SNS | 5-25-24
Join us online for an evening of literary performance and open mic reading
Featuring: Hollie Hardy & Tomas Moniz
Theme: Feral
(scroll down for writing prompt)
Hosted By: Hollie Hardy
Saturday May 25, 2024
6:00pm Pacific Time
(8:00pm Central time)
Online Event
Free Admission
Sign Up in Advance to Get on the Open Mic List
The theme is optional | Time limit is not optional
Please plan ahead and keep your reading to 3 MINUTES MAX
Scroll down for monthly writing prompt
Join Event on Zoom
Meeting ID: 836 3483 2432
Passcode: 416346
Author Bios
Hollie Hardy is a writer, educator, and author of Lions Like Us (forthcoming from Red Light Lit Press on June 7th, 2024) and How to Take a Bullet: And Other Survival Poems (Punk Hostage Press, 2014) winner of the Annual Poetry Center Book Award at San Francisco State University. She holds an MFA in Poetry from SFSU, teaches private writing workshops online, and hosts Saturday Night Special: A Virtual Open Mic, originally founded and co-hosted with Tomas Moniz. Her work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and published in numerous anthologies and literary journals. She lives in Austin, TX. Learn more at: holliehardy.com
Tomas Moniz is a latinx writer living in East Oakland, CA. His debut novel, Big Familia, was a finalist for the 2020 PEN/Hemingway and the LAMBDA. His new novel, All Friends Are Necessary, is forthcoming from Algonquin Books on June 11th, 2024. He teaches at Berkeley City College and the Antioch MFA program. He has stuff on the internet but loves penpals:
PO Box 3555, Berkeley CA 94703. He promises to write back. Learn more at tomasmoniz.com
Write with Friends! Register for The Write-In!
May Writing Prompt: Feral
adjective: feral
(especially of an animal) wild, untamed, undomesticated, escaped from captivity
or resembling an animal—savage, fierce, unpredictable, untamed
Brainstorm: Neglected garden, tangled fuchsia, feral wind reaching, tasting the hem of your garment, boy next door, teenaged crush, trampled with desire, hair-tearing grief, Texas summer nights, sticky animal aroma, her sharp teeth, this ocean roaring at the feral moon, like a dog abandoned on the median or loping in the back alleys of urban squalor searching for love.
Write a poem (or short prose piece) on or tangential to the theme, or including the word “feral”.
SOME IDEAS:
Write about a feral animal or a zoo animal or an animal rescue or encounter
Write about a wild animal heart, feral love, a feral crush
An animal personified, or person described as animal
Animal as metaphor
What else is feral? A city, a garden, a schoolyard, a childhood, a jungle, an outfit, a Taylor Swift fan, a woman you loved, the music you danced to, the tongue of a hummingbird, the possibilities are endless
As ever, the theme is optional—an invitation, not a requirement; feel free to interpret loosely or ignore. The following sample poems offer a wildly diverse approach. Enjoy!
NOTE: The SNS writing prompts will soon be integrated into my new subscription service, Praxis Poetry: Weekly Prompts for Poets
FOR INSPIRATION
Summer Story by Mary Oliver
It Was the Animals by Natalie Diaz
For the Feral Splendor That Remains by CA Conrad
She Had Some Horses by Joy Harjo
Studies of an Ox’s Heart, c. 1511-13 by Sylvia Legris
Litany in Which Certain Things Are Crossed Out by Richard Siken
Sanctuary by Donika Kelly
Happy Trigger by Carmen Giménez
Sea Krait, Broom by Amanda Joy
Emerald Spider Between Rose Thorns by Dean Young
Inside-Bird and Outside-Bird by Kim Hyesoon (translated by Don Mee Choi)
Summer by Joanna Fuhrman
James Dean with Pig by Sam Sax
Life Is Beautiful by Dorianne Laux
Allegory by Diane Seuss
NOTE: The SNS writing prompts will soon be integrated into my new subscription service, Praxis Poetry: Weekly Prompts for Poets