Maya Angelou, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Audre Lorde and Langston Hughes.
Hope, pride, joy, anger, appreciation.
#PWNonfictionPrompt

#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

An image of gold fish swimming in a dark fish tank.

#PWNonfictionPrompt: Write a personal essay about a time when you experienced a stroke of luck, good or bad. Has the significance of luck in your life changed over time? #FromTheArchive: at.pw.org/StrokeOfLuck

#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: 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 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: 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: Try writing an essay about what’s in your medicine cabinet and what it says about you. #FromTheArchive: at.pw.org/MedicineCabinet

#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

#PWNonfictionPrompt: Think back to your last crush and catalog the symptoms you remember experiencing while infatuated. #FromTheArchive: at.pw.org/Fixated

#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

#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 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: 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

#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: 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

#FromTheArchive: Write an essay about a time when failure led to a better understanding of something in your life. #PWNonfictionPrompt: at.pw.org/FailureAsKin

#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

#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 a personal essay about a time when you waited for something philosophical, spiritual, or emotional to reveal itself, perhaps juxtaposing it with another memory of waiting for something more practical and tangible. #PWNonfictionPrompt: at.pw.org/WorthTheWait