silence

Story·Michaela Frey, age 12 — A foster child who lost her voice after trauma struggles to speak again, remembering the woman who silenced her years ago.

Story·Vandana Ravi, age 12 — A girl who struggles to speak finds solace in a book about a unicorn and a friend, escaping into its world during lunch before returning to face school.

Poetry·Anya Geist, age 12 — A nocturnal tour through a small town captures the quiet life of buildings, objects, and creatures after dark, from creaking floorboards to a bobbing pond raft.

Poetry·Mae Gesser, age 9 — A quiet poem captures night through four precise images: stars as sequins, moon on water, grass swaying like a rocking horse, silence like an empty page.

Poetry·Eleonore Lecue, age 6 — A six-year-old's expansive meditation on silence as it moves through mountains, trees, and rainbows, shifting into reflections on growth and mortality.

Poetry·Kate Choi, age 12 — A morning meditation in an oak tree by a brook, where the listener discovers that silence is filled with nature's whispered wisdom and calls to action.

Poetry·Brooklyn Jeffcoat, age 12 — A young person captures the intensity of friendship through sensory snapshots — ice cream sweetness, rushing downstairs, laughing until breathless, then returning to solitude.

Story·Sophia Emmert, age 13 — A deaf girl discovers she can feel music through vibrations when her teacher shows her how to play piano barefoot, finding her voice through the instrument.

Poetry·Marley Powell, age 12 — A catalog of sounds in the aftermath of loss — from helicopters to stomach gurgles to silence — anchored by an empty iguana cage.

Story·MadeIon Case — A father and daughter paddle across a misty lake at dawn, observing wildlife until a beaver slaps its tail in warning before disappearing into its dam.