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by Otto Billström N3B
English C

The creative juices have been flowing at Internationella Engelska Gymnasiet of late what with the publication of the Torque Effect, a series of interlocking stories by both students on the Creative Writing Course and staff.

To coincide with the launch of the book some of the authors held a reading in town.

Pictured reading:

• Joel Petersson Ivre
• Cecilia Siljebrand
• John Leo Moberg

Photographs: Victoria Ström

To purchase a copy look out for sales in the school this week. Alternatively contact Mr Frato

Students from Mr Frato’s Creative Writing course were in Rome last week, exploring the sites and gaining inspiration.

He sent along a few photos of the group.

Text and Communication student Lo Zachrisson Lagercrantz reports on an upcoming school publication.

Third year students at Internationella Engelska Gymnasiet Södermalm are this year creating a short story collection together with their teachers. The short stories are written by students taking Creative Writing and its Swedish twin course Litterär Gestaltning.

“The collection will be published and get its own ISBN code , making it searchable in the entire world and available at libraries.” Carro, a student taking the Litterär Gestaltning course, says.

Carro continues. “It is a collection of different short stories that all take place during the same day and time at the same airport. Even though frames are set for the story we all have written really different ones. My short story for example depicts the boundaries between men and women.”

The project was started by English teacher Mr. Frato who has earlier been involved in a similar project in Älvsjö.

“It was author Anthony Grooms who introduced me to the concept of story circles. It is an old way of writing which I had heard of before, but Anthony showed me the more modern version.”

More than just a normal course

Mr. Frato admits that the project takes a lot more work than classical school course.
“There are private courses where you learn the same things for lots of money, here the students learn it for free. The skills the students are taught here took me ages to gain – they are far better prepared for publishing than I was!”

Mr. Frato has previously published a book Numera Negerkung , which like the short story collection is written in a mixture of English and Swedish.

“I think this is something unique which represents the international mix our school provides,” says Jenny, also in the Creative Writing class, adding: “It is really cool to get an insight into how authors work and to meet with a publisher and learn how books are printed.”

Jenny says her story is about growing up and leaving the known for the bigger world.
The students don’t only get to write their own short stories.

“We also get to edit each other texts, even the teachers’!” Jenny explains. “It really develops your knowledge when you see how other people have chosen to interpret the task.”

Both Carro and Jenny admit it is exciting to read the teachers’ texts. Several teachers are contributing as well as the assistant principal.

Not only students

Mr. Lidström, teacher for the Litterär Gestaltning group, admits it is a bit nervous to write something that the students will read. He believes however that it is important to participate in the project.

“A good teacher should be involved; I always do the same writing exercises as the students in my course. It makes the situation more relaxed and shy students feel more comfortable in contributing.” His short story will be about “Civil courage, or rather the lack of it.”

“The best thing about the project is that it is a unique experience, it’s not every day you get the chance to publish a book.” Jenny says.

Carro agrees, and adds: “It is a lot of work, we have to decide on everything from layout to cover. We really learn a lot, especially since it is us students who have to drive the project. We have met with the publisher, promoted the book and much more on our own.”

Jenny admits though that they have had a lot of support from their teachers. “Mr. Frato, the Creative Writing teacher, is a published author so he has a lot of valuable knowledge and contacts within the field.”

Carro agrees: “It is important to have teachers who know how writing and publishing works.”
When asked if she will continue writing after graduating Jenny answers “It isn’t anything I’ve planned but this has given me a feel for how publishing works. I believe it is an advantage for the future to have my name in print and it feels cool to take part of this project.”

There is a lot left to do on the project. As Carro says: “Now we have to focus on writing the best texts possible as well as making everyone buy the book!”

Earlier this month drama students in S2B took part in a cross-curricular project with Magasin3, art hall in Stockholm. This involved taking an art work and extending it into a drama piece through own written plays and improvisations on the spot. We managed to film and edit this into some video clips that will go onto the school’s website and also YouTube. This is a great opportunity to see what they did and also to promote the school and show the fantastic work our students do.

Mr Kuhn has just passed on the portfolio requirements for 9th graders applying to the Arts Programme specialization Art, including the dates for interviews.

Check it out !

Drama Auditions

The dates and information for the Drama auditions is forthcoming. We’ll get it to you ASAP.

earth art by Leon Kühn

IEG art teacher Mr Leon Kühn is holding an exhibition at Gallery Adesso, Åsögatan 136, on Södermalm this week.

The exhibition entitled earth art opened last week with over 100 people attending the vernissage.

Over 100 attended the opening of earth art

As well as visiting the exhibition you can find out more about earth art by visiting Mr Kühn’s new website: earthart.info

Gallery Adesso is open from 12:00 until 18:00 each day and runs until December 2.

King of the Canibals by Mr Frato

Kerstin Aronsson, head of Kabusa Books which published Mr Frato’s novel, thought that “Numera negerkung” was so significant that she nominated it for this year’s Augustpris – one of Sweden’s major literary prizes.

Unfortunately, the Swedish Publishers Association rejected it on the grounds that it wasn’t “written in Swedish”.

“I think being disqualified due to the book’s language is a sign I’ve something entirely new which the Swedish Publisher’s Association doesn’t know how to deal with,” Mr Frato, who teaches at the school, told Latest News.

“It also raises the question of language and identity: what they are essentially saying is that even if we live our lives bilingually, our stories are only valid if they’re written entirely in Swedish. And that’s one of the things I set out to disprove by writing this novel.”

Despite the reaction of the Swedish Publishers Association, everyone at IEGS is very proud of Mr Frato’s achievment and wishes him every success with the book.

Related Reading

Read Mr Frato’s own response (på svenska) on his blog