Carmen Valdez by Alex Segura

Hey, my name is Carmen. I live in a tiny apartment in New York City, but I’m from Miami. My parents came over from Cuba right after Castro took over. But that’s the backstory, you’re here for more than that. I moved up here to New York to work in comics. I want to...

Risa Marr by Joan Long

It’s a Saturday morning and few people are at the marina yet. It’s too early. I’m too early. But I’m anxious. This is the day that I—Risa Marr—get the chance to change my life forever. Streaks of pink and gold warm the Florida sky. The wheels on my rolling suitcase...

Tempest Raj by Gigi Pandian

Bright sunlight is streaming in through the window in my bedroom, a room that’s only accessible through the secret staircase activated by a stone dragon that hides a lever. It’s six o’clock in the morning. A few months ago, I wouldn’t have believed you if you told me...

Claudia Simcoe by Daisy Bateman

7:00 am: Alarm goes off. Contemplate the snooze button. Another twenty minutes won’t hurt. 7:02 am: Dog nose in my eye. Get up, load coffeemaker and set it on kill. I’m going to need all the help I can get today. I take Teddy, my probably-German-Shepard rescue mutt...

Quinn McFarland by Saralyn Richard

You might say I have a strange sense of humor, but that’s what growing up around dead bodies will do to you. My family and I love a good macabre joke—it’s like a secret language of our own. We all—my mom and dad, my brother Jack, and me—we all work in the funeral...

Irene Ingram by Joyce St. Anthony

Hello! My name is Irene Ingram and I’m the editor-in-chief of the Progress Herald. Pop left me in charge when he pulled some strings with a friend in the war department and got assigned to be a war correspondent. Right now he’s on a ship heading for somewhere in the...