authentic voice

Personal Narrative·Claire Jiang, age 12 — A young pianist reflects on the freedom of art and the journey from reluctant lessons to finding beauty in her own upright Kawai piano.

Personal Narrative·Claire Jiang, age 12 — A girl contemplates the unnamed plants around her house, finding in their seasonal color changes a mirror for her own shifting moods.

Personal Narrative·Claire Jiang, age 12 — A 12-year-old wrestles with her sense of obligation to fight climate change, questioning whether individual actions matter while affirming her commitment to future generations.

Poetry·Talia E. Moyo, age 10 — A young writer catalogs the places that shaped her — from African deserts to New Jersey beaches, Zimbabwe's Victoria Falls to French villages — weaving family, food, and a beloved...

Poetry·Sofia Dardzinski, age 9 — A meditation on time through the perspective of a clock, whose red hand moves endlessly through numbers, carrying promises and memories without limits.

Personal Narrative·Ilina Chaudhury, age 11 — A four-year-old visits her grandmother in India and gradually understands what death means when her grandmother dies of cancer during the trip.

Poetry·Julia Marcus, age 13 — During a word game, a player watches letters transform into words like FISH becoming SHIFT, finding poetry in the randomness of language emerging from tiles.

Story·Olivia Ladell, age 13 — After Earth's population flees to Mars, an eight-year-old boy is accidentally left behind. Eight years later, on his sixteenth birthday, he discovers another forgotten teenager.

Poetry·Liv Baker, age 11 — A sensory catalog poem moves from mountain drives through rain showers to skiing, capturing moments of calm through specific smells and textures.

Personal Narrative·Alicia Xin, age 13 — A privileged teen volunteers at a camp in rural China's Liangshan mountains, where friendships with local Yi children reveal the true meaning of gratitude.