Oak Ridge seniors reimagine a timeless literature staple, "The Canterbury Tales"

Members of the Oak Ridge senior class can add an interesting title to their college resumes: author.

Inspired by an English class assignment, 19 seniors wrote a modern-day telling of Geoffrey Chaucer's "The Canterbury Tales" that was brought to publishing company Publish America. Now, the students are autographing the collection of stories they typed and edited just a few months ago titled "Can't Bury Our Voices."

"I never thought it would go this far," said English teacher Levi Bollinger, who assigned the project. "I thought maybe we could get the stories published online somewhere, but then the students found a publisher that said ‘Hey, we're kind of interested in this.'"

The original "Canterbury Tales" tells of a group of travelers making a religious pilgrimage that bands together and shares stories to enliven the trip. Each chapter is a different "tale" shared from men and women of different backgrounds that offer unique lessons.

“Can’t Bury Our Voices,” is set in a post-apocolyptic future. (Submitted photo)

The challenge of writing a modern version was creating a scenario in which a group of people would be brought together and would want to participate in the story-telling, Bollinger said. The result was a futuristic, post-apocolyptic setting, according to senior Dylan Mahnken.

"The story is set in Detroit after a bombing and the group is together in a bomb shelter," he said. "In the end they come out to a destroyed city, but they're together and a more well-connected group after sharing their stories with each other."

Mahnken was on the "introduction and conclusion" team, which was responsible for coming up with the theme and scenario that brought the group together. Mahnken described his character, who brought the group to the bomb shelter and encouraged them to share their tales, as "a crazy redneck" with a zombie paranoia.

"He looks after them though," Mahnken said.

Jordyn Aden created one of the characters and wrote the story "The Hipster's Tale." She said the story has a "fairy-tale tone."

"It's about a young girl who lives with her dad and three brothers," she said. "They kind of look down on her because she's a girl."

Ultimately, the girl saves her father and brothers after they refuse to listen to her warnings, Aden said.

Another tale-telling character is "the author," whose story was written by Dylan Warren. He said the author shares a tale about the book he's writing about life, from infancy to death.

"The part he's currently working on is about teenage years and high school, which reflects where I am right now," Warren said. "I think people will enjoy the way I wrote the story."

Warren also was part of the editing team. Although editing the stories wasn't difficult, he said it was more time-consuming than he expected.

"If another school wanted to do something like this I would just say it's more work than you think," Warren said. "It's not hard if you just work at it and do it."

Bollinger said he believes the students wrote a good book that anyone will enjoy.

"I'm proud of the students, they did a great job," he said. "People think it's special just because students wrote it, but it's a great read regardless of who the authors were."

On the book's title, the author's name reads "Thorridge Guildsman," a name created by the students as a spinoff of "Oak Ridge" and a reference to the guildsmen characters in the original "Canterbury Tales."

The book may be purchased online at amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com or in-store at Hastings on William Street.

srinehart@semissourian.com

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