Literary Journal for Young Writers
Alina Qian is a current high school junior in the Chicago area. Her work has been recognized by Gold Keys in the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards as well as by the Bow Seat Ocean Awareness Program. She believes that her work can serve as a tool in which she can initiate conversations about challenging norms and reflect on her own experiences, as if she is having a cup of coffee with the viewer.
Leela AK is fifteen and lives in Ireland. She likes art, but she isn’t that good at it; she’s better at writing. She also likes to breed poultry and groan at people about the world not being the way she thinks it should be.
| Katherine Zhao is a sixteen-year-old aspiring artist and poet residing on Long Island, New York. Her work has been recognized by the Scholastic Art and Writing Competition, the Celebrating Art competition, The Dawn Review, TeenInk, Scribere Literary Magazine, and more. |
Audrika Chakrobartty is an eighth-grader who lives in Texas. She enjoys writing/reading, drawing, and listening to music during her free time. She’s also an avid artist, working with all types of mediums, but her favorite one to work with is just pencil and paper, but she also enjoys creating watercolor paintings.
I took this photo in Yellowstone National Park. I was surprised by the beauty of it all, so I took this photo. I hope you can enjoy the essence of the Mammoth Hot Springs through this photo, and feel how I felt that day too.
Joy Yin is a writer from Wuhan, China, though she has lived in California for five years. She is fluent in Mandarin Chinese and English but also learning Mexican Spanish. Joy has always loved reading and writing. As of now, she has works either forthcoming or already published in Skipping Stones Magazine, Scfaikuest, the new Drabbun Anthology by Hiraeth Books, Cold Moon Journal, and Star*Line. She’s currently thirteen years old and attending an international school in Mexico City. Find her on Instagram at @joyyinm88.
Seventeen years ago,
my father named me Aijia.
Ai for love, Jia for family.
If you put it together, mhea said,
it means “loving,” or “family loving.”
Eight years later,
Didi—younger brother came.
His name is Qijia and I yelped in joy
when I saw how it matched mine.
But when I asked father about it,
he responded with a Chinese proverb:
Qijia, Zhiguo, Pingtianxia:
Order your family,
Rule your country,
Bring peace to the world.
And even though both of our names conclude with
family, sometimes I can’t help
but wonder if
my character resolves
with me scrubbing wooden tables,
me making soup for my husband,
me doing the laundry, the
letters and numbers in my mind useful
only for teaching my children.
If my story ends only with me loving,
loving my parents and my husband and my children
and their children and their children’s children
until my life runs out.
While family is only the start for my brother because
we are waiting, waiting
for him to save the universe.
Aijia Zhang is a seventeen-year-old aspiring creative writer currently living in Byfield, Massachusetts. Her work has been recognized at the national level by the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards.