nature

Poetry·Natalie Lam, age 12 — Rain transforms from mist to downpour, its gray fingers reaching through fog and pine trees, as the speaker celebrates the wet beauty of their Pacific Northwest home.

Story·Cameron Mckeich, age 11 — A boy returns to his late grandfather's wilderness farm for the first time since his death, finding solace when sunlight breaks through storm clouds onto a magnolia tree.

Story·Katey Storey, age 13 — A girl recalls summers at her family's Maine house, exploring tide pools and climbing Cannon Rock, where she collected sea glass and dreamed of becoming a marine biologist.

Poetry·Mark Roberts, age 10 — A boy remembers his grandmother through the landscape she loved — hot air balloons, hilltop trees, vineyards — and the moment of scattering her ashes.

Story·Chris Heinrich, age 13 — A boy on his first duck hunt with his father struggles between wanting to please his dad and his inability to kill the mallard in his sights.

Story·Max Strebel, age 11 — A boy reluctantly leaves his TV show to help with chores, befriends a squirrel, attempts to rescue it from a hawk, and discovers a new connection to nature.

Poetry·Isabel Taylor, age 13 — A young writer expresses the desire to dissolve boundaries between self and nature, imagining feet sinking into dirt, floating as water, swaying in trees.

Poetry·Sam Brandis-Dann, age 11 — A prose poem traces summer wind through sensory moments — sweet taste, ruffled hair, fireflies — until winter arrives and only memory remains.

Story·Leah Richmond, age 11 — A girl struggles with insomnia on a school night, trying various methods to fall asleep until the sounds of nature finally calm her racing mind.

Story·Shelley Noel McFatter — A river otter named Roscoe flees from hunters and is saved when an old beaver sacrifices his life to protect him, changing Roscoe forever.