This Week In Writing Exercises

Between rounds of AWP Bingo, enjoy a few highlights from the week and get the ink flowing with some handy prompts.

William Paterson University announced the release of Map Literary, which boasts a strong, strong poetry lineup. Explain your favorite shortcut in the form of a sonnet. Go.

Jon Deming examined the use of poetry in the films of Woody Allen. Pick a favorite poem. Line-by-line, write a needy, neurotic subtext for it. Go.

Ben Zimmer accuses W.H. Auden of coining the word “meh.” Write a long poem engaging deeply with the larger moral and political issues of our time. Use the words “totes,” “obvs” and “derp.”

Some possible Charles Olson fans have created a petition to shield his Gloucester neighborhood from developers. Write an imaginary dialogue between a builder of expensive real estate and an archeologist of morning. Go

Brandon Brown responds to Jon Leon’s The Malady of the Century invoking internet-era yé-yé girl Lana Del Rey. Write a preemptive critique of Leon’s current work in progress, a biography of this week’s Saturday Night Live guest-host Lindsay Lohan. Refer to the work of Kreayshawn. Go.

A group of activists is collecting books once assigned in Arizona’s recently rejected “ethnic studies” public-school curriculum. Write a short poem from the point of view of a 500-year-old ancestor. Go

We looked at some present-day versions of Homer’s verse. Write a treatment and beat sheet for Brodysseus: An Epic Adventure. Go. (On second thought, forget about it. We’re keeping that pitch.)

Robert R. McElroy passed on, reportedly from Alzheimer’s Disease. Write a short poem based on one of McElroy’s photographs. Incorporate themes of mortality. Go.