this week’s prompt:
Write a scene that feels like summertime. Start with 500 words and keep going if you’re on a roll.
Happy writing!
Pitches and Submissions
Prompted is always open to pitches from writers with something to say about the creative process, creative routines, creativity, or really anything mildly writing-related — including reported pieces and interviews. Got something a little offbeat and weird? Awesome.
Did a Prompted prompt inspire you to write something? Please submit! I'd love to feature it in the newsletter.
Rates start at 25 cents per word
musings
It’s been a hot, steamy week in the Montreal area and I’ve done my best to get outside when I can between work tasks, but it’s been a busy week. I’m hoping to take a day or two off soon so I can bike around town and find a nice spot to sit and write for a bit.
Maybe even….paint!?
I ordered myself a beginner’s watercolor kit, and I’m very excited to make some terrible art this summer. I’m embracing being bad at things. Because having fun is what really matters.
Are you trying a new hobby this summer? Have you already started? How does it connect with your writing practice? I’d love to hear about it!
» Did this week’s prompt inspire you? Submit your 100-word microfiction piece to Prompted!! You’ll get featured and get paid!
things that caught my eye
Current read: I’m still not done with The Coin, but I started another book about ultrarunning. When I was younger, I ran two 50Ks (along with a bunch of other races), and I’d really like to get back to going long again. My goal is to run another ultra when I turn 40. So, I still have some time to get there!
📘Is It Ethical to Buy Used Books and Music? — via The New York Times. (spoiler alert: yes.)
🚶Why Walking Helps Us Think — via The New Yorker.
✏️ Fractured Lit Flash Fiction Open — open for submissions until July 13, 2025 ($3,500 award + publication).
💤Gen Z Are Changing What It Means to Be a “Reader” — via Financial Times.
☀️ The Summer Reading Guide — via The Atlantic. (LOTS of good stuff here and it’s such a beautifully designed article!)
🛣️This Book Club Has Been Reading the Same Book for 12 Years. They’re Not Even Close to Done — via Texas Standard. (Gotta respect the perseverance.)
deadlined stuff from previous weeks
✏️2025 CRAFT Short Fiction Prize — open for submissions until May 18, 2025.
✏️ Burlington Public Library Annual Writing Contest — open until May 31st. Theme is “Whisper.” You need to live, work, or go to school in Burlington to enter!
✏️CBC Poetry Prize — open for submissions until June 1st, 2025.
✏️ Applications Open for 2025 Writers-in-Exile Humber Scholarship (applicants must be members of PEN Canada’s Writers in Exile program) — Deadline June 2, 2025.
✏️ Banff Writing Residency for new writers of YA and Children’s Books — Application deadline June 4, 2025.
open submission calls
✏️ Cursed Morsels has a submission call for single-author horror and weird fiction short story collections by BIPOC writers only. Open until 2026 calendar is filled.
✏️ Seize the Press is looking to publish dark speculative fiction, strict 7,500 word limit.
✏️ Okay Donkey is open to poetry and flash fic submissions, no deadline but there’s a monthly cap on free submissions.
hope you get to enjoy some sunshine today
artwork by Angela Miklos Creative