loneliness

Poetry·Lucy Watkins — Two figures with umbrellas sit together in a rainy night until one leaves, then returns, as the natural world responds to their movements.

Story·Tvisha Chaswal Raj — A lonely house repeatedly modernizes itself to attract families who always leave, until it returns to its original form and finds lasting residents.

Story·Olivia Lee — A girl who visits a special tree daily finds a mysterious note warning that hunters are attacking animals in Croygami Woods.

Poetry·Enni Harlan — A child compares lunches with a classmate, each envying what the other has—yogurt versus rice with seaweed—discovering that nothing tastes as good when it's yours.

Poetry·Analise Braddock, age 10 — A child observes others who seem to contain multitudes while affirming her own singular self—one soul, one mind, one heart against the night's thousand stars.

Story·Maayan Mardiks-Rappaport, age 10 — A child sits alone in a forest clearing, imagining mushrooms whispering comfort, then floats with a friend to an imaginary world of happiness surrounded by nature.

Story·Lily Yagi, age 11 — A dog named Chocolate wakes up abandoned, searches for her owner through city and forest, becomes leader of a wolf pack, then finds her way home after 49 days.

Story·Myiesha Jain, age 11 — A girl climbs a hill at sunset to throw a pebble into the sky for her dead mother, then returns to an empty house and her absent father's note.

Story·T. Max Crowe, age 12 — A lonely man in ancient Greece trades his dog to a god to resurrect his dead son, but Hades punishes him for breaking the laws of death.

Story·Oren Milgrom-Dorfman, age 12 — A girl escapes her parents on a forest hike, then later that night returns to the woods alone to weep in a moonlit clearing.