Summertime Lost
By Richard Temple — Nearly eight billion sides to this story but we don't have time for that here. Paralyzed stasis:
Nothing is moving, not
The
Premier
online
literary
journal
for
Expressive
Writing
The
Premier
online
literary
journal
for
Expressive
Writing
JOURNAL OF
EXPRESSIVE WRITING
THEMES by PROMPT
We publish writing using a series of prompts as an entry point for exploring emotions, personal histories, shared truths, joy, grief, shame, and those themes that matter most to us in our hearts.
Explore the themes by prompt below:
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- Apr 5
On Reading and Writing during the Pandemic
By Joyce Bou Charaa — Since the spread of the Coronavirus pandemic in 2020, we have been trying to escape the news, the economic crisis
- Mar 16
Inexorable Fate
By Gary Beck — Americans watched on TV as the police were overwhelmed by hundreds of attackers and no one sent reinforcements to defend the
- Feb 18
At Forty
By Yulia Tseytlin — At three, I didn’t shove a thin stick in my mother’s nose, saying ‘corona-test’. At four, when I played school, a mask
- Jan 31
Long Haul Year Two
By Rachel Baum — Another physicians assistant laptop. The doctor is MIA because you are not (ever) sick enough. Pull tight around you your
- Jan 8
Shelter in Place
By Kristin D'Agostino — Am I the only one who finds this phrase liberating? A tyranny of choices reduced to the lowest common denominator,
- Dec 17, 2021
Nesting
By Megan Vos — Last year during Covid, my family noticed that a robin had built a nest under our deck. Our deck is off the back of our
- Dec 4, 2021
I Cried
By Gabrielle Maryland — At the height of the pandemic, I found myself sobbing on whatever floor could hold my shaking frame. Often times,
- Nov 22, 2021
Flatbush Food Co-Op
By Ivy Raff — We came to know each other in these days, idly rolling the rickety red powder-coated shopping cart back and forth over cracked
- Nov 9, 2021
Pandemic Haibun
By Deborah Bacharach — I want to hug Marcie in her orange home-knit sweater. I can see her now coming down Greenwood past the buff work-out
- Oct 30, 2021
Pandemic Wishes
By Anangsha Haldar — Glass rimmed, venous wings hang like paper kites, flittering anxiously, contemplating release from the narrow
- Oct 8, 2021
Walking Down the Street
By Diane Kendig — I am stopped by a man who wants to know if my hat is for Navy. “No, it’s my dad’s Army Air Corps hat,” I say, hold it at
- Sep 30, 2021
My Young Nephew
By REN — Having been privileged to receive and finish education years before the pandemic, I sometimes worry for my young nephew. He's
- Sep 8, 2021
What the Sheltering Do
By Lana Hechtman Ayers — Turnips are all I eat for the fifth night this week
because the market is out of everything,
and facial tissues
- Aug 30, 2021
The Housing Crises is Real
By Victoria Lambert — I received a letter from my landlord's attorney dated April 14, 2020 that stated I should pay my past due rent within
- Aug 6, 2021
First Wave of COVID–19 through the Lens of a Child from a Middle Class Family in Kerala, South India
By Maya M — Agasthya understood that something serious was happening around him. Dad and Mom stayed at home and they did not send both his
- Jul 22, 2021
I Just Need My Hand Held
By Christine Carpenter — I am in one of the final prenatal appointments of my pregnancy and because I have something called marginal cord
- Jul 8, 2021
Aftermath
By April Boyington Wall — During Covid 19 I learned that the term aftermath was apparently originally an agricultural one, referring to an
- Jun 9, 2021
Covid in a Bell Jar
By Teresa van Luyk — I met my cottage neighbor, Joe, on the beach a month or so ago, before this latest stay-at-home order, and we caught up
- Jun 1, 2021
Pandemic Protocol
By Nancy Smiler Levinson — One of my reserved books is ready at curbside pickup. I phone for a date. Press one.
Name check. ID card check