identity

Poetry·Analise Braddock, age 9 — A child's plea to be forgotten transforms everyday details—soup, Fruit Loops, a voice that travels through walls—into a meditation on presence and erasure.

Poetry·Analise Braddock, age 9 — A meditation on impossibility and perception, where belief and action create paradoxes, and inner vision doesn't match outer reality.

Poetry·Analise Braddock, age 9 — A devil and angel switch moral roles after the angel bites the devil's ear, which transforms into a halo the devil swallows.

Poetry·Analise Braddock, age 9 — A young writer explores how imagination can't be controlled or remade, getting lost in holes of deep thinking but remaining uniquely yours.

Story·Lena Donofrio, age 12 — A Vietnamese girl named Hoa, overwhelmed by her new American school, runs away to the fields where a mystical connection to nature helps her find peace with her new home.

Poetry·Lydia Iliff, age 10 — A series of questions explores the nature of friendship, wondering about true motivations and what friends are supposed to be.

Poetry·Naomi Angel Farkas, age 12 — A meditation on feeling trapped by others' expectations transforms into a plea for empathy and a vision of freedom through flight and song.

Story·Harper Fortgang, age 11 — A girl faces sexist taunts when joining the Boys' Chess Club but wins over her teammates by reframing their shared experiences of exclusion and leading them to victory.

Poetry·Lilly-June Gordon, age 12 — A young writer explores the gap between how peers see her—aloof, friendless—and how she sees herself: kind, connected, surviving through writing.

Story·Tudor Achim, age 9 — A bullied boy finds a magic pen that grants him superpowers, but his friend's rejection teaches him that real heroism doesn't require magic.