An update from our fifty-first Writing Workshop with Conner Bassett A summary of the workshop held on Saturday, November 26 Somewhat of a theme for this fall session, this week we focused on another example of form poetry: the ghazal. In a ghazal, we learned, the poem is written in an unlimited amount of couplets; each couplet is grammatically complete—there is no enjambment; each couplet ends on the same word or phrase; and, in the penultimate or ultimate couplet there will be a proper name, and often the poet refers to themselves. We read five ghazals: “Derecho Ghazal” by Luisa A. Igloria “That’s My Heart Right There” by Willie Perdomo “Rain” by Kazim Ali “It Is with Words as It Is with People” by Anthony Madrid “Wight” by Stanley Plumly The Challenge: Write your own ghazal. The Participants: Benedetta, Alice, Allie, Emma, Anushka, Aditi, Arjun, Ella, Madeline, Russell, Savi, Tate, Penelope
Weekly Creativity #231 | Flash Contest #50: Use the Atlas of Emotions to Choose an Emotion You’ve Never Heard of and Write a Story/Poem in which Your Protagonist Feels That Emotion
Use the Atlas of Emotions to choose an emotion you’ve never heard of, and write a story/poem in which your protagonist feels and describes that emotion.
Saturday Newsletter: December 3, 2022
Leaving Our Mark (iPhone 6) by Anna Weinberg, 12; published in Stone Soup December 2022 A note from Emma Wood On November 15, we finally released Foxtale by Sarah Hunt—the fiction winner of our 2021 book contest. It’s a fantastic novel that truly has it all: a pet dog with a robotic leg, an unlikely (and totally likable) heroine, a mechanical flying dragon, and a journey to another planet—not to mention intrigue, suspense, and fascinating characters. I hope you will buy your own copy, along with some extras as holiday gifts for any readers in your life who love a well-plotted science fiction story! The book contest is such a valuable outlet for young writers; I get notes every year detailing how much simply working toward the contest has meant to them. Publishing these books is truly a labor of love for us, as it is for all small presses—though we think they should sell thousands, none has yet and every year we must reconsider whether it will be possible for us to hold another book contest. Please help us keep it going by either making a donation to Stone Soup this holiday season—or a viral TikTok about one of our titles 🙂 Stone Soup is published by Children’s Art Foundation-Stone Soup Inc., a 501(c)(3) educational nonprofit organization registered in the United States of America, EIN: 23-7317498.
