#PWNonfictionPrompt: Write an essay on politeness and your thoughts about social embarrassment. Has there been a time when you suffered consequences for your politeness? #FromTheArchive: at.pw.org/Politeness
October 3, 2026 at 1:01 PM
#PWNonfictionPrompt: Write an essay on politeness and your thoughts about social embarrassment. Has there been a time when you suffered consequences for your politeness? #FromTheArchive: at.pw.org/Politeness
#FromTheArchive: Make a list of impediments to your writing life and write an essay about how you see yourself overcoming these obstacles. #PWNonfictionPrompt: at.pw.org/Impediments
January 18, 2025 at 2:00 PM
#FromTheArchive: Make a list of impediments to your writing life and write an essay about how you see yourself overcoming these obstacles. #PWNonfictionPrompt: at.pw.org/Impediments
#FromTheArchive: Write an essay about a river, or body of water, that is significant to you. How does its history intersect with your own? #PWNonfictionPrompt: at.pw.org/River
March 1, 2025 at 2:00 PM
#FromTheArchive: Write an essay about a river, or body of water, that is significant to you. How does its history intersect with your own? #PWNonfictionPrompt: at.pw.org/River
#FromTheArchive: In the first-person voice, write an essay about a disagreement with someone from their perspective. #PWNonfictionPrompt: at.pw.org/YouSaid
February 8, 2025 at 2:00 PM
#FromTheArchive: In the first-person voice, write an essay about a disagreement with someone from their perspective. #PWNonfictionPrompt: at.pw.org/YouSaid
Maya Angelou, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Audre Lorde and Langston Hughes.
Hope, pride, joy, anger, appreciation.
#PWNonfictionPrompt
Hope, pride, joy, anger, appreciation.
#PWNonfictionPrompt
March 28, 2026 at 2:07 PM
Maya Angelou, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Audre Lorde and Langston Hughes.
Hope, pride, joy, anger, appreciation.
#PWNonfictionPrompt
Hope, pride, joy, anger, appreciation.
#PWNonfictionPrompt
#PWNonfictionPrompt: Write a series of flash creative nonfiction pieces about art, human rights, or the use of social media, each 140 words long. #FromTheArchive: at.pw.org/140Words
April 12, 2025 at 1:01 PM
#PWNonfictionPrompt: Write a series of flash creative nonfiction pieces about art, human rights, or the use of social media, each 140 words long. #FromTheArchive: at.pw.org/140Words
#FromTheArchive: Write an essay about a time when failure led to a better understanding of something in your life. #PWNonfictionPrompt: at.pw.org/FailureAsKin
March 19, 2025 at 3:15 PM
#FromTheArchive: Write an essay about a time when failure led to a better understanding of something in your life. #PWNonfictionPrompt: at.pw.org/FailureAsKin
#PWNonfictionPrompt: Take three walks outdoors throughout the week and write down as many observations as possible. #FromTheArchive: at.pw.org/Excursions
July 11, 2026 at 1:01 PM
#PWNonfictionPrompt: Take three walks outdoors throughout the week and write down as many observations as possible. #FromTheArchive: at.pw.org/Excursions
#PWNonfictionPrompt: Choose a city you have a deep connection with and write an essay that contends with its history, both personal and global, through a mythical or surreal lens. at.pw.org/PaeanToPlace
May 24, 2025 at 1:02 PM
#PWNonfictionPrompt: Choose a city you have a deep connection with and write an essay that contends with its history, both personal and global, through a mythical or surreal lens. at.pw.org/PaeanToPlace
#FromTheArchive: Write an essay about a time when failure led to a better understanding of something in your life. #PWNonfictionPrompt: at.pw.org/FailureAsKin
March 22, 2025 at 1:00 PM
#FromTheArchive: Write an essay about a time when failure led to a better understanding of something in your life. #PWNonfictionPrompt: at.pw.org/FailureAsKin
#PWNonfictionPrompt: Write a personal essay about one of the illusory figures that haunt your creative life, perhaps an ancestor, writer, or former friend. #FromTheArchive: at.pw.org/ListenGhosts
June 20, 2026 at 1:00 PM
#PWNonfictionPrompt: Write a personal essay about one of the illusory figures that haunt your creative life, perhaps an ancestor, writer, or former friend. #FromTheArchive: at.pw.org/ListenGhosts
#PWNonfictionPrompt: Take a small amount of time each day this week to record things that catch your attention. Note down sensory observations, and emotional and physical feelings. #FromTheArchive: at.pw.org/TinyObservations
April 18, 2026 at 1:02 PM
#PWNonfictionPrompt: Take a small amount of time each day this week to record things that catch your attention. Note down sensory observations, and emotional and physical feelings. #FromTheArchive: at.pw.org/TinyObservations
#PWNonfictionPrompt: Think of an object, tool, or method that you currently use that might be considered old-fashioned and write an essay on why you still use it. at.pw.org/OldSchool
May 3, 2025 at 1:01 PM
#PWNonfictionPrompt: Think of an object, tool, or method that you currently use that might be considered old-fashioned and write an essay on why you still use it. at.pw.org/OldSchool
