structural sophistication

Poetry·Rainer Pasca, age 14 — A child imagines living inside a snow globe where friends appear during a blizzard, counting snowflakes and jumping like glitter in the swirling water.

Story·Bea Hertzmark, age 10 — A girl writes to her absent friend Tom during a school day, memories of a lake and a letter breaking through her attempts to focus on lessons.

Story·Harper Fortgang, age 13 — A Purple courier delivering documents in the Forbidden Strip—where Purple and Green people live together—meets Unum, whose greyish-brown skin and perspective challenge everything she's been taught about segregation.

Story·Anya Geist, age 14 — A girl raised in the Land of the Clouds dreams of her forgotten parents on Earth, while learning about a prophecy and the dangerous Organization to Control Time.

Story·Lindsay Cale, age 9 — A girl who sees rainbows in unconventional shapes struggles between staying true to her unique vision and conforming to others' expectations of normalcy.

Poetry·Analise Braddock, age 9 — A young poet captures the Revolutionary War through fragmented images of muskets, roses, and soldiers' faces molded by fear and braveness.

Poetry·Gideon Rose, age 9 — A man without food or water, beaten and robbed, continues to think only of love—revealed to be the poet's own experience.

Story·Avital Sagan, age 12 — A sentient radio watches helplessly as carnivorous moonflowers take over the island city of Floracion, turning its inhabitants into mindless carriers of the infection.

Story·Michelle Byers, age 13 — During COVID lockdown, a mother and son each make wishes on matching copper bracelets that transport them through time, teaching them what they've taken for granted.

Story·Chloe Leng, age 12 — In a post-COVID dystopia where rich and poor are segregated, a lonely delivery boy discovers an underground society of 'Peacebreakers' who refuse to wear masks or social distance.