I The video game had all my attention, so I didn’t notice when my mom came into the cramped living room. “Caleb,” she finally yelled. I looked up at her and promptly heard the familiar music play on the screen, my lapse in attention causing my character to die. I sighed. “What?” I asked. “I’m […]

TW: Themes of death. When you moved to Arizona, you thought it meant you would never have to splash through another ankle-deep puddle in your life. You thought it meant blue skies and warm days year-round. But after the week you’ve had, it doesn’t really surprise you that muddy water soaks the fabric of your […]

noun: the state of being barred from one’s native country, typically for political or punitive reasons. We wrote letters home. A message in a bottle. I was six, drawing letters outside the dotted line, filling white space with my name and a link of hearts, trying to describe our house and our backyard and the […]

I run through the night. I wish I had a lamp. I wish for a map, a blanket, water. But there was no time to pack. All I have is a handful of maple sugar candies and the little book Istvan shoved into my coat before he dragged my hood up and pushed me outside, […]

I should be sitting in first period precalculus right now, filling out a unit circle or something. Instead, I’m sitting beside my grandfather behind the wheel of my father’s stolen car, bound for the Grand Canyon. My grandfather moved in last week. I can’t have said more than a total of twenty words to him […]

Third Place Winner of 2020 The Voyage YA First Chapters Contest judged by NYT Bestselling Author Dhonielle Clayton . Next to kimchi, Koreans have perfected one other thing: The Dramatic Pause. You know, it’s that moment right after something big happens. It’s long, drawn out, and makes for such good drama. In my extensive repertoire of K-dramas, […]

I’m ready to make my getaway. The stars shine a beckoning pathway through the sand, one I yearn to follow into the darkness, into adventure, into a place where I can dream and rest and be. I push up my bedroom window, letting the fragrant desert breeze calm me and also claim me. The night […]

Content Warning: Imagined animal death. . Because she was new, she didn’t know that nobody ever sat in that first seat right behind the bus driver. If you did, sooner or later, Mrs. Johnson would catch your eye in that big mirror overhead and start asking you what church you went to. If you didn’t […]

Second Place Winner of 2020 The Voyage YA First Chapters Contest judged by NYT Bestselling Author Dhonielle Clayton . The antique golden rings on Emerald’s middle fingers began to vibrate and glow softly. She twisted the one on her right hand clockwise and waited. A second later, a vision that took the form of her elder cousin, […]

First Place Winner of 2020 The Voyage YA First Chapters Contest judged by NYT Bestselling Author Dhonielle Clayton . I couldn’t stop thinking about praying mantises when it happened. Strange childhood facts running on a loop in my head. Female mantises rip the heads off their male partners during sex. Their jagged green arms folded […]

“The painting.” The words tumble out my father’s mouth in a slur. “I—I don’t understand,” I say, forcing the words past the lump in my throat. Trembles race through his hand then down my spine. He jerks back and pulls me to his face. Cataracts crust along the rims of his rheumy eyes. “Take care […]

Any Day But Sunday Waiting Room . I don’t believe in past lives but I think in a past life something died in my womb. Every month I bleed, but I can’t go to sleep without laying a hand over my core as if cradling some dying growing thing. And sometimes I wake up with […]