original perspective

Personal Narrative·Yanling Lin — A Halloween night becomes a meditation on moral choices when the narrator faces unattended candy bowls with 'Please Take 1' signs and witnesses another child take everything.

Story·Eliana Vitti — A red hen stops laying eggs to prevent them from being stolen, leading to her selection for the farmer's New Year's Eve dinner.

Story·Roxy Pilcher, age 8 — The Moon asks forest animals to become stars to light the night sky; when the mountain lion finds no dots left, he transforms into the Northern Lights instead.

Poetry·Zar Rezwan Pavri — A meditation on water transforms from stillness to boiling, from possibility to necessity, as the speaker makes soup from nothing but water itself.

Poetry·Madeline Male — A brief meditation on the paradox of 'now' — how the present moment of writing becomes the past by the time of reading.

Poetry·Madeline Male — A concrete poem creates stars from periods across the page, ending with 'A memory of Joy' as the final constellation in a starless night.

Poetry·Ava Luangkesorn — Birds endure a devastating storm that transforms their peaceful sea home, then witness the rainbow and crystalline water that follow.

Story·Naaman Garcia — A farmer discovers a mysterious seed that grows into a tree bearing giant blocks of cheese, builds a cheese business with his neighbor, then loses everything to lightning.

Poetry·Mary Gomes — A child's meditation on the beauty of the name Paulina spirals into wonder about meaning, naming, and the limits of knowledge.

Poetry·Ian Maduff — Light reflecting off wet pavement on a stormy night transforms into lasers, fountains, and aurora borealis in the speaker's imagination.