nature

Personal Narrative·Claire Jiang, age 12 — A 12-year-old wrestles with her sense of obligation to fight climate change, questioning whether individual actions matter while affirming her commitment to future generations.

Poetry·Liv Baker, age 11 — A sensory catalog poem moves from mountain drives through rain showers to skiing, capturing moments of calm through specific smells and textures.

Story·Emily Carver, age 11 — A red wolf named Ruby gets separated from her pack, is tranquilized and relocated to Yellowstone, where she finds a new pack and home after proving herself in battle.

Poetry·Tatiana Rebecca Shrayer, age 13 — A girl and her father venture into woods to craft a bow and arrows from oak branches, shooting them into the star-filled evening sky.

Poetry·Tatiana Rebecca Shrayer, age 13 — A winter morning walk to art class transforms when the speaker notices the river's muddy ice, mallard, and debris become a still life waiting to be painted.

Poetry·Tatiana Rebecca Shrayer, age 13 — Morning fog lifts as blackbirds sing and a coyote chases a dog, leaving the speaker wondering who cleared the fog away.

Poetry·Tatiana Rebecca Shrayer, age 13 — A walk on a grey path reveals falling snow alongside violence and grief, prompting wonder at snow's peaceful clarity amid human suffering.

Poetry·Tatiana Rebecca Shrayer, age 13 — A young traveler contrasts swimming in the stormy Pacific and touching dead jellyfish with glimpses of urban decay seen from a bus window in a Chilean coastal city.

Poetry·Tatiana Rebecca Shrayer, age 13 — A prose poem captures running with a silver poodle by the ocean, where salt air mingles with thoughts of politics and stars emerge from boredom.

Poetry·Tatiana Rebecca Shrayer, age 13 — Wet seaweed on the beach becomes a meditation on how memories dissolve and return, forming patterns in the sand as they dry.