Catapult

Cover Photo: An illustration of two plastic dolls, one stripped of clothing, exposing the cavity in its abdomen and the equally plastic baby within

Things | Heirloom

Midge Hadley, the Pregnant Barbie

I wonder what roles I would have felt obligated to fill as an adult if Midge, the pregnant Barbie, were instead an astronaut, a divorcée, a bad friend.

May 16, 2022

Cover Photo: An illustration of two women holding hands walking along a 3D crossword puzzle as if crossing a bridge

Fiction | Short Story

Cipher

2-Down: ______ Stewart, queer actress you feel like you should be attracted to but aren’t.

May 13, 2022

Cover Photo: A photograph of a small vine in a vineyard, buried in dry-looking light brown soil. In the background, the sky is dark and filled with clouds.

Columns | Through The Grapevine

Working on a Vineyard Taught Me to Slow Down and Pay Attention

We had no sense of “ecological time,” the cadence of the natural environment. Mostly, I experienced the natural world as lack.

May 12, 2022

UPCOMING ONLINE CLASSES

Catapult online classes: Julie Kliegman, 1-Day Open-Genre Seminar: Think Like a Copy Editor, Open-Genre, Seminar

Online | Open-Genre | Seminar

1-Day Open-Genre Seminar: Think Like a Copy Editor

Catapult online classes: Karen E. Bender, 2-Day Fiction Intensive: Finding Your Story, Fiction, Intensive

Online | Fiction | Intensive

2-Day Fiction Intensive: Finding Your Story

Karen E. Bender

Catapult online classes: Carolyn Kellogg, 4-Week Fiction Seminar: Reading as a Critic, Fiction, Seminar

Online | Fiction | Seminar

4-Week Fiction Seminar: Reading as a Critic

Carolyn Kellogg

Catapult online classes: Hubert Adjei-Kontoh, 4 Weeks of Reading as Writers: The Black Expatriate Tradition, Fiction, Nonfiction, Reading Group

Online | Fiction, Nonfiction | Reading Group

4 Weeks of Reading as Writers: The Black Expatriate Tradition

Hubert Adjei-Kontoh

Catapult online classes: Gauri Awasthi, 5-Week Poetry Workshop: Decolonizing Poetry, Poetry, Workshop

Online | Poetry | Workshop

5-Week Poetry Workshop: Decolonizing Poetry

Catapult online classes: S. Brook Corfman, 5-Week Online Workshop: Understanding the Prose Poem, Poetry, Workshop

Online | Poetry | Workshop

5-Week Online Workshop: Understanding the Prose Poem

S. Brook Corfman

Catapult online classes: Megan Milks, 4-Week Generative Prose Workshop: Experiments in Point of View, Fiction, Nonfiction, Workshop

Online | Fiction, Nonfiction | Workshop

4-Week Generative Prose Workshop: Experiments in Point of View

Catapult online classes: Danielle Lazarin, 2-Week Prose Seminar: Your Writing Practice Beyond Word Count & Workshop, Fiction, Nonfiction, Seminar

Online | Fiction, Nonfiction | Seminar

2-Week Prose Seminar: Your Writing Practice Beyond Word Count & Workshop

Danielle Lazarin

Don’t Write Alone

Cover Photo: This image shows a grid of green lines and black squares being projected onto a person who is standing with their back up against a wall. We can't see any details on their face--it's as if they are wearing a face covering. The green and the black grid covers everything and has an air of intrigue

Don’t Write Alone | Notes On Craft

Writing Social Media Into Fiction

Social media is often portrayed as the enemy of the writer—but like any good enemy, perhaps it’s best to keep it close. Don’t miss this craft essay by Isle McElroy for our Social Media Week series.

Apr 26, 2022

Don’t Write Alone | Shop Talk

How BookTok Is Changing Publishing

For our Social Media Week series, Cecilia Beard explains how BookTok makes it possible for people outside the traditional delineation of the publishing industry to propel any book to success.

Apr 27, 2022

Cover Photo: An illustration of the author painting on different social media platforms as if they were canvases

Don’t Write Alone | Writing Life

TLDR; I Tweeted Myself Into a Career and Now I’m Stuck Online

As part of our Social Media Week series, Leah Johnson writes about using social media to connect with her readers and how she engages online as a recreation rather than an obligation.

