Write into the Week: January 25, 2026

“Tenderness does not choose its own uses.”
–Jane Hirschfield

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: Honoring Your Creative Needs

Lately, given the complications of the outside world, I’ve been thinking about how writers often try to muscle their way through difficult seasons instead of listening to what they actually need. We tell ourselves to be disciplined, productive, resilient. We make rules. We set expectations. We ignore the quieter information coming from our bodies and our hearts. But writing is not something we do to ourselves. It’s something we live inside. And like any relationship, it asks for attention, adjustment, and care.

Sometimes taking care of your creative life means showing up every day, stubbornly yet gently, and putting words on the page even when it’s hard. Other times it means stepping back—maybe, reading instead of drafting, resting instead of pushing, and letting your nervous system catch its breath. At times the best thing you can do for yourself is to close your notebook or computer, and go take a walk, call a friend, or lie on the floor, and do something that has nothing to do with words at all. But sometimes writing becomes the very refuge that we need. Envision your creative life as a small room you can step into when the world feels too loud. 

There is no single “right” way to be a writer during complicated times. There is only the practice of paying attention and responding to your personal creative needs with grace and care. You’re allowed to need more space. You’re allowed to need more structure. You’re allowed to want solitude and distraction. None of this is a failure of discipline.

If you’re carrying guilt about how you’ve been showing up, or not showing up, to your work, please release those feelings. Your creative life is not a machine. It’s a living thing that changes with the seasons of life. And taking care of it means taking care of yourself first. Be well. Be safe. 

Writing Prompt: Quiet Tenderness

Write a piece that begins with a small, almost invisible act of care and tenderness, empathy and love. Not a grand gesture. Something inefficient, minute. Something that doesn’t fix everything.

Then let the piece drift.

Change shape if it wants to.
Let time bend.
Let the voice fracture or repeat.
Let the logic loosen.

The only rule: don’t justify the tenderness. Let it exist without earning its place. End the piece somewhere quieter than you expected.

A Poem to Ponder: “Otherwise” by Jane Kenyon

I got out of bed
on two strong legs.
It might have been
otherwise. I ate
cereal, sweet
milk, ripe, flawless
peach. It might
have been otherwise.
I took the dog uphill
to the birch wood.
All morning I did
the work I love.
At noon I lay down
with my mate. It might
have been otherwise.
We ate dinner together
at a table with silver
candlesticks. It might
have been otherwise.
I slept in a bed
in a room with paintings
on the walls, and
planned another day
just like this day.
But one day, I know,
it will be otherwise.

Questions to Ponder:

• How does Kenyon’s repetition of “It might have been otherwise” change the emotional weight of the poem each time it appears?
• What deeper story or fear do you sense beneath the calm description of an ordinary day?
• What is the poem saying about loss or mortality without ever stating it directly?
• Which single image or moment carries the most quiet meaning for you, and why?

Publishing Opportunities:

• 2026 Stephen Dixon Award for Short Fiction – Submissions Open: January 28, 2026. This award for short fiction is offered by McSweeney’s in honor of their long-time author, Stephen Dixon. Submissions will close after 200 submissions are received. The winner will receive $2,000, and publication in an upcoming issue of McSweeney’s. Stories must be original, unpublished, and fewer than 9,000 words. Note: The Submittable link will be available via McSweeney’s Instagram page on January 28th. 
• 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.
• The Berlin Review – Submission Deadline: Rolling. Currently seeking submissions of poetry, fiction and nonfiction for their upcoming issues. The Berlin Review is known for submitting standout work for prestigious literary awards, like the Pushcart Prize.

Residency, Retreat & Fellowship Opportunities:

• Emerging Voices Fellowship by PEN America – Application Deadline: January 31, 2026. The Emerging Voices Fellowship provides a virtual five-month immersive mentorship program for early-career writers from communities that are traditionally underrepresented in the publishing world. This is an amazing opportunity for mentorship in the writing and publishing world. See the website for more details!
• The Rabbit Island Residency – Application Deadline: February 22, 2026. This is a unique opportunity for writers and artists whose work intersects with nature and/or conservation. This three week residency is fully funded, and offers a stipend of $4,000. From the website: “Founded in 2010, the Rabbit Island Residency is a platform to investigate, expand, and challenge creative practices in an exposed environment. By living and working on Rabbit Island, residents engage directly with the landscape and respond to notions of conservation, ecology, sustainability, and art.”
• The de Groot Visiting Fellowship at the American Library in Paris – Applications Open: February 1 – March 1, 2026 – The Fellowship offers writers the opportunity to pursue their work in Paris for one month. Fellows receive a stipend and a “room of one’s own” at the Library. Open to all writers, from novelists to poets to historians. 

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.

Join us on Instagram for more writing inspiration!

We’re sharing writing tips, creative prompts, and a steady stream of encouragement—follow us @writersdotcom. Click below to check out one of our latest posts on writing creative nonfiction.