May 12, 2022
Can Fiction Help Solve the Ethical Problems of True Crime?
True crime wants us to believe that our monsters are individual, not systemic—the errant serial killer rather than a violent and inequitable culture.
What It Takes to Make a Living As a Working-Class Writer
I was often housing insecure; sometimes even homeless. I’ve had fewer opportunities to publish and I do so at a higher cost.
May 11, 2022
TLDR; I Tweeted Myself Into a Career and Now I’m Stuck Online
As part of our Social Media Week series, Leah Johnson writes about using social media to connect with her readers and how she engages online as a recreation rather than an obligation.
Apr 27, 2022
Why I Haven’t Invited Twitter Into my Writing Practice (a Thread)
As part of our Social Media Week series, Cinelle Barnes writes about being a writer and not being on Twitter.
Apr 25, 2022
Finding Literary Community by Making Bad Jokes on Twitter
As part of our Social Media Week series, Kristen Arnett writes about her journey on Twitter, the Hell App, and how she uses the platform to connect with other writers and try out bits.
Apr 25, 2022
Like Being a Good-Enough Mother, Being a Good-Enough Writer Is Enough
I love and care for my child unconditionally. Maybe I can do that for my writing too.
Apr 20, 2022
Writing Your Little Stories In the Shadow of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop
I was planting my cornfield, hoping that the magic baseball team (a.k.a my writing group) would eventually show up. If you build it, they will come.
Apr 18, 2022
Whose Voices Get Heard in a Writing Workshop?
In my MFA, the people who spoke the most were praised for their intelligence. But the pressure to participate isn’t helpful for every student.
Apr 13, 2022
Poems That Will Inspire You to Keep Writing
To celebrate National Poetry Month, we asked authors the question: “What poem or poet inspires you to keep writing?”
Apr 06, 2022
My Grandmother and I Never Saw Eye to Eye—Until I Wrote My Novel
When my Nai Nai asked me about the book, I felt compelled to tell her the truth: that I was scared, but that I was trying.
Apr 05, 2022
The City Writer Versus the Country Writer
Choosing one life means missing out on another; it is not possible to be everywhere all at once, to do everything, to be everyone.
Mar 24, 2022
Selling Books Helped Me Get My Groove Back
As I got better at articulating what customers should read and why, I was becoming equally capable of articulating what kinds of stories I wanted to write.
Mar 21, 2022
What to Do When Work Drains Your Creative Drive
It’s a bitter irony, courtesy of capitalism: writers working as writers to support the writing we are too spent to do.
Mar 14, 2022
“Prison Writer”: A Meditation on Histories and the Sentences that Create Them
From PEN America’s ‘The Sentences That Create Us Crafting A Writer’s Life in Prison.’
Feb 28, 2022
What Do You Do After the MFA?
Whatever your MFA experience, it takes time to create or recreate the life that you can keep writing in. In this essay, Rachel Taube speaks to her cohort members regarding their first year post-MFA.
Feb 22, 2022
Grieving My Father—And My Book—By Building a Dollhouse
My book haunted me, as did Lizzie Borden. I thought by making something with my hands, I could transform that fear into care.
Feb 15, 2022
To All the Readers Who Taught Us to Love Books
For Valentine’s Day, some members of the Catapult staff thank the people who encouraged their love of books and reading.
Feb 14, 2022
I Couldn’t Write, So I Baked Cookies Instead
Writing had become my career goal, and everything else had bent in service to it.
Feb 10, 2022
Slow Readers, Let’s Leave Shame Behind
I, a slow reader, will never get to all the words I long to read, but I will relish the ones before me.
Jan 31, 2022
I May Not Look Like a “Respectable” Teacher, But I’m a Good One
As part of our Education Week series, Edgar Gomez reflects on how presenting himself authentically as a teacher cultivates a more open and honest learning environment.
Jan 26, 2022
