Genre: Creative Nonfiction

Cheesy Decor

The Time Is Now
12.25.25

Do you want to spend time eating in a place that’s been called a “fully immersive postmodern design hellscape-themed dining experience?” Over the years, despite the eclectic interior decor, ambience, and absurdly lengthy menu that has been written about by bewildered yet admiring journalists, the Cheesecake Factory has become a top-ranked casual restaurant chain and a cult favorite amongst celebrities. Think about the interior of a place that you have strong opinions about. Maybe it’s a room in a grandparents’ house from long ago, a particular restaurant, library, or a favorite bookstore. Write a personal essay that describes in detail the various architectural and interior design elements at play. Examine your personal memories in connection to your aesthetic responses to the site to make your descriptions as vivid as possible.

Favorite Books of 2025: Ann Patchett and Maureen Corrigan

Caption: 

As the end of the year approaches, Ann Patchett, author and owner of Parnassus Books, and Maureen Corrigan, professor and book critic for NPR’s Fresh Air, reveal their favorite books of 2025 for PBS Newshour, which include The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny (Hogarth, 2025) by Kiran Desai, The Antidote (Knopf, 2025) by Karen Russell, and A Long Game: Notes on Writing Fiction (Ecco, 2025) by Elizabeth McCracken.

Genre: 
Fiction
Creative Nonfiction
Tags: 
PBS NewsHour
Ann Patchett
Maureen Corrigan
book recommendations
Karen Russell
Arundhati Roy
Kiran Desai
Elizabeth McCracken
January/February 2026

Loneliness and Longing

The Time Is Now
12.18.25

In a recent essay published on Literary Hub, Jean Chen Ho writes about spending an academic year as a visiting assistant professor in upstate New York and the isolation she experienced as an Asian American in a predominantly white neighborhood. Throughout the piece, Ho mixes her reflections about daily activities—visiting a museum, exercise, meeting colleagues, dating, and going to a local bar—with observations of her environmental surroundings and the violence and devastation in Gaza, as well as allusions to Louise Bourgeois, Jane Hirshfield, and Milan Kundera. Write a personal essay that meditates on a time when you have felt particularly alone. Where were you and what were the circumstances that contributed to your feelings of isolation? How did the environment around you, and the art or writing you connected to at the time, reflect your state of mind?

Vermont Studio Center

Vermont Studio Center (VSC) offers two-, three-, and four-week residencies year-round to poets, fiction writers, creative nonfiction writers, and translators in Johnson, Vermont, a village located in the heart of the northern Green Mountains. VSC offers time and space to write, readings, craft talks, and individual consultations with invited visiting writers. Residents are provided with a private room, a private or shared bathroom, private studio space, and meals as well as shared access to a kitchen and communal spaces.

Type: 
RESIDENCY
Ignore Event Date Field?: 
yes
Event Date: 
December 25, 2025
Rolling Admissions: 
ignore
Application Deadline: 
December 25, 2025
Financial Aid?: 
no
Financial Aid Application Deadline: 
December 25, 2025
Free Admission: 
no
Contact Information: 

Vermont Studio Center, 80 Pearl Street, P.O. Box 613, Johnson, VT 05656. (802) 635-2727.

Contact City: 
Johnson
Contact State: 
VT
Contact Zip / Postal Code: 
05656
Country: 
US
Add Image: 
A large red building with a gray roof next to a river.
Genre: 
Poetry
Fiction
Creative Nonfiction
Translation

Year in Review

The Time Is Now
12.11.25

It’s that time of year to send and receive holiday cards, some of which may include a family newsletter with highlights of the past year from friends and family. According to a survey from the Emily Post Institute, a family business promoting etiquette since 1922, 47 percent of respondents don’t like to receive holiday newsletters. The institute’s website suggests this might be because the letters are more of a brag sheet rather than a genuine desire to communicate. Try your hand at composing a holiday newsletter that recounts notable events and milestones from throughout the past year. Take this exercise as an opportunity to reflect on favorite memories and changes, both big and small. Perhaps you’ll decide to subvert conventional expectations and strike a subversively satirical or darkly apocalyptic tone. Have fun with it!

Neraki International Writers Workshops

January/February 2026

The 2026 Neraki International Writers Workshops will be held from June 5 to June 14 at a seaside private home and seminar space in Katigiorgis, Greece. The workshop features craft classes, generative writing sessions, small-group workshops, individual meetings with mentors, unstructured time for writing, and various wellness activities for poets, fiction writers, and creative nonfiction writers. The faculty includes poet and fiction writer Paula Closson Buck and fiction and creative nonfiction writer Jim Buck.

Type: 
CONFERENCE
Ignore Event Date Field?: 
no
Event Date: 
June 5, 2026
Rolling Admissions: 
no
Application Deadline: 
February 15, 2026
Financial Aid?: 
no
Financial Aid Application Deadline: 
December 25, 2025
Free Admission: 
no
Contact Information: 

Neraki International Writers Workshops, c/o Paula Closson Buck, 145 Jean Boulevard, Lewisburg, PA 17837. (570) 412-2366. Paula Closson Buck, Cofounder.

Paula Closson Buck
Contact City: 
Katigiorgis
Country: 
GR
Genre: 
Poetry
Fiction
Creative Nonfiction

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