1.     Consider the phrase “I am safe when I…..” and apply an answer to a NEW character in a poem, story, or CNF. The answer needs to be for a character who is -not you-. Stretch the expected and give something that is a new seeing, a new recognition of personality based the many ways “safe” can be defined. You have 10 pages you may fill with poetry, prose, or a combination of both.

1.     Putting the dog on the raft at sea: For this week, select an ordinary object/creature and place it in a space where it does not “normally belong.” Consider how the “grandmother in the kitchen” has become certain and, thus, easy to forget or overlook in a story/poem. If we place the grandmother in the belly of a submarine, she is likely not making pie. If we put a rose in the none-ring hole of a washed-up British synth pop star, the rose is no longer…. Just a rose. Reclaim the ordinary and let us see the thing fresh! You have 10 pages you may fill with poetry, prose, or a combination of both.

3.     Recipes: This week, whatever genre you select to write, your piece must contain either an entire, or bits of, a recipe for a dish. Think about how food and identity go hand-in-hand and how recipes either comfort or terrify the person faced with putting one to use. You have 10 pages you may fill with poetry, prose, or a combination of both.

4.      Free week! You have 10 pages you may fill with poetry, prose, or a combination of both. This is your final week to get weird, to get wild, to put all the beauty you are able into this space!

Week 3: Boxes: What do we store, keep hidden, keep safe? Consider how a container houses trinkets and heirlooms, toys and weapons. What we decide to place within a box, and who is allowed access, says a great deal about what desire—and what we fear.

You have 10 pages you may fill with poetry, prose, or a combination of both.

Week 4: Fish and fowl: What lurks above and below and how has the intersection of worlds altered and shaped our stories? For this final creation week, try to include one image of a creature winged and one who occupies the sea/river/lake.

You have 10 pages you may fill with poetry, prose, or a combination of both.