emotional depth

Personal Narrative·Lila Carpenter, age 11 — A girl struggles with anger and sadness as she helps her sister move into a college apartment in Bar Harbor, finding clarity by the ocean.

Poetry·Brooke Callan, age 10 — A speaker trapped beneath a blue night sky refuses to wait for morning and instead chooses to bring in the sun themselves.

Personal Narrative·Kelly Chan, age 11 — During a science class discussion, Kelly's fear of speaking up becomes overwhelming when asked to explain her answer about a frozen water bottle.

Story·Myiesha Jain, age 11 — A girl climbs a hill at sunset to throw a pebble into the sky for her dead mother, then returns to an empty house and her absent father's note.

Story·T. Max Crowe, age 12 — A lonely man in ancient Greece trades his dog to a god to resurrect his dead son, but Hades punishes him for breaking the laws of death.

Story·Fiona Clare Altschuler, age 11 — A boy with prophetic visions flees with his uncle to escape his mother's murderous revenge, but a wolf attack forces a reckoning with forgiveness.

Poetry·Peter Shuster-Raizberg, age 7 — A young poet observes the ocean's mysteries—fish, sharks, treasure—while lamenting that its population is disappearing.

Poetry·Ava Espinoza, age 12 — A word discovered in a box pursues the narrator, invading their mind and triggering painful memories whenever someone speaks it aloud.

Story·Chamonix Fernandes, age 11 — A World War II veteran visits his best friend's grave, triggering memories of the day Joseph died saving him in a jungle ambush.

Story·Oren Milgrom-Dorfman, age 12 — A girl escapes her parents on a forest hike, then later that night returns to the woods alone to weep in a moonlit clearing.