PRESent tense future
Dystopian Stories from a New Generation
What makes you feel powerless?
At the beginning of this school year, twenty-four high school students got together to write a book. At this time, we asked ourselves a question: “What makes us feel powerless?” Months later, our answers to that question culminated in our published book: Present Tense Future, a collection of student-written dystopian short stories. Generation Z, as it rises up into adulthood, is left to grapple with issues both passed on from the past and newly arisen. With this book, we aim to shed light on the issues of the day from a perspective not often seen in modern discourse. Beyond that, of course, we hope that our stories entertain and enthrall you, all the way from Eden to Hell.
“Something has gone wrong. Terribly wrong. That’s an understatement, and is also the central catalyst of nearly all dystopian stories, including the stories you’re about to discover here by the talented writers of the AT Writing Seminar class at Singapore American School.”
– Robin Hemley, Director of Yale-NUS Writers' Centre
“As a reader, you might also have your mind expanded — the present-day world of the teen in 2018 is fraught, fragile and labyrinthine — in a word, it's tense.”
– Dr. Michael Clark, Advanced Topics Course Developer
“Written from the perspective of complex and often conflicted characters, this collection offers a harrowing and eerily plausible glimpse into the future and what could be.”
– Dr. Cristina Romeo, Student Press Initiative at Columbia University
