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.

Conversations

Don’t Write Alone | Interviews

Dur e Aziz Amna Is Adding Something Different to the Canon

Akanksha Singh interviews Dur e Aziz Amna about her novel ‘American Fever,’ the burdens of representation, and performing for the dominant culture.

Aug 25, 2022

Cover Photo: A photograph of the writer Elissa Bassist against a pink background. She is wearing white glasses and grimacing at the camera. To her left is the cover of her memoir, HYSTERICAL, which shows a graphic of a woman screaming.

Don’t Write Alone | Interviews

Elissa Bassist Gave Her Book Everything She Had

In this interview, Elissa Bassist discusses her memoir “Hysterical,” keeping her humor sharp, and the endurance test of writing a book.

Christina Berke

Sep 13, 2022

Cover Photo: This header image features a cover of the 2022 'Best Debut Short Stories' anthology, as well as headshots of Sabrina Orah Mark, Emily Nemens, and Deesha Philyaw

Don’t Write Alone | Interviews

A Roundtable With the PEN America Best Debut Short Stories Judges: Sabrina Orah Mark, Emily Nemens, and Deesha Philyaw

Many of the stories felt written on the edge of an edge of an edge of a world.

Sep 20, 2022

Try a Catapult Class

Catapult online classes: Tara Campbell, 12-Week Speculative Fiction Intensive: Revising Reality, Fiction, Intensive

Online | Fiction | Intensive

12-Week Speculative Fiction Intensive: Revising Reality

Catapult online classes: Rachel Vorona Cote, 6-Week Online Nonfiction Seminar: Writing Nonfiction for Diverse, Online Audiences, Nonfiction, Seminar

Online | Nonfiction | Seminar

6-Week Online Nonfiction Seminar: Writing Nonfiction for Diverse, Online Audiences

Rachel Vorona Cote

Catapult online classes: Jenessa Abrams, 6-Week Online Nonfiction Workshop: Book Reviewing Through a Social & Political Lens, Nonfiction, Workshop

Online | Nonfiction | Workshop

6-Week Online Nonfiction Workshop: Book Reviewing Through a Social & Political Lens

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: Rachel Kincaid, 3-Week Nonfiction Seminar: Theory & Practices of Exploratory Writing, Nonfiction, Seminar

Online | Nonfiction | Seminar

3-Week Nonfiction Seminar: Theory & Practices of Exploratory Writing

Catapult online classes: Lisa Hofmann-Kuroda, 4-Week Translation Workshop: Intro to Japanese Literary Translation, Translation, Fiction, Reading Group

Online | Translation, Fiction | Reading Group

4-Week Translation Workshop: Intro to Japanese Literary Translation

Lisa Hofmann-Kuroda

Catapult online classes: Cinelle Barnes, Independent Study: Outlines & Visual Aids to Generate or Revise Prose, Fiction, Nonfiction, Independent Study

Online | Fiction, Nonfiction | Independent Study

Independent Study: Outlines & Visual Aids to Generate or Revise Prose

Where We Write

Cover Photo: An image of a porch in the Catskills from the author

I Write Wherever My Mind Can Be Free

Meredith Talusan

Cover Photo: On the left is a photograph of the writer Kristen Arnett, wearing sunglasses and sitting outside on a balcony in front of a laptop and holding a French bulldog. On the right is the writer Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya, who has taken a photograph of herself standing up in a mirror in front of a writing desk.

Kristen Arnett and Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya on Sharing a Writing Space

Kristen Arnett and Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya

Cover Photo: This header art is a photograph of Jill's round kitchen table, on which sits her laptop, a glass of water and a coffee mug, and a copy of her new novel, THE DECEPTIONS. The picture is framed in a graphic polaroid drawing.

Writing in the Nooks and Crannies of the Day or Night

Writing Prompts

Cover Photo: This illustration shows a variety of people standing with their hands to the sky. They are in black and white, but bright bubbles in different colors float away from them and skyward, as if being released.

Don’t Write Alone | Free Write

The Essay as a Form of Giving Up

One way to consider the essay is as a way to capture, study, and release back into the world a question or story that preoccupies you.

Jun 09, 2022

Cover Photo: This is a still of the animated Walt Disney Pictures movie 'Moana.' In it, a young Polynesian girl is holding onto a sailboat as she stares at the horizon of the sea.

Don’t Write Alone | Free Write

What’s Beyond the Horizon of Your Obsession?

Take a deep dive into your obsession with this poetry prompt from Luther Hughes.

Sep 07, 2022

Cover Photo: This is an image of a trash can full of crumpled up paper that is turned on its side with the paper spilling out. The trash can is against a peach background.

Don’t Write Alone | Free Write

Write a “Bad” Poem

When you try to be “good” it doesn’t always work, but something fascinating happens when you try to be “bad.”

Sep 14, 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