Today’s youth are often perceived to be Internet-addicted functional illiterates who’ve traded in sentences and well-crafted narratives for lolspeak. However, a passion for literature is not as defunct in the acne-and-angst-ridden halls of high schools as one might expect, especially when the school in question runs its own publishing company.

It’s been nearly two years since Lord Beaverbrook, in Calgary’s southeast, launched Tiberious Publishing, offering students the resources and the

opportunity to publish their own work and learn about the publishing industry in the process. “We do everything that a publishing company does, except in miniature,” explains Dale Wallace, one of Beaverbrook’s two creative writing teachers and the architect behind Tiberious. The company has a smaller run than most publishers, but its books are available at the library, as well as at Pages on Kensington and, by early December, at Chapters on MacLeod Tr. And 94th Ave. They can also be purchased online or at the school.

Any student can write a novel and try to have it published. Once a manuscript is accepted, the creative writing and publishing class takes it through an extensive editing process, while the multimedia and photography classes contribute elements of the novel’s design. “One of the ideas that we have in education is we always want to make it relevant for kids,” says Wallace. “Often kids and other people will rightly criticize educators by saying ‘How does this help me in my life?’ This is taking English and it’s making it practical for them, it’s making it real for them.”

Tiberious’s first release remains its biggest success to date. Living in Reality, co-authored by Jessica Boone, Amanda Fayter and Jenn McIntyre, deals with teenage depression from the perspective of teens who have experienced and overcome it. “People in the psychiatric and social work community around town have spoken very highly of it,” says Wallace.

In 2007, Tiberious released two novels: Moose and Cow by Mhairi Robertson, a children’s book with illustrations by the author, and Gaarn, an epic fantasy by Kevin Rushworth.

Tiberious’s latest offering, Beauty and the Beast: Ending the Love/Hate Relationship Between Girls and Their Bodies, promises to be the best yet, according to Wallace. Author Megan Ryland has been writing since she was a kid and is excited to be promoting her first book at the age of 17. In Beauty and the Beast she examines the beauty myth and its impact on teenage girls, herself included. She urges women to take beauty back into their own hands and eradicate the beast (a.k.a. society’s demands of standardized perfection). “I would love for teenage girls to read it and be able to see themselves differently,” says Ryland. “As a teenager, you learn how you look at yourself. That may change throughout your life, but that’s kind of your base, and that’s what makes teen years so hard — you’re figuring out who you are and what you think about yourself. I’ve had people come back and say ‘Yeah, I felt better about myself after reading this,’ and that’s exactly what I love to hear.”

Ryland’s book is both informative and motivational, but more importantly, it tackles this teen issue from a teen perspective. “You can’t study teenage girls like chimpanzees,” Ryland jokes, referring to the importance of adding a teenage voice to the literature. “You can’t ask the chimps [what they’re thinking], but you can ask the girls.”

Ryland will be at Pages on November 25 at 7:30 p.m., along with past Tiberious authors, to promote the publishing company and her new book. Meanwhile, Wallace will keep busy with upcoming Tiberious projects. The publisher’s first book has been adapted into a play called Feeling Good Feeling Bad, which will debut at the school on March 18. An anthology of student writing is also in the works. It’s a collaboration between Lord Beaverbrook and the Carnat Centre — a program for people with schizophrenia. The book is slated for publication in October 2009.