Issue 38

Classification of Rocks

By Andy Wu

Andy Wu, born in Beijing, spent the early years of his life between his birthplace and Shanghai. For the past three years, Andy has been enrolled in Stevenson School in San Francisco, California.

Andy’s involvement with art began at a very early age, but it was during his middle and high school years that his aptitude in art began to flourish. His conceptually driven works have resulted in numerous Scholastic gold and silver visual art awards. Though still a teenager, Andy has exhibited his work internationally in Canada.

In his middle school years, Andy’s work was driven by his passion for basketball and focused predominantly on aesthetics. It was in high school that Andy shifted his focus towards more conceptually driven work. His themes explored issues pertaining to race, diversity, inequality and global conflicts.

Andy’s maturity as an artist is ahead of the curve, as is evident by way of his use of methods and mediums to communicate meaning. Inspired by the world around him, Andy is not afraid to tackle difficult subjects that are challenging to navigate. His work, which often contains philosophical content, comes with a satirical, and occasionally, darkly humorous panache. At present, Andy continues to develop socially relevant works that focus on the issues of our day.

Stepping in Someone’s House; Holding On

By Lucy Liu

Stepping In Someone’s House

Lucy Liu is a junior high school student at Academy of the Canyons in Santa Clarita, California. Her artworks have been recognized in the National Celebrating Art Contest and Scholastic Art & Writing Awards and published in literacy journals including National Celebrating Art Anthology, Teen Ink Magazine, Vagabond City Literary Journal, COUNTERCLOCK Journal and others. She likes to draw and paint to express her feeling and thoughts.

Nature’s World

By Erci Cai

Erci Cai, born in Hong Kong and raised in Singapore and Shanghai, currently attends a U.S. boarding school as a fifteen-year-old international student. She started art as a hobby when she was six, but only started to advance to a higher level a few years after, when she devoted more time and effort to her vocation. During this time, she began developing her own thoughts and opinions about the society we inhabit which is expressed in her work. Through the years, she never stopped searching for inspiration and continues expressing herself through her pieces.

Anthropocene

By Anfeng Xie

Anfeng Xie, a junior at St. Paul’s School, was born in Shanghai, China, where he developed a love for nature. He spent his childhood sketching trees and flowers in city parks and exploring the landscapes of Jiangsu, Lake Tai, and Zhejiang. Witnessing environmental degradation during his travels inspired his art—depicting smokestacks under gray skies and fragile ecosystems. After moving to New Hampshire for middle school, he explored new artistic styles and deepened his understanding of environmental issues. Through his work, Anfeng aims to clarify the complexities of environmental advocacy and inspire deeper reflection.

Gusht

By Emma Kraja

crook of her elbow, heeled knead of her hand
flattens like smooth hull—billows yeasty sails
pale knuckles tugging taut saran wrap skin,
Nena² is all rose petal, wood cedar.
her voice softens, laundered faded cotton.
find her sweet lilt in her floral curtains
in crisp folds of her fragrance-laden blouse
find her visage in ceramic teapots
swooping spouts and porcelain filxhanë³I find her bleeding heart wittled and flayed
in the carved wooden shqiponjë⁴ that she keeps
imposingly poised and dusted, top shelf.

aged hands that soap petaled fine china rims,
that peel and shrug coats of sweet boiled chestnuts,
pare saccharine frills of orange petticoats;
cornstarch sleeps in the bed of her fingernails
remnant bygone summers flit in her eyes.

powdered weathered palm blankets girlish hands
fingers like running water, skin of wax.
my torn peta⁵

sobs in flour smudged fear

—a cobwebbed feeble childish mimicry.
she drapes it across the back of her hands
a lacy veil kissing sharp pristine wedding ring
dusts off speckled black shawl, black apron, black
pleated dress, where at night she is cloistered
worrying thirty-three oak prayer beads.
her touch is a smoothed caress, silk on glass
she crimps its thin frayed edges just the same.

nacre-beaded brow, sheen like onion tunic
summer’s dew dribbles from out glassy eyes
traces the harsh slope of your nose, maps the
sharp jade cliff of your shoulder blade dropping
laves your spine as tidepool meets aching shore.

sun kisses black pine-casted cordate shade
on your sun warmed cheek, like hot idle stone,
filters across edge of dark cropped hair
eclipsed—golden and blinding solar crown.

breeze murmurs sweet nothings upon your nape
cups the conch of your ear with tepid palms
plucks and keeps a well-pleated daisy, still
white after years between wedding gown folds.

1. Month of August

2. Term of endearment used for grandmothers; also, mother

3. Tea cups

4. Eagle, nominative singular

5. Phyllo dough sheets

Emma Kraja is a young author and illustrator and is currently a senior at Staten Island Technical High School in New York. She is a New York Times Coming of Age winner with many publications as well as a writer for Teen Magazine. Penning pieces often centered around prevalent social issues and cultural identity, Emma Kraja has always found a creative outlet in poetry. Her own family immigrated from Albania following the downfall of the autocratic regime, and this is reflected in her poems, paying tribute to her cultural identity and her childhood.

polaroid of my sister, age seventeen

By Emma Lopez

she’s caught between frames—
right hand blurred, reaching
for something beyond paper edges.
mom says you can’t capture lightning
but the camera tried anyway:
her laugh mid-spark, hair
a storm cloud of possibility.

this was before college applications,
before she learned to pose for expectations.
back when summer meant cut-off
shorts and raspberry-stained fingers,
when she still believed
the world could hold all
her wild without breaking.

now she sends photos from seattle,
perfectly filtered, properly posed.
but i keep this one magnetic
on my fridge: motion-smeared sister,
forever seventeen, eternally
suspended in the moment before change.

Emma Lopez is a high school junior from Austin, Texas. Their work has appeared in TeenInk, and they are currently working on their first collection of poetry. When not writing, they practice archery and sell watercolor paintings of Texas wildflowers.