Apr 27, 2022

Arts & Culture

Cover Photo: An illustration of a trans person running shirtless—their top surgery scars just visible, glowing—as the sun rises, breaking the cover of night

On Running Shirtless While Trans

Cover Photo: Photograph by Kaleb Nimz/Unsplash

Finding Salvation in Death Cab for Cutie

Cover Photo: Detail from David Wojnarowicz’s “Fuck You Faggot Fucker” (1984)/P·P·O·W Gallery

It’s More Than Just “Two Boys Kissing”

New from Catapult Books

Catapult | memoir

Made in China by Anna Qu

Catapult | memoir

Now Beacon, Now Sea: A Son's Memoir by Christopher Sorrentino

Catapult | nonfiction

Craft in the Real World by Matthew Salesses

Catapult | fiction

Best Debut Short Stories 2021: The PEN America Dau Prize edited by Yuka Igarashi and Sarah Lyn Rogers

Catapult | fiction

Lean Fall Stand by Jon McGregor

Catapult | short stories

Catapult | fiction

Sankofa by Chibundu Onuzo

Catapult | fiction

The Manningtree Witches by A.K. Blakemore

Columns

Cover Photo: An image of the author's mother

Columns | What Doesn't Translate

How Untranslatable Words Have Connected Me to My Mother

“In Cantonese,” my mother says, “love isn’t so frivolous.”

May 04, 2022

Cover Photo: Illustration by Sirin Thada for Catapult

Columns | Family | Half Recipes

I Love You by Remembering What You Hate: A Recipe for Herby Salad

I find joy in being let into the idiosyncrasies of someone’s taste.

Apr 14, 2022

Cover Photo: Promotional photograph via Universal Pictures

Arts & Culture | Columns | Superhero Girlfriends Anonymous

What ‘Fast & Furious’ Can Teach Us About Women Who Reclaim Their Power

Letty Ortiz reflects back the best of our hero’s characteristics with fewer of the hang-ups.

Ravynn K. Stringfield

Apr 07, 2022

Places

Cover Photo: a photograph of a coyote, silhouetted agains the blue and pink sky, at dusk or perhaps dawn

The Coyotes in the HOA

Cover Photo: Photograph by Jason Leung/Unsplash

Why Are “Good” College-Application Essays So Awful to Read?

Cover Photo: This image shows the painting above the Angel's Share bar, which has a baby sitting on a red crescent moon. He has horns on his black hair and a devilish look in his eyes.

A Final Kampai for Angel’s Share, My Favorite Bar in New York

Stella Cabot Wilson

Poetry

Cover Photo: This illustration shows an apartment complex detailed like you are looking at the backside of a dollhouse and cut out of black paper. We see various scenes going on in different rooms, but in particular one apartment shows people having sex, while the apartment below it is being banged and rattled around

Catapult | Poetry

Intellectual Property as a Result

recently I signed a contract / which stipulates anything / I conceive of as a result / of the job belongs to the job

Mar 29, 2022

Cover Photo: This photograph is a close up image of a shiny, orange clam, it's hinges open to the delicate sunshine that reflects off its shell and the wet sand beneath it.

Catapult | Poetry

Laying Down the Groundwork

When I got up before anyone else / I took the heavy clams from the fridge / and put them in a bowl of cool water.

Feb 25, 2022

Cover Photo: This illustration shows two brown hands holding a collection of green gems--some are cut to look as if they are sparkling, others show old Spanish newspaper clippings. In the facets of one gem, we seem men holding up guns and pointing them toward the sky.

Catapult | Poetry

Pepe

when his niece asks / tell me about Chía, the answer is always just: it’s a long story / but I think what you’re telling me, is that language is an inadequate grieving

Feb 16, 2022

Fiction

Cover Photo: This illustration shows a woman lying on the floor next to a dog. There are cardboard boxes scattered all around them. We are looking down at them from above, and there are bright spots shining above them as well, as if we are looking at them through a lightly starry sky.

Fiction | Short Story

A Dog Is Not the Answer

Alicia only meant to bring newfound meaning to her bedraggled life, hoping her memories and grief would be blunted by the comfort of another living creature.

May 06, 2022

Cover Photo: One Black. student in a white. tee and jeans with curly, dark hair playing "Who's Afraid of the Black Man?" and trying to tag the white students playing. They're in a field of grass, most running away from the Black student and wearing white, blue, or Black shirts.

Fiction | Flash

Wer hat Angst vorm Schwarzen Mann? or Who’s Afraid of the Black Man?

As a team of three, they have no choice but to help you catch the boys because even they know it is not safe for girls to be alone with a Schwarzen Mann.

Rosabelle Glover

Apr 22, 2022

Cover Photo: An illustration of five white people in a dark room playing cards in the light of a camper lantern; in the background, a poster of the Martian landscape looms large over them

Fiction | Short Story

Our Future Is Mars!

On Mars, there would be no coupling off, no cliques. People couldn’t leave you behind. That’s what Libby had been counting on.

Rebecca Morgan Frank

Apr 15, 2022