Sonny Paine, named after a New York homeless man who gained notoriety (and a New York Times profile) begging on the F train, returns with a new issue of student-written stories and nonfiction. Based on their work in 826NYC’s famous writing lab, the students take on a bracingly wide range of topics, cracking wise on everything from Coney Island to lighting bugs to a horrible accident involving fireworks on the Gowanus Canal. Typical of the entries is Dylan Suher’s compelling short story “IED.” Set during “the whole winter of the great bomb,” this ambitious story offers fresh, grimly comic insights into “block-bred racism,” teenage angst, and the urban alienations peculiar to a post-9/11 world. At once sharp, irreverent, and heartfelt, Sonny Paine, Issue Two — edited, designed, and created entirely by high school students — presents a new generation of literary lights.
