By Mia Remience Dear Five-Year-Old Self, I still have an image of you painted in my mind. I know that you wish for long, luscious locks like a Disney princess, yet your hair remains in a tragically non-royal bob. Your rounded face carries apples for cheeks, eyes that widen at the very thought of how … Continue reading Letter To My Five-Year-Old Self
Against a Past Life
By Riana Jicha Her honesty strikes through the bitterness of reality. Formations of life transfigure into one. Uncertainty rises as she does. The blend of today and tomorrow cascades through the night. The moon and the stars declare His glory. The celestial light illuminates her past and spotlights the future. Images hasten past as memories; … Continue reading Against a Past Life
Am I Smart for Nothing?
By Martha Bul How could a black girl graduate high school Summa Cum Laude with a 4.06 GPA at the top of her class but not get a full-ride scholarship to even just one of the top elite universities? That girl was me: Debra Owens. For the first time in my life, I felt like … Continue reading Am I Smart for Nothing?
Form and Feeling, or How to Write What Needs to Be Written
By Angela Lam If I wrote for late night TV, I might have submitted this script for The Daily Show: Jon Stewart flourishes his blue pen across the blue page. When the intro music stops, he says, “Forget politics! Let’s discuss family matters.” When the audience laughs, Jon points to the overhead video of Rose … Continue reading Form and Feeling, or How to Write What Needs to Be Written
Census
By JK Miller Birth: I was born with buttocks intact, thank God, in Ann Arbor, the same place my grandfather once, in the amphitheater of the medical school, showing off his speed in delivering a baby by cesarean, sliced the baby's buttocks with his scalpel. Race: What am I? My grandparents on my mother's side … Continue reading Census
My sport
By Reina Kita “Do you miss it?” my friend asks, as we run past the tennis courts at my local middle school. “No, not really”, I answer between breaths. For the past year, it has become my hobby to run to this school and do laps around the track. Running gives me an escape from … Continue reading My sport
It’s Only Temporary
By Chloe Bortnick 20 June 2025 I expected my senior year to be filled with lasts. My last school dances, the last school break, the last day of class, and eventually the last day in my hometown. What no one could have prepared me for was the development of something brand new: a friendship that, … Continue reading It’s Only Temporary
Weathered Baseballs
By Frank Petrignani During lunch I like to leave the office behind and go walking around the baseball field about a mile down the road. I started doing this at a time in my life where I was so stressed I could barely sit still. Somehow, walking that field and finding baseballs brought me a … Continue reading Weathered Baseballs
August Summer Competition Nonfiction Winner: “The Heron” by C. Jane Swick
“No one should take a sunset for granted,” Mike says as we walk to the beach in our slickers. It’s starting to drizzle as the sun casts a golden glow over lengthening shadows. When we reach the ocean, it is boiling in a vast frothy soup rolling and stumbling upon itself in great white crests. … Continue reading August Summer Competition Nonfiction Winner: “The Heron” by C. Jane Swick
Psalms of Hiawatha
By B Shawn Clark July 16, 2019 Carl Sandburg Home Flat Rock, North Carolina The man stood with quiet rectitude peering above a flat rock into the dense forest beyond. Here the great poet and biographer, who used to live at the farm just up the hill would retreat to a spot far enough from … Continue reading Psalms of Hiawatha
Academy of the Heart And Mind 