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Poetry·Soheon Rhee, age 12 — A meditation on dishwashing becomes a portal to memory, neighborhood sounds, and the passage of time in a Korean household abroad.

Poetry·Benjamin Ding, age 9 — Thirteen playful poems explore opposites, paradoxes, wordplay, and environmental concerns through a child's inventive lens, ending with a critique of materialism versus nature.

Poetry·Parwana Amiri, age 16 — A refugee teen's defiant catalog of what takes courage — building schools, welcoming the homeless, staying human — versus what's easy: destroying, hurting, closing your eyes.

Poetry·Soheon Rhee, age 12 — Precise instructions for cleaning a hallway become a meditation on observation, revealing the quiet dignity in routine work and moments of beauty glimpsed through windows.

Poetry·Soheon Rhee, age 12 — A solitary dinner becomes surreal when the narrator realizes their guest across the table is actually their own reflection in a mirror.

Personal Narrative·Gregory Scott, age 10 — A boy struggles with writer's block on a memoir assignment until his family's support helps him realize he's been living the story he needs to write.

Story·Tristan Hui, age 14 — A girl falls through her apartment floor into another realm where she teams up with a refugee shelter volunteer to steal a car and journey to the mysterious island of...

Story·Nora Heiskell, age 12 — Katrina's life changes when she befriends Mr. McCumber, a lonely old man, and later finds herself in an orphanage where she forms a chosen family with other orphaned girls.

Story·Brennan Cameron, age 10 — After a fire destroys their farm's crops and orchard, Oscar must decide whether to sell his beloved foal Rose to help his family survive the winter.

Personal Narrative·Happiness Neema, age 11 — A refugee girl from Tanzania navigates teasing about her weekly hairstyle at her Chicago school, finding resilience through friends' support and creative problem-solving.