The Time Is Now: Writing Prompts and Exercises
Create a found poem, break your habits, or be an ambassador to your own country—three prompts to ignite the creative process.
From the Magazine
Superpowered Storytelling
An author, essayist, and DC Comics writer shares what he’s learned from writing comics, and how the process has shaped his narrative voice.
Traveling Stanzas
With the goal of facilitating “global conversation through the intimate and inclusive voice of poetry,” the Kent, Ohio–based Wick Poetry Center is expanding its programming and bringing poetry to a wider audience.
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Pat Conroy Literary Center, LGBTQ Novel Recommendations, and More
Carla Hayden close to securing Librarian of Congress appointment; fiction writer Max Porter on the fragmentary nature of grief; the vindication of Ernest Hemingway’s second wife; and other news.
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Contemporary Poets to Read Now, Eileen Myles Inspires New Feminists, and More
Hilary Mantel’s writing day; an interview with National Book Award winner Ha Jin; U. of Illinois launches massive open online course in Modern American poetry; and other news.
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Writers on Books That Left a Mark
From Stephen King’s The Body to Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five, Ig Publishing’s new Bookmarked series offers short personal narratives that explore how a particular work of fiction helped shape a writer’s career.
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This Is Your Brain on Fear: Trauma and Storytelling
How do we record traumatic events when our survival often depends on us not thinking at all? Fiction writer and essayist J. T. Bushnell explores this question through the lens of a house fire, combining ideas of memory, storytelling, and neuroscience to investigate the intersections of truth, trauma, and narrative.
An Open Door: A Profile of Richard Russo
For the past thirty years, from the publication of his first novel, Mohawk, to his latest, Everybody’s Fool, a sequel to his beloved 1993 novel, Nobody’s Fool, Richard Russo, the Pulitzer Prize–winning “patron saint of small-town fiction,” has remained the same generous, optimistic, hardworking writer he’s always been, welcoming readers into his books and his heart.
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The Time Is Now: Writing Prompts and Exercises
Explore your parental relationships, gain unexpected access to somebody else’s data, and assess the qualities of a favorite celebrity—three prompts to ignite the creative process.
Poet, Writer, Imposter: Learning to Believe in Myself
A poet, novelist, and memoirist investigates the experience of imposter syndrome—that insidious feeling of being a fraud—and poses the question, What would happen if writers stopped viewing their careers as a series of happy accidents?
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