SNS | 7-27-24
Join us online for an evening of literary performance and open mic reading
Featuring: Dale Bridges & Theory
Theme: The Movies
(scroll down for writing prompt)
Hosted By: Hollie Hardy
Saturday July 27, 2024
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: 821 7948 2345
Passcode: 568249
Author Bios
Dale Bridges is a fiction writer, essayist, and painter. His work has appeared in more than thirty publications, including The Rumpus, The Masters Review, and Barrelhouse Magazine. For several years, he was the arts-and-entertainment editor at the Boulder Weekly, where he won journalism awards for his feature writing and cultural criticism. He has published a book of short stories Justice, Inc. (Monkey Puzzle Press) and a novel called The Mean Reds (SFA Press). He currently lives in Austin and works at the library.
Billy Song aka Theory is a poet and writer from New York City. He has a Bachelors in Film Making and an MFA in Fiction from the University of San Francisco, and is publishing his first novel. With Liz Cahill, he is the co-founder and creative director of Decentered Arts, a San Francisco non-profit organization dedicated to building an interconnected community for artists of all mediums. Theory is a resident and volunteer at The Center SF and works as a senior video editor for Vox.
Write with Friends! Register for The Write-In!
LET’S WORK ON THE THEME TOGETHER!
Join me the week before SNS, on Saturday afternoon, July 22, for the monthly Write-In, a generative online workshop with Hollie Hardy.
Write-In Details/ Sign Up
July Writing Prompt: The Movies
In the last 100 years, perhaps no other artistic medium has provided more fodder for poetry than the cinema. Movies have become central to the poetic imagination, whether the poet celebrates the movies or reacts against celluloid saturation. ~Poetry Foundation
Your challenge this month is to write a poem (or 3-minute prose piece, scene, monologue, song, etc) inspired by cinema.
SOME IDEAS:
Write about the movies in general, a specific movie or actor, a movie genre, a memorable movie-going experience, a Netflix-and-chill session on the couch, an old drive-in, Hollywood, Blockbuster Video, the Oscars, etc.
Or your writing might borrow some famous movie lines.
Or borrow the techniques of film, giving your poem or story a cinematic eye, describing the world as a camera might see it, focused on image.
Or go see a movie or watch one at home, but do it like a writer. Take notes, make observations, when it's done (or pause anytime) write a poem, story, scene, or monologue.
As ever, the theme is optional—an invitation, not a requirement; feel free to interpret loosely or ignore. Below are some poems about movies, some funny, some serious, to inspire you.
FOR INSPIRATION
"Ode to Patrick Swayze" by Tishani Doshi
"Sean Penn Anti-Ode" by Dean Young
"Anna May Wong Has Breakfast at Tiffany's" by Sally Wen Mao
"The James Bond Movie" by May Swenson
"Video Blues" by Mary Jo Salter
"Scary Movies" by Kim Addonizio
"Everything's a Fake" by Fanny Howe
"Ave Maria" by Frank O'Hara
"Charlie Chaplin Impersonates a Poet" by Cornelius Eady
"The Last Movie," by Rachel Hadas
NOTE: The SNS writing prompts will soon be integrated into my new subscription service, Praxis Poetry: Weekly Prompts for Poets