"A Pawnshop of the Mind," an excellent craft essay (that title!) by Gotham teacher Emily Rapp Black in LitHub lithub.com/a-pawnshop-o...

Catch up on this month's issue of The Razor, two incisive stories about love and loss. therazormag.com

Elizabeth Bishop

Thrilled to see Gotham's own David Berner in this month's issue of P&W. Find his essay here: www.pw.org/content/more...

Tomorrow night, we're back at KGB Bar with @nycwriterscircle.bsky.social. Hope to see you there!

In a writing slump? Here's a fun little contest online -- write a 10 word short story. Winner gets a free creative writing class at @gothamwriters.bsky.social Closes June 1st. v2.writingclasses.com/contests/a-v... Here's my entry: "he's her first sip of liquor. She's his hangover."

So, I'd like to share my Writing Advice newsletter for this month with y'all, because I had such fun putting it together. It's about music and stories and passion. Also, I'd like to use it to say some things re: Ross Barkan. blogs.gothamwriters.com/2026/05/19/o... #WritingCommunity 1/

Writing advice works the best when it’s a little weird. A new book of daily prompts helps writers think expansively. www.newyorker.com/books/under-...

Free online write-in at @gothamwriters.bsky.social - two prompts, opportunity to share if you'd like, and really nice people: #WritingCommunity #WritersSupportingWriters wp.writingclasses.com/community/fr...

"I don't see the terror in the world as helping my stories. I see my stories as helping, even if it's just me, to deal with the terror." —Susan Steinberg "People ask me if I drew pictures to escape reality. I didn't. I drew pictures so I could stay." –Lynda Barry

So fun to see “I came here to be a poet” by Gotham faculty @michaelmontlack.bsky.social included in the Academy of American Poets’ Poem-a-day series. Read the entire (beautiful!) poem here: poets.org/poem/i-came-...

BIG congratulations to @gothamwriters.bsky.social's own @scottalexanderhess.bsky.social, whose novel Drought won the Ferro-Grumley Award for LGBTQ Fiction last night! Well deserved, Scott! 🎉 📚 🥂 📚 🎊 📚 🏆 Y'all go read his book now! www.goodreads.com/book/show/22... #WritingCommunity

Another standout poem from Mary Oliver's Swan (2010)

#ClipOfTheDay: In this Books Are Magic event, Kim Fu reads from her latest novel, The Valley of Vengeful Ghosts (Tin House), and talks about how word choices and details shape the loneliness of her worlds in a conversation with Larissa Pham. at.pw.org/VengefulGhosts

For writers of color: our college admissions essay coaching scholarship is open. 3 recipients will be awarded a five-hour coaching package. Working with a member of our faculty, they’ll receive guidance on their personal statement/essay. Learn more + apply: v2.writingclasses.com/scholarships...

What Exactly Were You Trying to Say? "When you said you had insomnia too And I said Yeah, I don't get people..." Read the full poem by @gothamwriters.bsky.social's own Michael Montlack, in Impossible Archetype mag: impossiblearchetype.wordpress.com/wp-content/u... #NationalPoetryMonth #poetry

A poem by @gothamwriters.bsky.social teacher Casandra López, in which she teaches her phone Tongva: www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazi... #NationalPoetryMonth

Submit for the 2026 Stella Kupferberg Memorial Short Story Prize with guest judge, Simon Rich! Winning work will be performed by an actor in spring 2026 and published on @electricliterature.com. Winning writer will receive $1000 and a free 10-week course w/ @gothamwriters.bsky.social. bit.ly/3GE3N0b

Exciting news! We are now on Substack. Every month, our very own Stuart Pennebaker will answer your writing-related questions. Check out our first post and give us a follow if you like: substack.com/home/post/p-...

#NationalShutdown #IceOutBlackout Tomorrow, my employer @gothamwriters.bsky.social, will not accept new enrollments in solidarity with the ICE Out Blackout. I'll be participating individually, as well.

2026 Stella Kupferberg Memorial Short Story Prize with guest judge, Simon Rich! Winning work will be performed by an actor in spring '26 & published on @electricliterature.com. Winning writer will receive $1000 & a free 10-week course with @gothamwriters.bsky.social. Sub by March 6! bit.ly/3GE3N0b

Congrats to the winners of our 2025 Creative Writing Scholarship for Writers of Color! Jonathan Jackson Shania Siu Fatima Cervantes We cannot wait to see what these writers have in store. Scriptwriters of Color, get ready... (more details below!) 👀 v2.writingclasses.com/scholarships...

Hey, #WritingCommunity! If you know any young writers (ages 13 to 18), we @gothamwriters.bsky.social have the contest for them! Tell us a story about a scar. v2.writingclasses.com/contests/got...

