Write into the Week: October 26, 2025
Elle | Community Manager | October 25, 2025 |
“The purpose of art is to lay bare the questions hidden by the answers.”
–James Baldwin
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.
- There will be no Monday writing sessions on October 27 or November 3. We will resume our meetings on Monday, November 10th.
Happy writing this week!
—Elle, Curriculum Specialist & Community Manager
Writer to Writer: No Answers Required
The opening quote by James Baldwin, “The purpose of art is to lay bare the questions hidden by the answers,” hits me deep in my creative feels.
Because what if that’s the work, right there—not solving anything, but peeling back what we’ve been told is already figured out? A story that refuses resolution. A character who doesn’t know why they do what they do. A narrator who keeps circling the same question because it won’t stop tugging at them.
What if the unfinished thought is the point? What if the uncertainty is the truth?
Sometimes I catch myself trying to tie my writing into a bow before it ever gets messy. I try to fix the chaos before it actually becomes chaotic. I hold back. Baldwin’s quote is a reminder to all of us that the mess is where the real honesty lives. This week, let the questions stay loud. Answers are not required.
Writing Prompt:
Write a scene, poem or short piece powered by longing—but not a longing that can be easily named. Maybe, your character or narrator aches for something they can’t quite define. A place that doesn’t exist. A version of themselves they’ve never met. A connection they’ve only ever imagined.
Let that unnamed desire shape every gesture, word, or moment of silence. Don’t explain it; let the longing speak for itself.
Reading Recommendations:
Get to Know James Baldwin:
- From The Poetry Foundation “James Baldwin” Learn more about this week’s inspiration, James Baldwin. He was an American novelist, essayist, and social critic whose works, including Go Tell It on the Mountain and The Fire Next Time, illuminated the intersections of race, sexuality, and identity with profound clarity and moral courage.
Baldwin on The Creative Process:
- “The Creative Process” by James Baldwin. In this powerful essay, Baldwin argues that the artist must brave solitude, and blaze trails through inner wilderness so that society’s truths, which are usually hidden, may be revealed to us all.
Baldwin on Shakespeare
- “Why I Stopped Hating Shakespeare” by James Baldwin. Baldwin writes about the evolution of his feelings toward William Shakespeare. Like many, Baldwin didn’t understand the point of reading Shakespeare, and grew to hate the experience. Then, it all changed. (Scroll down a bit on the page to get to the essay!)
Listening Recommendations:
- From The New Yorker Fiction Podcast: “Edwidge Danticat Reads Zadie Smith” – Edwidge Danticat joins Deborah Treisman to read and discuss “Two Men Arrive in a Village,” by Zadie Smith, which was published in The New Yorker in 2016. Danticat, a MacArthur Fellow and a winner of the Vilcek Prize in Literature, has published six books of fiction.
- From Freelance Writing Direct Podcast: “#161 From Nonfiction to Paranormal Women’s Fiction: Genre-Switching and the Freedom of Self-Publishing with Olga Mecking” – Can nonfiction writers reinvent themselves as novelists? NIksen author Olga Mecking proves it’s possible—with a new series that blends Dutch folklore, female power, and the freedom of self-publishing.
Publishing Opportunities:
- The Denver Quarterly – Submission Deadline: November 5, 2025. Currently open for poetry and prose submissions. Visit their website for more details.
- Oxford American – Submission Deadline: November 15, 2025. Currently seeking pitches for their upcoming Spring 2026 food issue. They’re “looking for stories that explore how food preserves a legacy, crosses borders, and creates connection.”
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
Note: There will be no Monday writing sessions on October 27 or November 3. We will resume our meetings on Monday, November 10th.
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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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.
