SNS | 10-25-25
Join us online for the 15th Annual SNS Halloween Reading, Open Mic
& Costume Party!
Featuring:
Jeffrey Bryant & Valerie Nies
Theme: Halloween
(scroll down for writing prompt)
Hosted By: Hollie Hardy
Saturday, October 25, 2025
6:00pm Pacific Time
(8:00pm Central time)
Online Event
Free Admission
Sign Up in Advance to Get on the Open Mic List
The theme is optional | Time limit is not optional
Please plan ahead and keep your reading to 3 MINUTES MAX
Scroll down for monthly writing prompt
Join Event on Zoom
Meeting ID: 843 5908 9805
Passcode: 328842
Author Bios
Jeffrey Bryant is a Pushcart-nominated queer poet. His work has appeared in numerous publications including the LA Times, LA Weekly, Synkroniciti Magazine, Quill and Echo and Tension Literary, as well as the anthologies Coiled Serpent, Altadena Literary Review, Shadowplay Literary Journal, 13 Poets for a Pigeon Kiss, and Sparring with Beatnik Ghosts. His debut collection The Catacombs of Vanished Lovers is out now from Cherry Pie Press @thecherrypiepress
To get a copy of the book, email your name and address to thecherrypiepress@gmail.com
Valerie Nies is a comedian, poet, and gluten enthusiast living in Austin, Texas. She is the author of Snacks for the Love Hungry (World Stage Press) and the chapbook Imaginary Frenemies. Valerie produces a monthly comedy and literary arts show called Half Empty Half Full at ColdTowne Theater in Austin, Texas. She previously hosted the acclaimed all-women’s stand-up showcase Smile More for four years. Her lauded stand-up comedy class is currently offered at Merlin Works, and she has given lectures on humor in storytelling in poetry at The University of Texas at Austin, New York University, and Community Literature Initiative in Los Angeles. Valerie’s poetry has appeared in publications such as Rattle, SOFTBLOW, and Drunk Monkeys. Her humor has appeared in McSweeney’s, Reductress, Jezebel, Bitch, and elsewhere. Connect on social @valerieknees or at valerienies.com.
Write with Friends! Register for The Write-In!
LET’S WORK ON THE THEME TOGETHER!
Join me the week before SNS, on Saturday afternoon, October 18, for the monthly Write-In, a generative online workshop with Hollie Hardy.
Write-In Details/ Sign Up
October Writing Prompt
For the 15th Annual Saturday Night Special Halloween Open Mic, we’re taking up the classic theme.
Tell us a scary story; sing us a spooky song; write us a ghost poem about your pumpkin spice latte. Anything Halloween or Halloween adjacent is on theme.
SOME IDEAS TO GET YOU STARTED:
Think: evil, demons, zombies, vampires, sirens, witches, werewolves, ghosts, predators, clowns, the circus, the horsemen of the apocalypse, blood-thirsty or benign creatures, Bigfoot, fairies, mutants, psychopaths, politicians, parents, screaming children, bullies, bosses, exes, oppressors, societal cruelties, false fears, monsters in masquerade, the misunderstood…
Think: pumpkins, scarecrows, cemeteries, black cats, bats, harvest moons, apple cider, candy, hay rides, trick-or-treat
What costumes have you dressed up in? What costume parties have you attended?
What defines a monster? What monsters have you known? What monsters have you been? Were they real or imagined?
What is grotesque? Unthinkable?
What are you afraid of? How is that fear literalized?
Think: things in the woods, under the bed, outside the window, inside the house, in the past, in your dreams.
Think: pool drains, sharks, heights, blood, poison, ants, failure, the sun, disfigurement, dying alone
Think: fire, flood, earthquakes, war, death, prejudice, injustice, grief, silence
Have you ever seen a ghost? An apparition? Experienced the supernatural? Or know someone who has? What happened?
In what ways are legacies, generational pain, memories, photos, even DNA kinds of ghosts?
Consider: palimpsest as ghost, the way a city builds on the bones of the past.
Think: haunted house, graveyard, poltergeist, possession, exorcism, bumps in the night
Whom have you lost? What would you say to their ghost?
What’s your best, craziest, strangest, or scariest Halloween story? Make a poem or flash story of it (3 minutes or less!)
Or something else! As ever, please feel free to follow whatever inspiration takes you! As ever, the theme is optional—an invitation, not a requirement; feel free to interpret loosely or ignore.
Below are some of my favorite Halloween poems and short stories on our theme to inspire you.
INSPIRATION
Poems
Jane Goodall and Bruce Springsteen Contemplate their Childlessness by John Dudek
Little Spells by Jennifer Sweeney
All Souls by Michael Collier
Windigo by Louise Erdrich
Bildungsroman by Sam Sax
Ghost by Cynthia Huntington
Field of Skulls by Mary Karr
Monster in the Lake by Martín Espada
Monster by Jason Irwin
The Witch Has Told You a Story by Ava Leavell Haymon
Halloween in the Anthropocene, 2015 by Craig Santos Perez
Strange Are the Products by George Oppen
Halloween by Lindsay Turner
Short Fiction
The Hitman short short fiction by T. C. Boyle
Pumpkins flash fiction by Francine Prose
The Anatomy of Desire flash fiction by John L’Heureux
Bonus
It’s Decorative Gourd Season, Motherfuckers! McSweeney’s Essay by Collin Nissan