INTRODUCTION FROM ANTHONY TEDESCO

Writer and Editor, Cofounder of the Student Publishing Program

That last official-looking page was supposed to be my introduction, but it got so official-looking that I finally just labeled it “Mission Statement.” Which leaves me with this big blank page and literally 10 minutes to make it less blank before the 2:25 P.M. manuscript is due. Slightly harrowing for such a sleep-deprived me, but definitely apropos. Lesson #446B of the Student Publishing Program is to dive right into those daunting blank pages and trust that Ms./Mr. Muse will eventually turn up in the mediocre frenzy of streaming words. (Still not here yet.)

                  My remaining nine-minute introduction deadline is also fitting because 2:25 P.M. and its sister online literary magazine at 225pm.org are both skeleton-staffed pilot efforts of semi-monumental proportion. Efforts that we’re still, of course, very proud of, especially for their semi-monumental potential. But they’re definitely the promising tips of the proverbial (two-tipped) iceberg, the frenetically produced seedlings/600-other-metaphors for how beneficial a fully funded Student Publishing Program could be for K–12 students nationwide.

                  As long as I’ve already used the word “proud” in a sentence, I’d also like to say that I’m proud we’ve started the Student Publishing Program at Lexington High School. Not only because I’m a New York City boy with Lexington roots, an LHS diploma circa 1987, and two of the best parents in the whole parental world living right here in Lexington Mass., but also because Lexington is where writer and editor Alice Hinkle generously helped me get my very first article published in The Lexington Minuteman, and where my ninth-grade English teacher made writing fun for me for the very first time and encouraged me to publish.

                  That teacher was/is Karen Russell, and she’s still encouraging me in my professional writing career. In fact, we’ve reconnected as cofounders on this project and right at this very moment she’s “encouraging” me to finish my introduction in the next 30 seconds so we can make our manuscript deadline for 2:25 P.M., and officially launch the Student Publishing Program.

                  The End.