the passage of time

Poetry·Olivia AscioneD'Elia, age 13 — A century-old house becomes a living archive of memories, its rooms layered with photos and stars, transforming from pink dusk to dark ink as night falls.

Story·Brigid Cami, age 13 — A girl rushes through homework to spend thirty minutes by a lake, feeding ducks and contemplating the vast sky and her future.

Story·Sophie Stid, age 13 — A thirteen-year-old experiences her first family Ski Day tradition, culminating in the discovery of a candlelit ice rink hidden in the wilderness under a diamond-bright winter sky.

Story·Natalie Schuman, age 11 — A girl recounts thirteen years with her beloved Barbadian babysitter Juan, from their first meeting through the bittersweet day Juan stops working for the family.

Poetry·Riley Grace Carlson, age 9 — A child walks to a tree swing in a pasture, falls asleep, and wakes to find autumn has arrived while they slept.

Story·Isabel Folger — A grieving man revisits places he once shared with a child, finding them empty and changed, until a ray of light breaks through.

Poetry·Gabriel Wainio-Theberge, age 12 — Late geese flying south become a mourning choir whose honks lament autumn's end and winter's arrival, their voices mistaken for hunting hounds.

Poetry·Gabriel Wainio-Theberge, age 12 — Autumn transforms from blazing red leaves and jack-o-lanterns to encroaching night, frost, and brittle mushrooms frozen like victims of Medusa's stare.

Poetry·Laine Bruzek, age 12 — A child lies in grass watching the sky transform from day to night, observing clouds, sunset, stars, and moon in their eternal dance.

Poetry·Rhiannon Grodnik, age 11 — A young observer watches the sunset over San Francisco Bay, experiencing a moment of profound solitude and connection to the infinite before the city lights disappear into darkness.