Write into the Week: February 22, 2026

“Keep a notebook. Travel with it, eat with it, sleep with it. Slap into it every stray thought that flutters up in your brain.”
–Jack London

Dear Writer,

I hope you’re having a good start to your week. In this newsletter:

• A writing prompt to inspire your creativity.
• Reading and listening recommendations in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry.
• Publishing, residency, and retreat opportunities available now.
• Join our free Monday and Friday write-ins, and meet our community of writers.

Happy writing this week!

—Elle, Curriculum Specialist & Community Manager

Writer to Writer: Clearing the Path

I’ve recently returned to writing Morning Pages—a practice of filling three handwritten pages each morning with whatever comes to mind. No structure. No pressure. No need for it to be interesting or profound. Just movement down the page. I’ve done this for a month straight, and the effects have been both subtle and profound.

After just a few days of getting up with the sun to write my three pages, I noticed my mind felt quieter and less cluttered throughout the day. The usual noise—worries, forgotten to-dos, lingering thoughts—had somewhere to go. After two weeks, something else shifted. My creative writing began to feel easier to access, and more inspired overall. Everything from sentences to plot lines came together more cleanly. I felt more grounded and confident in my voice—less hesitant, more willing to follow an idea without immediately questioning it.

If you’re not already journaling, consider trying Morning Pages for the next two weeks. I promise there are no rules besides three handwritten pages first thing each morning. They can be messy, repetitive, honest, boring, weird—none of that matters. The goal isn’t to produce anything worthwhile. You’ll likely never reread them. The goal is simply to clear a path for your mind.

If you already journal, take a moment to notice how it supports your creative work. How it loosens something inside you, or makes space for creativity. This quiet act of listening to ourselves is a gift to our chaotic brains and our creativity.

Journal Prompts for the Week:

If you struggle to get started when journaling, use these during your Morning Pages, or whenever you need somewhere to begin:

• What has been quietly occupying your thoughts lately, beneath the surface of your daily routines?
• Write about something you’ve been avoiding—in your writing or life—and why it feels difficult to approach.
• Describe a recent moment, however small, that stayed with you, and had a significant impact on you in some way.
• What do you currently need more of in your creative life? What do you need less of?
• Begin with the sentence: Lately, I’ve been thinking about… and follow wherever it leads.

Tiny Truth of the Week:

Not every writing session is meant to produce pages. Some are meant to make future pages possible.

Reading Recommendations: Book Edition

Poetry:

• Glib by Ashley Escobar. A vibrant debut collection from Escobar. The poetry is playful, intimate, and full of voice. It’s especially appealing to readers who enjoy poetry that feels close to lived experience.

Fiction:

• Heart the Lover by Lily King. Literary fiction in under 300 pages! My most recent fiction read, Heart the Lover is intimate and quietly powerful, exploring how relationships—romantic, artistic, and otherwise—shape who we become over time.

Nonfiction:

• Strangers: A Memoir of Marriage by Belle Burden. Burden revisits her marriage with unflinching honesty, while searching for meaning in the aftermath of betrayal. She questions the quiet roles she once accepted. This memoir, which confronts readers with hard truths, is both a reckoning and an awakening.

Publishing Opportunities:

• Narrative Magazine Winter 2026 Story Contest – Submission Deadline: March 1, 2026. Open to all fiction and nonfiction writers. They’re looking for short shorts, short stories, essays, memoirs, photo essays, graphic stories, all forms of literary nonfiction, and excerpts from longer works of both fiction and nonfiction. Entries must be previously unpublished, no longer than 15,000 words, and must not have been previously chosen as a winner, finalist, or honorable mention in another contest.
• Fractured Lit’s Ghost, Fable, and Fairy Tales Prize – Submission Deadline: April 19, 2026. Winner receivers $3,500 and publication! Currently accepting submissions of stores 1,000 words or fewer about ghosts, fables, and fractured fairy tales. Please see the website for more details!

Residency, Retreat, & Fellowship Opportunities:

• Baldwin for the Arts Fellowship Program – Application Deadline: April 18, 2026. Baldwin for the Arts offers fully funded, one-week residencies to artists of all disciplines. Please see the website for more details, and to see if you are a match for their program.
• The Alpine Fellowship Writing Prize 2026 – Submission Deadline: May 1, 2026. Awarded for the best piece of writing on the theme of JOY. Submissions can be fiction, non-fiction, or non-academic essays up to a maximum of 1,250 words. The top three submissions win a monetary reward. Please see the website for more details.

Monday and Friday: Free Group Writing Sessions

Come write with us! Community write-ins are a great way to meet other writers, and carve out space in your calendar for your writing.

Monday: Write Into the Week with Elle

Join me (Elle) for an hour of mindset support, goal setting, community, and dedicated time to write! We’ll meet on Monday at 11 AM Eastern time, at this Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83999379617

Friday: Open Write-In

Join the Writers.com staff for a 90-minute writing session each Friday from 11 AM to 12:30 PM Eastern time. We will write together for the first hour. In the last, optional half hour, we’ll share our writing with one another and connect.

To add yourself, join our newsletter using the join box above, and add yourself to the “Friday Write-Ins” list at the bottom of any email. We’ll send you a Zoom link the morning of the call.

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