writing. During the 2024-2025 school year, we delivered 33 workshops, so we had plenty of good material to choose from. “The Race to Lava Lamp Island” ended up being the featured piece, a story about a fearful skeleton named Alvin and their mission to find a golden crystal (one of my personal favourites from that year). Since each child writes their own ending to a story we initially create together, I wanted to highlight a few alternative endings to showcase the diversity and creativity of these students’ minds. Deciphering their handwriting was a challenging task, but I loved revisiting the stories I had heard read aloud months before, giggling at the children’s love of exclamation marks and the name Bob.
Working on this project reminded me of the importance of The Story Works: each child is full of wonderful ideas, but the traditional education system often leaves little room for personal expression through creative writing. Without the space we at The Story Works create, the worlds that exist within these children’s lives might never make their way onto the page. I am grateful that Alvin the Skeleton exists, and I am grateful that writing his story showed this child that they are capable of creating stories. The Story Works takes things one step further—from showcasing student artwork in the town centre to featuring work in a published anthology, we take children’s voices seriously. That’s a promise that The Story Works team can always keep.
You can purchase a copy of How Can We Make This World Worth Knowing? online at McSweeney’s.
If you are interested in learning more about how we can offer young writers the chance to get their work published, please get in touch at info@thestoryworks.org.
