Genre: Fiction

In Shirley Jackson’s short story “The Tooth,” a woman’s bus ride to the dentist dissolves into a haze of pain, exhaustion, and an uncanny encounter with a stranger. Write about an ordinary trip on a bus, train, or rideshare that is unsettled by your character’s physical state, whether they’re experiencing hunger, sleeplessness, or an illness. Let the journey shift gradually into unease, or perhaps, an altered sense of connection with others. Focus on moments where tension arises from vulnerability and misconnection, and consider how travel reshapes your character’s sense of self and destination.

“The dry, undramatic accent of the Midwest had her longing for the slow, thick drip of Southern speech,” writes Brian Gresko in “Singing the Sublime: A Profile of Donika Kelly,” published in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine, about how Kelly “leans into the soundscape of her youth, bringing her family forward as characters and voices within her poems” in her new collection, The Natural Order of Things (Graywolf Press, 2025). Taking inspiration from Kelly’s journey back to her youth, think about the voices and language of a time or place from your past that you long to hear again. Write a short story that incorporates these voices—the diction, syntax, cadence, and grammar—into the world of your narrative. Where does your character encounter this soundscape? Is it spoken by a stranger in passing or by someone who becomes an important part of the plot?