The first email

A fellow artist attending our creative writing classes reached out to request of me a weekly writing prompt. In the request was the hope to move through something happening in their life, writing as process and support. What they’re specifically working through is a common and difficult life experience, very familiar to me. This familiarity made me think about how we’re all the time holding big emotions and working through struggles adjacently. We buy our groceries, go to the pharmacy (yuck), pay our bills (sort of)– and we still host beautiful dinner parties for our friends, go to concerts, laugh while wearing gloss. We are bright beings hungry to celebrate. We are also hungry to acknowledge the unspoken familiarities we share in experience.

So if I’m sharing writing weekly prompts with One, I plan to share writing prompts with anyone interested. Right now, the fee is $12.00/month to receive a weekly writing prompt in your inbox. Y’all know me– these prompts are going to be thoughtful, interdisciplinary, researched, including: poems, excerpts, art, musings. If cost is a barrier– email me. I’ll add you to the newsletter, no cost. So why even charge? Well, because Jussie (owner of Dearly Studio) will give me a (very, very kind & loving) scolding on getting paid for my expertise. And as my dad says: “If I venmo you, is this going to go to some mutual aid thing?” Yes. I plan to use this money to mostly supplement our network, and occasionally get myself a coffee.

The first month of prompts launches this Saturday, December 14th at 10:30pm. Every month will be structured by a different theme. The first theme is ACKNOWLEDGMENT. As the misogynistic, ever annoyingly talented, and often quoted poet Frank O’Hara wrote in his poem, “For Grace, After A Party”: 

		You do not always know what I am feeling….

		And isn’t it odd? for in rooms full of

strangers my most tender feelings

writhe and

bear the fruit of screaming.

Writing prompts will arrive in your inbox every Saturday at 10:30pm because your soul deserves to be held late at night, or early Sunday morning. 

Zinnia