food

Story·Elizabeth Surman, age 10 — A daughter celebrates her father through vivid portraits of his loud presence, humor, work ethic, and creative cooking experiments, declaring him the 'King of San Marino.'

Story·Sammy Westfall, age 13 — A Filipino girl accompanies her mother to clean a wealthy American family's mansion and discovers that despite their poverty, her family has something the rich family lacks.

Story·Natalia F. Lanzoni, age 13 — A competitive swimmer struggles with body image after overhearing teammates discuss restrictive eating, until a teammate's collapse at a meet forces her to reconsider her choices.

Story·Ariana González Silas, age 11 — Two sisters left home alone escalate from bickering to a kitchen accident that brings them together when the older sister rushes the younger to the hospital.

Story·Isabella Widrow, age 12 — A family drives through rain to hunt chanterelles in the Pacific Northwest woods, finding twenty pounds after initial frustration and cold searching.

Poetry·Hannah Dastgheib, age 11 — A child falls into autumn leaves and experiences a sensory rush of memories, scents, and sounds that blur into a single moment of seasonal joy.

Story·Ennya Papastoitsis, age 11 — A family's ritual of baking chocolate-chip cookies becomes a meditation on memory, tradition, and the passage from childhood tea parties to present-day conversations.

Story·Molly O'Toole, age 12 — A girl finally gets her turn to be Lucia in her Swedish family's St. Lucia Day celebration, but forgets the words to the traditional song at the crucial moment.

Story·Albert Shu, age 10 — In 1960 China during the Great Leap Forward famine, a hungry boy eats his entire lunch bread on the way to school, remembering his family's lost wealth.

Poetry·Jordan Guberman, age 12 — A child and grandmother bake bread together in an old kitchen, sharing laughter, sneaking batter, and talking about life while waiting for the loaf to rise.