self-discovery

Poetry·Julia Marcus, age 13 — A girl traces her name in breath-fog on an evening window, observing how light casts her shadow onto the lawn below.

Personal Narrative·Alicia Xin, age 13 — A privileged teen volunteers at a camp in rural China's Liangshan mountains, where friendships with local Yi children reveal the true meaning of gratitude.

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 — Hope personified as an ambiguous companion who guides the speaker across treacherous terrain while knowing them intimately.

Poetry·Analise Braddock, age 9 — A young poet searches for a golden orb for seven days, finally discovering it feels unexpectedly salty to the touch.

Poetry·Analise Braddock, age 9 — A meditation on impossibility and perception, where belief and action create paradoxes, and inner vision doesn't match outer reality.

Poetry·Analise Braddock, age 9 — A young writer explores how imagination can't be controlled or remade, getting lost in holes of deep thinking but remaining uniquely yours.

Poetry·Analise Braddock, age 9 — A child imagines living in a tree stump, ready to emerge and dance like moonlight over meadows, finding home in the earth itself.

Poetry·Lydia Iliff, age 10 — A series of questions explores the nature of friendship, wondering about true motivations and what friends are supposed to be.

Poetry·Lilly-June Gordon, age 12 — A young writer explores the gap between how peers see her—aloof, friendless—and how she sees herself: kind, connected, surviving through writing.