December 2020

Artwork·Jena Kim

Poetry·Zeke Braman, age 9 — A nine-year-old transforms the mundane task of folding laundry into an existential meditation on life's overwhelming choices and uncertain futures.

Story·Lucy Laird, age 12 — A melodramatic sixth-grader faces her turn at kickball, convinced she'll die of embarrassment, spiraling through existential revelations before being saved by the lunch bell.

Artwork·Adele Stamenov

Poetry·Adele Stamenov, age 10 — A moment of anxiety dissolves into calm through the ritual of making tea, where milk clouds float in their own suspended world.

Personal Narrative·Norah Grigoresco, age 10 — After returning from Chile, a first-grader struggles with English reading until determination and practice transform her from level B to level Q, the highest in her class.

Artwork·Jeremy Nohrnberg

Artwork·Claire Lu

Story·Ella Yamamura, age 12 — A girl struggles for three years to answer her teacher's question about her future dreams, only finding an answer after the teacher's death.

Artwork·Sage Millen