A User’s Guide to a Pandemic

You would think writers might be used to lockdown conditions: sitting alone at a desk, writing into the night, barely speaking to family and friends, engaging in constant escapism and other worlds… sounds like a lovely kind of creative lockdown. 

But when that lockdown is mandated, a pandemic rages outside, the option to connect with loved ones becomes impossible, and you’re so sick of your own family you’re considering the logistics of flinging yourself into space to simply get a break, things get a little… spacey.

So when you feel like you’re suddenly living in a sci-fi novel, what do you do? Write about it, of course! Earlier this year, we teamed up with Story Factory, Storyboard, and the Story Island Project to create an anthology from 83 young writers around Australia. Each creative writing centre ran workshops with students that helped them craft pieces for inclusion in the anthology. The result? A User’s Guide to a Pandemic, which has just hit shelves across Australia.

A User’s Guide to a Pandemic is full of stories, poetry, isolation statements, musings and observations about life during COVID-19, yet the book is full of universal themes: family, friendship, community, gratitude and (of course) annoying younger siblings. The program and publication offered young writers across Australia the chance to express themselves during (that now so overused phrase) unprecedented times.

“I've never done many actual workshops like this before, so this really captured me,” says Loyola, one of the young writers and a long-time 100 Story Building participant. “I got to meet others who loved to write, and I got to think deeply about my writing on the pandemic/lockdown...What will stick with me the most, is that to me when writing, you can really express what you feel in your writing, especially during these difficult times.”

A User’s Guide to a Pandemic is a snapshot in time (check out the ‘Museum of COVID’ in the book!), but it also captures the thoughts and feelings of young people during one of the strangest periods in recent memory. As Markus Zuzak - who wrote the introduction to the book - puts it: 

“What we have here is one of the more gorgeous things you can ever hope to experience as a human – which is kids just thinking out loud. Kids just building on ideas. I read this writing and thought, ‘Why can’t I write like that? Why can’t I be fearless and lawless and, just, right? Every single time.’ Enjoy this writing. Stay with it, page for page.”

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A User’s Guide to a Pandemic can be purchased online here or at bookshops around Australia. If you’re in Melbourne, check out Avenue Bookstore, Readings, Fairfield Books, or The Little Bookroom.