Write into the Week: October 5, 2025
Elle | Community Manager | October 4, 2025 |
“If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.”
–Cicero
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: Gardens, Libraries & Needs
Cicero said, “If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.” I’ve always loved that pairing — something that grows, and something that grounds. Yet when it comes to writing, it’s easy to lose sight of what we actually need vs. what we think we need. We fill our days with advice and aspirations: more structure, more time, better discipline, a new notebook, a different chair. Is all of that sometimes true? Sure, but often what our writing needs isn’t another rule, ritual or other people’s advice.
This week, ask yourself honestly: what does your writing need right now? Not what you’ve been told it should need, not the tidy answer you’d give in a workshop or post online, but what it craves, what it’s truly hungry for. How can you feed your creativity? Maybe it needs stillness. Maybe it needs play. Maybe it needs to be left alone for a while. Maybe you do. There are no wrong answers here. Only truth.
Whatever your answer, trust it. Every writer has their own garden and their own library. What’s inside of yours? What does your work need to root and bloom?
Writing Prompt:
Find a quiet moment and ask your writing what it needs. Not what you want from it, but what it wants from you. Then write down whatever answer comes first, even (especailly!) if it surprises you. Follow that thread for a page or two and see where it leads.
Reading Recommendations:
Fiction:
- “The Huntress” by Sofia Samatar. Unfolding like a fever dream, this flash piece is part myth and part memory. Fear and fascination blur in the shadow of a creature that is both monstrous and tender.
Poetry:
- From The Marginalian “Nikki Giovanni’s Wonderful Poems Celebrating Libraries and Librarians” by Maria Popova. Giovanni’s poems honor libraries and the librarians who keep them alive. It’s a reminder that libraries are more than buildings: they’re living gardens of stories, tended by those who believe in the power of words.
Nonfiction:
- “Lessons learned from gardening: A personal essay” by Ashley Soliman. This essay traces how tending to seedlings becomes a quiet study in self-compassion.
Listening Recommendations:
- From NYT’s The Book Review Podcast: “The Sunday Special: The Books We Read in School” – Gilbert Cruz, the editor of The New York Times Book Review, is thinking about the books he read when he was in school. Cruz talks with the Book Review editor Sadie Stein and the author Louis Sachar about the books they read when they were students, and ways to encourage young readers today to keep reading.
- From The New Yorker Fiction Podcast: “Karen Russell Reads Louise Erdrich” – Novelist Karen Russell joins Deborah Treisman to read and discuss “The Stone,” by Louise Erdrich, which was published in The New Yorker in 2019.
Publishing Opportunities:
- American Literary Review – Submission Window: October 1 – December 1. Open call for poetry, fiction, and essays submissions. Any topic. Each genre closes after the first 300 submissions. So, submit ASAP!
- Third Coast Magazine – Submission Deadline: October 31, 2025. Open to submission this month in poetry, fiction, nonfiction and drama.
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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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.
