You know that super-hip series, the Best American Non-Required Reading? Did you know that the content in the 2009 issue was chosen, in part, by teens in our community?

One of the things I hear most at 826michigan, from adults, that is, is this: “I wish there had been an 826 when I was a kid.” It’s a sentiment I couldn’t agree with more. A place where you have to walk through a robot store to get homework help from people who are “cool” (I’m using the students’ word as much as my own here), take creative (and often slightly ridiculous) writing workshops, and have the opportunity to get published in actual books? Sign me up. I would have been there.

Every so often, I feel this wish-there-had-been-an-826-when-I-was-a-kid longing a little more intensely. One such case in point: the Best American Non-Required Reading series. Chances are you've picked this up at a bookstore and flipped through it. It boasts forewords by people like Beck, Sufjan Stevens, and Judy Blume, which is "cool," to be sure, but even cooler: the content is picked by high school students who go to 826 Valencia in San Francisco. (Also cool: it focuses on provocative written works that may have gone unnoticed by readers.)

Last year, Dave Eggers, the editor of the collection, asked if 826michigan would like to add our students to the editorial board. There wasn't a font big enough for the resounding YES we sent back.

And so, every Monday night from last fall through this spring, our lab bubbled with discussion, laughter, arguments, and more discussion on writing from newer voices, works published in smaller journals and magazines, and exceptional examples of writing in unorthodox styles. Our amazing teens read hundreds of stories and worked with the San Francisco board to determine the very best, the ones that went into the collection. (Among them, it should be noted, an honorable mention to Ann Arbor's own Jeff Kass!)

Please join us for the release party! It happens at Nicola’s Books, Westgate Shopping Center, 2513 Jackson Avenue, this Friday, October 9 at 7:00 pm. At this open-to-the-public event, books will be available for purchase, student editors will answer questions on their experiences participating in a major publication, and a general sense of excitement will be palpable. Hope to see you there!

(Hope to also see you at the Where the Wild Things Are pre-screening tomorrow night! And YES OMG TICKETS ARE TOTALLY SOLD OUT. TOTALLY. We TOLD you that would happen!)