Race is a subject that bring with it many negative emotions, making it hard to talk about, and some people avoid it all together. But some musical artists think of this as an entry point to the conversation, jump past or sometimes right into the middle of those...

You're a student who has been in multiple writing classes before. You've written a few stories that impressed your teachers, your friends, your parents. That red A-plus written on the top corner of your Magnum Opus still smiles at you when you collect the milk for...

When I sit down to draft a poem, it is almost always in silence, headphones in to dampen the noise of whatever coffee shop I am in. Which is funny because I get so much inspiration from listening to music— especially metal. I listen to metal any time I am able,...

Last summer I stepped away from labor and academia to visit my girlfriend in the German town where she lives. Not everyone is lucky enough to cross the pond and get the European experience, but I spent two and a half months busting my tail on demolition sites to save...

I was struggling with my writing, frustrated that none of my images were accurate or vivid enough. I asked my poetry professor, Gretchen Marquette, if she had advice on how to practice my images in poetry. She gave me a copy of Jim Moore’s Invisible Strings and told...

Seasoned writer or a newcomer, workshops are great places helping you see needs improvement from fresh perspectives. However, there are a few things you need to be aware of before you get into one. Don't Share a Piece Without a Middle In my final year of undergrad,...

Throughout my college career as a creative writing major, I’ve been taught to read as a writer. Instead of simply enjoying a story for what it is, I look at it with a magnifying glass in hand, trying to decipher what the author has done and how. Once you can identify...

1. Young Chicago Authors (Chicago, IL) YCA is the nonprofit birthplace of “Louder Than A Bomb,” now recognized as the largest youth slam in the world. YCA provides a variety of free programs for young writers such as weekly open mics, and poetry/hip hop workshops. YCA...

Perfectly Good White Boy Carrie Mesrobian Carolrhoda LAB 2014 ISBN 9781467734806 304 pages Reviewed by GRANT BRENGMAN  Writer of the best book of 2013 according to Kirkus Reviews and Publishers Weekly, Carrie Mesrobian excellently renders the high school party life,...

In order to represent the diversity of our world, writers should strive to try to increase the diversity in the casts they write. It’s not that every story ever written from now has to be about a certain marginalized group, it’s just something the literary community...