atmospheric setting

Poetry·Tatiana Rebecca Shrayer, age 13 — On New Year's Eve in Pucón, local teenagers slaughter a lamb for tourists' supper while a volcano erupts, creating a moment of apocalyptic tension.

Poetry·Tatiana Rebecca Shrayer, age 13 — A young poet traces Dostoevsky's footsteps through his former spaces, feeling his presence in stairs, doors, and pages as a white night falls on St. Petersburg.

Poetry·Tatiana Rebecca Shrayer, age 13 — A girl visits her ancestors' graves in St. Petersburg, encountering a man who offers water to wash the stones, and wonders about the Russia she might have known.

Poetry·Analise Braddock, age 9 — A child's poem transforms an empty mansion into a haunted space through accumulating details of abandonment and decay.

Poetry·Analise Braddock, age 9 — A young writer imagines a digital universe with corrupted code 719, where trees shake and reality glitches as everything falls apart.

Poetry·Analise Braddock, age 9 — A space beast who devours endlessly doesn't belong in sky or sea, caught between realms with a roar that breaks doors and disturbs all peace.

Poetry·Analise Braddock, age 9 — The ocean's mysteries and movements become a meditation on unanswered questions and the human need to understand what remains unknowable.

Poetry·Analise Braddock, age 9 — A baby named Daisy visits a rocking chair in the woods daily until vines overtake it and it disappears, leaving only memory.

Story·Lena Donofrio, age 12 — A Vietnamese girl named Hoa, overwhelmed by her new American school, runs away to the fields where a mystical connection to nature helps her find peace with her new home.

Poetry·Sabrina Guo, age 13 — During Hurricane Sandy's blackout, a family lights their first fire, boils water for foot-soaking, and finds calm while wind rages outside their dark house.