memory

Story·Brooke Fallows, age 11 — A girl remembers her grandfather through visits to a train station and Olvera Street, then recounts his death and what he taught her about time and memory.

Poetry·Stella White, age 11 — A girl lies in her father's childhood bed in London, watching trains pass and imagining his life decades earlier in the same room.

Story·Sadie Robb, age 13 — A girl recounts the night her beloved family country home burned down, leaving her with physical and emotional scars that teach her about loss and memory.

Story·Melissa Birchfield, age 13 — A girl reluctant to accept a new piano teacher after her grandmother's death discovers she can honor memories while embracing new beginnings through music.

Story·Hannah Ogden, age 13 — A family drives through the night to grandparents' house after eviction, their old truck barely making it as a girl reflects on loss and uncertain futures.

Poetry·Caroline Thompson, age 12 — A young person addresses someone who left without explanation, cycling through questions, pleas, and the haunting memory of their whispered apology.

Story·Ada King, age 11 — A younger sister accompanies her family to drop her older sister off at college, grappling with change while finding comfort in a shared photograph from their childhood.

Story·Jenna Fields, age 12 — A bucking bronco narrates his life from birth to rodeo legend, revealing the fierce determination and isolation that define his existence as 'the fighter.'

Poetry·Sydney Pardo, age 13 — A poem of lost childhood intimacy between cousins or friends, marked by shared memories of orchards, butterfly funerals, and the gulf that opens when one becomes a teenager.

Poetry·Isaac Walsh, age 10 — A six-year-old loses his orange Croc over the Stone Arch Bridge and imagines it floating down the Mississippi to Louisiana, carrying its mystery.