‘Transitions 2017’ is a collection of short fiction written by the students of Ardgillan Class, for their English Transition Year Module on short stories. During the module the students read work by Guy de Maupassant, Arthur Conan Doyle, James Joyce, Frank O’Connor, Yiyun Li, Claire Keegan and Zadie Smith. They were encouraged to see how each character in the story they read changed over the course of the tale; to see a truth about humanity in each piece; to learn something about how life, their own lives, contain many moments in which small changes occur. Each story in this collection is a brilliant insight into the world and minds of teenagers living in 2017. The stories were written anonymously in order to give the students the freedom needed to express themselves as they saw fit. It is this freedom of expression, and courageous honesty in the writing which will impress readers most.
