original perspective

Poetry·Ashley Class, age 10 — A young writer reflects on how staring at an empty wall sparks imagination, claiming it as the source of stories known across the globe.

Poetry·Nargi Golashi, age 13 — A young poet finds comfort in mathematical and scientific laws as unchanging truths that connect her to the universe and eternity.

Poetry·Ilya Ivanović, age 10 — A child traces identity from birth through curiosity and danger to the sadness of moving away, wondering if they'll return to have fun again.

Poetry·Malin Moeller, age 11 — A meditation on how dreams warp time and memory, leaving only fragments and distortions as evidence of the night's passage.

Poetry·Malin Moeller, age 11 — A meditation on how dreams distort time and memory, leaving only fragments and the physical evidence of restless sleep as proof of the night's passage.

Poetry·Jem Burch, age 13 — From an airplane window, the world transforms into miniature islands and tinfoil seas, rising through clouds into pure sunlight, chasing sunset into stars.

Story·Noelia M. Colón, age 13 — A girl inherits a magic fiddle from a mysterious man in the woods, and when she plays it by candlelight, shadows come alive and dance on moonbeams.

Poetry·Abigail Rose Cargo, age 13 — A boat being pulled from water becomes a meditation on the narrow margins between opposing forces—connection and separation, life and death.

Story·Erin Brock, age 13 — A puzzle-loving girl falls asleep on an unfinished jigsaw and wakes up inside it as a colonial farm girl, discovering she must complete the puzzle from within to escape.

Story·Simon Reis, age 11 — A boy encounters a mysterious neighbor who claims to be Beethoven reincarnated, offering musical genius in exchange for sharing his deafness and suffering.