Collect words and develop a rich vocabulary...save words for just the right place in your writing...be patient, this process will take years.

Write only the first sentence of a short story. The challenge is to make the sentence so compelling that the reader has to go on. What's the most important word? The verb? A noun? An adjective? Share your process with … Continue reading →

Write a sonnet for spring. Use the Shakespearean sonnet form but with a contemporary theme...14 lines in iambic pentameter. Every other line rhymes for the first 12 lines, then the last two lines rhyme. Share your sonnet with us.

As National Poetry Month comes to a close...try this idea from the Academy of American Poets: "select a poem you love, carry it with you, then share it with co-workers, family, and friends".

"In the words of Betty Drevniok:'In haiku the something and the something else are set down together in clearly stated images. Together they complete and fulfill each other as one particular event.' The comparison shows how two different things share … Continue reading →

Celebrate National Poetry Month! Check out this global poem for change...

Find a bizarre news headline. Take the headline and write a first person account, putting yourself into the story. Add details...places, people, things... to make the story more believable or even more strange.

Check out this great interview with Kevin Prufer in the Kenyon Review. Interview with Kevin Prufer One of his core beliefs..."In poetry: something ought to be happening in the white space."

"To acquire the habit of reading is to construct for yourself a refuge from almost all of the miseries of life." W. Somerset Maugham