Writers of color! Only a few days left to apply for our Creative Writing Scholarship! Winners receive a 6-week class, a 10-week workshop, and 2 Intensives of their choice, plus a 12-hour mentorship package! Apply below... 👇📝 v2.writingclasses.com/scholarships...

Congratulations to our September #StoriesEverywhere winner, Kris Knapp! The theme was "Progress Report": “Dating apps? Really?” “Bows and arrows are inefficient. Don’t you appreciate initiative?” “I appreciate results. Get back out there,” Venus said, handing Cupid his quiver.

Give us the first line of your imagined novel coming out in the year 2052 for the chance to win a free Gotham class! v2.writingclasses.com/contests/fut...

"Encouragement" by Angela Lam, an artist and writer. She sells her artwork at Made Local Marketplace and teaches creative writing @gothamwriters.bsky.social. #encouragement #concussion #sofa #useless #mute #son #catalogue #paper #nevergiveup #determination #micromemoir

Calling writers ages 13-18! Are you on Bluesky? Probably not! But perhaps people who know you are. We are running our very first teen writing contest, and would love to read your stories. The winner will receive a $400 Gotham gift card, a $50 gift card to Bookshop, and publication on our site!

It’s wonderful how a writing deadline focuses the mind…on every little thing that’s dirty in your house.

Next Wednesday, September 24th! The last Wednesday of every month is always our favorite, thanks to @nycwriterscircle.bsky.social!

Writers in/around NYC: there are only a handful of spots left in our in-person Write-In happening this Friday, 9/12! There'll be exciting prompts, great instructors, and time to mingle with your fellow writers. Perfect September evening if you ask us. ✍️🍁 wp.writingclasses.com/courses/writ...

Razor submissions are open thru the end of the year!! Send us your flash fiction and flash cnf!

"The artist deals with what cannot be said in words. The artist whose medium is fiction does this in words. The novelist says in words what cannot be said in words. Words can be used thus paradoxically because they have, along with a semiotic usage, a symbolic or metaphoric usage."—Ursula K. Le Guin

James Baldwin has become as much an icon as a public intellectual can be—a status that risks obscuring the richness and variety of his body of work, which explores race, homosexuality, family, and more. Hilton Als shares a few essential books.

Writers of color! If you have a book manuscript (or nonfiction book proposal) ready to start pitching, there are two days left to apply for our Publish a Book Scholarship for Writers of Color! Click thru ⬇️ to learn more about application guidelines and submit! v2.writingclasses.com/scholarships...

Sub by 3/6 for the Stella Kupferberg Memorial Short Story Prize, judged by Simon Rich! Winning work will be performed by an actor in spring 2026 & published on @electricliterature.com. Winning writer will receive $1000 & a free 10-week course with @gothamwriters.bsky.social. Details: bit.ly/3GE3N0b

When students tell us they can't possibly write about their family, teachers like me usually say, deal w/that later, or, yeah, it can be really fraught. Actually, says @teresawong.bsky.social, you SHOULD write them. Here's why. www.writingclasses.com/toolbox/arti... #writingcommunity

This Thursday, 8/14 we will be back at the Bryant Park Reading Room for the final installment of our free Summer workshops! Join us from 6:30-8pm for a free Fiction Writing class!

There are no screenwriting rules. There are conventions, patterns, paradigms. Know them, but don’t let them constrain your creativity. #screenwriting #scriptsky

A house isn’t a home without an excessive amount of books. 🏡📚

"I stand here like some ashes that used to be a clown, looking out quietly from my face to watch the failure of these words to be those things." —Denis Johnson, "For Jane"

I not-so-secretly love it when the stores put out their back to school displays. Something deep within my soul is soothed by an orderly aisle full of colorful notebooks, pens, and backpacks

😍😍😍

What words were first used in the year you were born?

Hey writers! Due to rain we are moving tonight's FREE Memoir Writing class indoors. We'll be at 5 Bryant Park, on the 24th FL at 6:30 pm. Hope to see you there!

NYC writers! We will be back at the Bryant Park Reading Room tomorrow, 7/31 for a FREE Memoir Writing class! Come write with us!

He Read (at Least) 3,599 Books in His Lifetime. Now Anyone Can See His List. 📚 www.nytimes.com/2025/07/26/b...

Look, I love "They shoot the white girl first," and "The first time I cheated on my husband, my mother had been dead exactly one week" as much as anyone. But a beginning doesn't have to be a Big Hook, a Grabber Lede, to be good. blogs.gothamwriters.com/2025/07/15/l... #writingcommunity

that liminal thing when you're reading and falling asleep and start to hallucinate words on the page that aren't on the page, i love that