The_time_is_now__writing_promp

the literary life TheTimelsNow Writing Prompts and Exercises Suggested Reading: Poetry: Quoth t h e Raven Draft No. 4: On the Writing Process (Farrar, Straus \"Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, / Over many a and Giroux, September) quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore— / While I nodded, nearly napping, by John McPhee suddenly there came a tapping...\" First published almost two hundred years ago, Edgar Allan Poe's narrative poem \"The Raven\" was itself partially inspired by the The author of more than thirty raven in Charles Dickens's novel Barnaby Rudge and has gone on to spark numerous books of nonfiction as well as renditions, homages, and parodies. And the poem's influence has extended far more than a hundred pieces beyond literature, giving a name to an NFL team (Baltimore Ravens) and providing of journalism published in inspiration for a range of artists, from cartoonists (The Simpsons and Calvin and Hobbes) the New Yorker over the past to musicians (Lou Reed and the Grateful Dead). Write a poem that takes its cue from fifty years offers a collection an element of Poe's verse that you are especially drawn toward. Consider its themes of essays on the writer's craft of loss and devotion; the extensive use of alliteration and rhyme; the \"nevermore\" in which he shares memories refrain; classical, mythological, and biblical references; the question-and-answer and tips of the trade gleaned sequencing; the symbolism of the raven; or the forebodingly dark atmosphere. throughout his distinguished career as a writer and an in- Fiction: Back t o School structor at Princeton Univer- sity. McPhee uses excerpts The campus novel is a work of fiction that revolves primarily around an academic of his work to provide lessons campus, most often a college or university. Some fall into the category of coming- on crucial decisions regard¬ of-age stories, such as Jeffrey Eugenides's The Marriage Plot and Elif Batuman's The ing structure, diction, and Idiot, while others are more focused on faculty, such as Mary McCarthy's The Groves tone that shape well-written of Academe and Philip Roth's The Human Stain. Campus novels offer the opportunity nonfiction pieces. to explore characters within the hierarchical structures and pressurized environment of a closed educational system and the contrasting perspectives of teachers and stu- dents because of differences in age, power, class, and social and cultural values. Write a short story that focuses on students and/or teachers in a high school or college set- ting, perhaps integrating elements of comedy and satire like Kingsley Amis's Lucky Jim and Jane Smiley's Moo, science fiction like Jonathan Lethem's As She Climbed Across the Table, murder mystery like Donna Tartt's The Secret History, sports like Chad Harbach's The Art of Fielding, or supernatural Gothic horror like Joyce Carol Oates's The Accursed. Nonfiction: State Your Beverage Many people associate drinking apple cider with popular fall activities in the northern and eastern United States, such as apple picking and leaf peeping, but few likely know it is New Hampshire's official beverage. The state approved the official designation in 2010 following a petition submitted by fourth-grade students. In fact, more than half the states in this country have official beverages, a trend started by Ohio, which made tomato juice its official beverage in 1965, and followed by Massachusetts (cranberry juice) and Florida (orange juice). Many other states (Wisconsin, New York, Vermont, and Oregon among them) selected milk. Write a personal essay or manifesto under the premise of petitioning for your own beverage of choice. Support your argument with personal memories, anecdotes, and research. For weekly writing prompts delivered via e-mail, sign up for our The Time Is Now newsletter at www.pw.org/writing-prompts-exercises, where you'll find more writing prompts and The Best Books for Writers, a list of suggested reading for creative writers. 23 P O E T S & W R I T E R S