#PWNonfictionPrompt: Think of a memory that continues to haunt you like a ghost and write a personal essay that uses a frame technique—the telling of a story within a story. #FromTheArchive: at.pw.org/FramedStory
October 18, 2025 at 1:02 PM
#PWNonfictionPrompt: Think of a memory that continues to haunt you like a ghost and write a personal essay that uses a frame technique—the telling of a story within a story. #FromTheArchive: at.pw.org/FramedStory
#PWNonfictionPrompt: Write an essay about experiencing love and hate—whether it be through heartbreak, the aftereffects of guilt, or a complicated relationship. Consider the difference between knowing and feeling these emotions. #FromTheArchive: at.pw.org/KnowingFeeling
November 29, 2025 at 2:01 PM
#PWNonfictionPrompt: Write an essay about experiencing love and hate—whether it be through heartbreak, the aftereffects of guilt, or a complicated relationship. Consider the difference between knowing and feeling these emotions. #FromTheArchive: at.pw.org/KnowingFeeling
#PWNonfictionPrompt: Write a series of scenes in a personal essay that illustrate a time in your life when you were bewildered. How can one learn from the feeling of being perplexed or confused? at.pw.org/Bewilderment
June 14, 2025 at 1:01 PM
#PWNonfictionPrompt: Write a series of scenes in a personal essay that illustrate a time in your life when you were bewildered. How can one learn from the feeling of being perplexed or confused? at.pw.org/Bewilderment
#PWNonfictionPrompt: Pen a humorous essay declaring a controversial opinion about something trivial but trendy. #FromTheArchive: at.pw.org/AgreeDisagree
August 1, 2026 at 1:01 PM
#PWNonfictionPrompt: Pen a humorous essay declaring a controversial opinion about something trivial but trendy. #FromTheArchive: at.pw.org/AgreeDisagree
#PWNonfictionPrompt: Think back to your last crush and catalog the symptoms you remember experiencing while infatuated. #FromTheArchive: at.pw.org/Fixated
August 16, 2025 at 1:01 PM
#PWNonfictionPrompt: Think back to your last crush and catalog the symptoms you remember experiencing while infatuated. #FromTheArchive: at.pw.org/Fixated
#PWNonfictionPrompt: Focus on a way to use rigorous, specific, fresh language to write about recovery after a difficult time in your life. #FromTheArchive: at.pw.org/GettingBetter
July 5, 2025 at 1:01 PM
#PWNonfictionPrompt: Focus on a way to use rigorous, specific, fresh language to write about recovery after a difficult time in your life. #FromTheArchive: at.pw.org/GettingBetter
#PWNonfictionPrompt: Write a personal essay about how your literary output has evolved over the years in connection to the state of your body. at.pw.org/ThatWasThen
November 8, 2025 at 2:00 PM
#PWNonfictionPrompt: Write a personal essay about how your literary output has evolved over the years in connection to the state of your body. at.pw.org/ThatWasThen
#PWNonfictionPrompt: List writers whose works make you want to read them out loud and reflect on what emotions their words bring up for you. #FromTheArchive: at.pw.org/Voices
March 28, 2026 at 1:01 PM
#PWNonfictionPrompt: List writers whose works make you want to read them out loud and reflect on what emotions their words bring up for you. #FromTheArchive: at.pw.org/Voices
#PWNonfictionPrompt: Write about a time when you chose to push against despair and bleakness. How did love, humor, and hope persist despite dire circumstances? #FromTheArchive: at.pw.org/Persisting
March 7, 2026 at 2:01 PM
#PWNonfictionPrompt: Write about a time when you chose to push against despair and bleakness. How did love, humor, and hope persist despite dire circumstances? #FromTheArchive: at.pw.org/Persisting
#PWNonfictionPrompt: Write a personal essay about a woman who has had a powerful presence in your life, who inspired you to persevere and overcome obstacles. #FromTheArchive: at.pw.org/WondrousWomen
December 20, 2025 at 2:02 PM
#PWNonfictionPrompt: Write a personal essay about a woman who has had a powerful presence in your life, who inspired you to persevere and overcome obstacles. #FromTheArchive: at.pw.org/WondrousWomen
#PWNonfictionPrompt: Using the catalog of your own experiences and knowledge, write an essay searching to answer what beauty is to you. What life events does the word conjure? #FromTheArchive: at.pw.org/Beauty
September 6, 2025 at 1:01 PM
#PWNonfictionPrompt: Using the catalog of your own experiences and knowledge, write an essay searching to answer what beauty is to you. What life events does the word conjure? #FromTheArchive: at.pw.org/Beauty
#FromTheArchive: Choose a city you have a deep connection with and write an essay that contends with its history, both personal and global, through a mythical or surreal lens. #PWNonfictionPrompt: at.pw.org/PaeanToPlace
July 26, 2025 at 1:01 PM
#FromTheArchive: Choose a city you have a deep connection with and write an essay that contends with its history, both personal and global, through a mythical or surreal lens. #PWNonfictionPrompt: at.pw.org/PaeanToPlace