Three years and two personal renaissances ago. You mourn for six weeks, then use her death to excuse all of your shortcomings for the rest of the year. One night, your body full of hunger and youth, you carve her initials into your outer thigh with your father’s razor. Later, at a blazing house party,… More Things You Did After Your Best Friend Died by Mei Mei Sun
Snowflakes remind me of angels. But I don’t mean snow angels. I’m talking about how no two flakes are the same and the way they flutter down to the ground. I used to wake up on snowy mornings and stare out the window as long as I could before my mom made me get ready… More Pavane by Ryan Amato
After Adrian Page You’re sitting across from me in a shitty diner in Nowhere, America with stained menus and countertops. The light slants through the broken blinds, time blows out wide and seconds go on for just this side of forever. You drink from a chipped beige mug made more of sugar than coffee. I… More You Are a Warm Feeling by Rhianna Bennett
By Alex Houdeshell It seems like all we can talk about these days is the coronavirus. I call up my friends but since all I’ve done for the past week is go to class from the comfort of my bed, and all they’ve done is play video games while lectures drones on in the background,… More From Animal Semen to Dank Memes: The language of COVID-19
TLDR you can make a writing prompt out of anything By Natalie Baliker After several weeks at home, stuck staring at the walls as if they’re going to change any time soon, I’m desperate for distraction. But at the same time, I’m incapable of sitting down and channelling that energy into my writing. Instead of… More Teenage Nostalgia Plus Free Time Equals Writing Prompts
By Jennie Fetzer Picture this, it’s the early 2000s, and if you’re a millennial or *cusp* Gen-Zer, you’re probably about to get off the bus from school, drink a Capri-Sun juice pouch, and read the Harry Potter series for the third (no, fourth) time through. A strange reality hit me the other day as I… More POV: You’re the Last Person in the World to Read Harry Potter
By Danny Mitola If there’s one thing I’ve noticed that’s different during self-isolation, it’s the amount of people walking, biking, and running on my street. There have certainly been people in the past whose daily routines included these activities, but I’ve noticed many new faces. It doesn’t come as much of a surprise, really. With… More Walking in Wallace Stevens’s Footsteps
By Ryan Amato Staying home all day, avoiding contact with others, having less obligations than usual: This is the writer’s dream. Or, at least, it should be. For some reason, the idea of sitting down to write something just hasn’t crossed my mind, despite having nothing but free time to write. Instead of finishing that… More Why I now have all the free time to write, yet I don’t do it
A novice’s guide to finding the strength and motivation to actually get stuff done By Lauren Ablondi-Olivo If you’re anything like me, writing is hard enough as it is without a literal, global pandemic going on around us (creepily similar to the dystopian futures you read about in Station’s Eleven, or Life as We Knew… More Writing in Quarantine
By Brenna Sarantides The day that UConn closed campus and moved to online classes, I told myself I would have a lot to show for all my free time. I’d read a few books a week. I’d finally start writing the novel I’ve been story-boarding. I’d finish a large canvas painting as a housewarming gift… More Art Prevails in Quarantine, Even in the Smallest Acts