Catapult | Don't Write Alone

DON’T WRITE ALONE

At Catapult, we believe there’s a better—or at least less lonely—way to write. Here you’ll find writing resources, advice, job and fellowship opportunities, prompts and craft talk, and more.

Writing Prompts

Cover Photo: Against a reddish pink background, we see the Chinese character for téng with bandaids covering it slightly on the top right and bottom left

Don’t Write Alone | Free Write

A Writing Prompt for Mandarin Speakers

Are you a bilingual writer? Try this prompt from Catapult instructor and poet Chen Chen.

Apr 05, 2021

Cover Photo: This image is a screenshot from Phoebe Bridgers' music video for "Kyoto." In this still, Phoebe is flying over a city at sunset wearing a shirt with a skeleton on it.

Don’t Write Alone | Free Write

Tell More Lies

Poems and stories are only two sorts of lies, but they’re the ones Steven Duong tells most often. Try out his writing exercise to generate new work.

Jan 03, 2022

Cover Photo: This photograph shows a giraffe looking at the camera with its tongue sticking out. It's a close-up picture, so we only see the bright blue sky and a giraffe head with its long neck peeking into the right corner of the frame.

Don’t Write Alone | Free Write

Writing In Between the Real and Unreal

Sanjena Sathian thinks the most interesting writing material comes from locating mystery in our own lives. Try out this writing exercise to write into that mystery.

Sanjena Sathian

Jan 18, 2022

Try a Catapult Class

Catapult online classes: Lillian-Yvonne Bertram, Independent Study: Preparing Your MFA Application, Open-Genre, Independent Study

Online | Open-Genre | Independent Study

Independent Study: Preparing Your MFA Application

Lillian-Yvonne Bertram

Catapult online classes: Courtney Maum, Independent Study: The Book Deal Toolkit, Publishing, Independent Study

Online | Publishing | Independent Study

Independent Study: The Book Deal Toolkit

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: 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: Megan Milks, 4 Weeks of Reading New Queer & Trans Lit as Writers, Fiction, Nonfiction, Reading Group

Online | Fiction, Nonfiction | Reading Group

4 Weeks of Reading New Queer & Trans Lit as Writers

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

Where We Write

Cover Photo: part of a long wooden desk containing a black desktop computer, keyboard, speakers, clock, and coffee mug, with a black office chair set up in front of it

Where Vanessa Hua Writes

Cover Photo: A bed with a pseudo-orientalist headboard stacked with comfy pillows, with a laptop at the foot of the bed

Writing at Home With My Parents, Who I’m Definitely Not Fictionalizing in My Novel

Cover Photo: A photograph of the writer's kitchen table, with her laptop on top, and her golden retriever tucked into a corner behind her chair

Writing in the Kitchen, in the Presence of Those I Love Most

Conversations

Cover Photo: On the left is the cover of Ada Limón's book. The cover is a light grey abstract painting. The book cover is set against a bright background of yellow flowers. On the right is a photograph of Limón at a wood table wearing a black shirt with yellow flowers.

Don’t Write Alone | Interviews

For Ada Limón, We’re All the Hurting Kind

In this interview, Eliza Harris speaks with Ada Limón about her new poetry collection, the failure of language, and finding the will to begin again.

May 16, 2022

Cover Photo: On the left is the cover of Elamin Abdelmahmoud's book, Son of Elsewhere, which depicts an illustration of a road snaking into the distance. On the right is a portrait of Abdelmahmoud, who is sitting at a table with his head propped against his fist and is smiling at the camera.

Don’t Write Alone | Interviews

“I’m not very good at hating things”: A Conversation with Elamin Abdelmahmoud

The writer and podcaster discusses his new book ‘Son of Elsewhere,’ taking pop culture seriously, and not inviting his Twitter self to the writing party.

May 17, 2022

Cover Photo: Header art by Eliza Harris

Don’t Write Alone | Interviews

A Conversation about ‘Murder at Teal’s Pond: Hazel Drew and the Mystery That Inspired Twin Peaks’

Co-authors David Bushman and Mark Givens talk about their book and how to use research as a tool.

David Bushman and Mark Givens

May 19, 2022

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 | Creative Writing | Criticism | Reference

Meander, Spiral, Explode: Design and Pattern in Narrative by Jane Alison

Catapult | anthology

A Map Is Only One Story: Twenty Writers on Immigration, Family, and the Meaning of Home

Catapult | nonfiction

Before and After the Book Deal by Courtney Maum