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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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May 16, 2021
Be Grateful
By Nikkia Newton — Be careful that you sit across from a friend and eat lunch. Be grateful that you can still live to make a mistake. Be


May 15, 2021
Absurdity
By Bryan Damien Nichols — Listen carefully: have you ever been told to say—and to explain in depth—you took no action, whether now or in


May 14, 2021
Potential
By Angella Lee — Like a seed with a blueprint for becoming a flower, I contained my potential. I started deep in the ground. I couldn't


May 12, 2021
Four Moments
By Alisha Foster — Seeing you for the first time shocked me— Like seeing someone I thought was dead. I forgot myself, crowded over to touch

May 10, 2021
Irreparable
By John Maurer — Drop a chandelier of stained glass into my branches, so irreparable, still kind of enchanting, a good memory
That is har


May 9, 2021
Happiness Out and About
By Santana Kay — Cheap perfumes and public buses, people in and out of league; crammed in their own little worlds, wearing crestfallen faces


May 7, 2021
Just Passing Through
By Madge Kaplan — I know we’re both waiting outside a hospital’s locked psychiatric unit. But I won’t be doing this more than once or twice.


May 5, 2021
The Librarian
By Crystal James — No one noticed as I curled up under the huge tires that were half in the frozen ground. It sounds like I played in a

May 3, 2021
April 2020: Quarantine, Week Five
By Magdalena Bartkowska — Today, I yelled at my eight-year-old son for doing a math problem wrong and refusing to try it my way. My four


May 1, 2021
Color Blind!
By Jyoti Nair — Especially on Holi, make me color-blind. Liberate me from color-cacophony and clangor. They have been bludgeoning my


Apr 27, 2021
Masks
By Jeremiah K Durick — Bill brought masks the other day, sat in his car in the driveway and visited a bit, thought we’d need masks if we


Apr 21, 2021
Dear Grandma,
By Linda Petrucelli — Thank you for the many times you welcomed me into your apartment to spend the night. I loved climbing up the


Apr 16, 2021
Petals
By I.B. Rad — Requiescat in pace,
thereafter were you cremated with that pale residuum of being, your ashes,
strewn over a radiantly


Apr 10, 2021
O Survivor!
By M. Fatima — O Survivor! I hear you!
Tell me your story, loud and clear, I hear you! I hear your screams, I hear them loud. I hear your

Apr 5, 2021
Ask Me About My Narcoleptic Daydreams
By Reyna N. Vasquez Bisono — My narcolepsy makes me crave sleep, but the world makes me embrace it. Why face your problems, when you can


Mar 30, 2021
My Dreams
By Anita Nahal — No one noticed
that the warm whiff of deep green mint sauce in roasted brick red potatoes speckled with a generous


Mar 28, 2021
Vietnam Memories
By John L. Swainston — We learned it was to late to say: "Hell no I won't go!" We had learned to shoot straight. We found our need to sin,


Mar 26, 2021
Turn the Corner
By Marjorie Moorhead — Goodbye 2020. I’ve eaten my fill of snickerdoodles, gingerbread, chocolate chip cookies, yeast bread ladened with


Mar 19, 2021
The House
By Anita Kestin — I have not traveled that route in some time. That place belongs to a time when we thought we were all healthy and when


Mar 14, 2021
A Recovering Apologist
By Liz Clark — I’ve always apologized even if the issue hadn’t been my fault. Last year—I stopped apologizing. I stopped hanging my head in
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