neighbors

Story·Zoe Kijak, age 11 — A girl who never backs down from a challenge breaks her arm climbing the neighborhood's tallest tree during a game of Truth or Dare she wasn't supposed to play.

Poetry·Soheon Rhee, age 12 — A meditation on dishwashing becomes a portal to memory, neighborhood sounds, and the passage of time in a Korean household abroad.

Poetry·Summer Loh, age 8 — Through a fogged window, a child observes city life: a girl with her dog, a street musician, an old couple, and a flower growing through concrete cracks.

Story·Jack Meyer, age 13 — Two next-door-neighbor boys share mint chocolate chip ice cream and play video games on a windy spring afternoon, their friendship revealed through accumulated details.

Story·Elaina Heinitz, age 10 — A grumpy man captures the town's beloved wake-up bird, but when the whole town mourns its loss, he realizes his mistake and sets it free.

Poetry·Analise Braddock, age 9 — A surreal encounter at a juggle place leads to accusations of theft and a police litany of the narrator's strange misdeeds throughout the week.

Poetry·Analise Braddock, age 7 — A girl encounters a juggle man who accuses her of theft, leading to police involvement and a litany of her supposed misdeeds.

Story·Anyi Sharma, age 10 — A man recently released from prison hosts a dinner party where guests flee one by one, revealing his isolation as reality dissolves into forest imagery.

Story·Samantha Abrishani, age 12 — A girl discovers mysterious footprints leading into the ocean, searches for her missing brother, and befriends the reclusive neighbor who reveals she once cared for a dolphin-boy.

Story·Lia Clark, age 13 — In 1953, an eight-year-old Black girl secretly befriends a white girl through a hole in the fence dividing their neighborhoods, until Brown v. Board changes everything.