A User’s Guide to a Pandemic launched today

Eighty three young writers from all over Australia have come together to create a world’s first:

A User’s Guide to a Pandemic is a digital collection of writing by young people in Australia sharing their experiences of living through the current surreal times of COVID19.

Released today, the online book is the result of a collaboration between youth writing centres Story Factory (Sydney), 100 Story Building (Melbourne), The Story Island (Tasmania) and StoryBoard (Byron Bay) aimed at amplifying the voices of young people during the uncertainty and disconnection of the pandemic.

Most young writers participated in online workshops delivered by the four centres and created pieces of writing that investigate the challenges, unexpected joys, boredom, worries and hopes of these unusual times. 

In his introduction, Markus Zusak, author of The Book Thief, describes the collected pieces as ‘the most gorgeous things you can ever hope to experience as a human - which is just kids thinking out loud. Kids just building on ideas.’ 

The works take many different approaches to exploring the pandemic: fiction, non-fiction, poetry, personal statements, and ephemeral observations about life in lockdown. 

You could find yourself getting intimate with the excruciating pains of online schooling. 

You might find yourself on a time-travelling adventure taking you in and out of the COVID crisis.

Or you could find yourself musing over raindrops on a lazy afternoon in quarantine. 

Whichever page you land on, you will be confronted by unorthodox, fearless and imaginative observations on life in the times of a pandemic. 

We hope that in times to come, the collection becomes a comprehensive and authentic resource for writers, journalists and researchers looking back at life during the global pandemic. 

So without further ado, we present: 

We thank volunteer editors Bern Clohesy, Nikki Stefanoff and Dani Dafoulis for generously sharing their time and expertise for this project.