By Lucinda Roanoke Fall 2016 Kaplan Award Winner Lately I can’t seem to stop picking fruit. It seems that everywhere I turn, a tree is reaching out to me, her branches heavy and drooping. She is begging for me to take a load off her, and I oblige. It’s mid-August in Seattle. I’m ready with … Read More

By Shelby Mang Fall 2016 Kaplan Award Winner I haven’t been high since high school, so I’m anxious holding the aromatic pot brownie in my hand, especially where I stand in the middle of the street. As the rest of my group spills out of one of Amsterdam’s many cafés and onto the cobblestone street, … Read More

By Troy Atkinson Fall 2016 Kaplan Award Winner I am writing about the last time I spoke of it. At first I did not think of writing as a way of escaping the fact, belief, superstition, that every time I spelled out the story the fable mixed with more fact than before—each time it seemed … Read More

By Jacqueline Lourdes Blas Gamero Fall 2016 Kaplan Award Winner When I moved to Seattle, I met a woman in the laundry room named Margarita. Her high pitch, child-like tone of voice radiated throughout the entire room when she spoke. At the time, I felt like our encounter was a sort of mysterious Divine plan … Read More

By Kathleen Hawes Fall 2016 Kaplan Award Winner Sometimes I get worried that I have a brain tumor. Occasionally while I’m driving down a narrow two lane road and there are no cars to be seen, I get confused. I’ll look at the yellow line dividing the two lanes winding in front of me and … Read More

By Haylee Millikan Fall 2016 Kaplan Award Winner I was eight the first time I tried to kill myself. It was as simple as eating those “Do not eat” packets in the bottom of a shoebox: maybe it was harmless, but I didn’t know that. It was the intent that mattered. The feeling isn’t easy … Read More

By Tim Gruver Winter 2016 Kaplan Award Winner Red, white, and blue were the colors that greeted me when I arrived at the front door of my grandparents’ house one hot day in June as the American flag blew in the breeze overhead. A six hour plane flight and a half-hour drive across Ohio’s endless … Read More

By Ashley McCuen Winter 2016 Kaplan Award Winner I pulled open the front door, and my grandpa stood smiling behind the screen door. We greeted him with enthusiasm, Christmas gifts in hand. “Okay, come on in!” he said to us with a chuckle. Somehow, he seemed to remain lighthearted at all times. All of the … Read More

By Cardinal Scruggs Winter 2016 Kaplan Award Winner At the age of four, my twin sister was diagnosed with Autism. Hearing the news from the doctor, left my parents upset, confused, and fearful for their daughter’s life. What is Autism? How do we cope with this? How will our daughter be treated? These were some of the … Read More

By Melinda Trujillo Winter 2016 Kaplan Award Winner I never was any good at those games from children’s birthday parties- you know, the ones where they blindfold you and spin you around and ask you to pin the tail on the donkey- or to swing at those piñatas full of prizes and candy. How can … Read More