SNS | 9-26-26
Join us online for an evening of literary performance and open mic readings
Featuring:
Rosebud Ben-Oni
Die Lunte
Theme: Small Wonders
(scroll down for writing prompt)
Hosted By: Hollie Hardy
Saturday, September 26, 2026
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: 841 1688 1708
Passcode: 527359
Author Bios
Rosebud Ben-Oni is the author of several collections, including the forthcoming The Last Great Adventure is You (Alice James Books, 2027), a sequel to If This is the Age We End Discovery (2021), which won the Alice James Award. Her work has been commissioned by Paramount, the National September 11th Memorial, and the Holocaust Memorial. She has received grants from the New York Foundation for the Arts, Queens Arts Fund, Cafe Royal Foundation, Queens Council on the Arts and CantoMundo. Her work appears in POETRY, APR, Academy of American Poets, Poetry Society of America, among others. rosebudbenoni.com
Find her on IG: @matarose
Die Lunte is the founder and editor of Avalon Park Press. Her debut collection of poetry, Cicada Songs, was published in 2024. She is the host of the Fata Morgana Lit Club & Open Mic in Austin, Texas. She is inspired by books and art that explore the nature of existence, human belonging, and the creative spirit.
Find her on IG: @die.lunte
Write with Friends! Register for The Write-In!
LET’S WORK ON THE THEME TOGETHER!
Join me the week before SNS, on THURSDAY afternoon, Sept. 24, for the monthly Write-In, a generative online workshop with Hollie Hardy.
Write-In Details/ Sign Up
August Writing Prompt: Small Wonders
Lately, it’s often felt like the world is piling on. Weather, disease, war, catastrophe, plane crashes, politics, the president. It’s hard to feel hopeful; easy to get discouraged. I think this month we could use a reason to seek out joy.
What small thing has delighted, surprised, amused, comforted, or captivated you recently? A perfect peach. A bird doing something silly. Moonlight sneaking through your window. A stranger’s overheard conversation. The cold side of the pillow. A long lost treasure resurfacing. A tiny flower growing through a crack in the sidewalk. (If you can’t think of anything, I invite you to go looking!)
For this month’s prompt, pay attention to the small things that make the world feel briefly, unexpectedly marvelous. Your piece can be joyful, but it doesn't have to be. Follow your curiosity and see where a small wonder leads you.
SOME IDEAS TO GET YOU STARTED:
Make a list of 10 small wonders. Don't overthink it. Write down the first things that come to mind: a smell, a coincidence, a bird, a perfect bite, something someone said. Choose one and begin there.
Go outside in search of small or surprising wonder, something you might have overlooked: a weed, an insect, a shadow, a feather, a crack in the sidewalk, an unfamiliar sound. Linger, observe, connect.
Write about something ordinary as if you've never seen it before. A spoon, a dog, a tomato, a parking lot, your own hands. Forget what you already know and discover it newly.
Think of a small pleasure you return to again and again—a particular food, a ritual, a sound, a texture, a safe place, a song, the sound of your name on your lover’s lips. What memories, associations, or unexpected stories gather around this pleasure? Follow this joy as it expands on the page.
Write about something that made you smile when you weren't expecting to smile. Recreate the moment in enough detail that the reader see what you saw, hear what you heard, and understand why this tiny moment resonated or caught you off guard.
Follow a small wonder through time. What did you love as a child? What tiny pleasure have you recently rediscovered? What has remained oddly delightful throughout your life? Let the present and the past bump into each other.
Borrow someone else's wonder. Write about watching another person, animal, or even a child become completely absorbed in something. Notice how wonder can be contagious.
Make a catalog. Five things you noticed on your walk. Seven sounds you heard today. Three things that tasted exactly right. Ten objects you would save if you could. Let the accumulation create its own pattern or surprise.
Take something insignificant and make it important. Give a tiny object, event, gesture, or detail the kind of close attention usually reserved for something monumental. See how much meaning you can find inside something very small.
Find the thing that shouldn't be wonderful. Choose something mundane, broken, ugly, inconvenient, overlooked, or even annoying—and look at it until you discover what makes it beautiful, funny, strange, or compelling.
As ever, the theme is optional — an invitation, not a requirement; feel free to interpret loosely or ignore.
INSPIRATION
The Last Thing By Ada Limón
Wonder as Wander By Sharon Olds
So Much Happiness Naomi Shihab Nye
What Seems Like Joy By Kaveh Akbar
Wedding Poem By Ross Gay
Darling Coffee By Meena Alexander
The Language of Joy By Jacqueline Allen Trimble
The Mystery of the Hunt By Michael McClure
Hesitation Theory By Reginald Shepherd
Give Me This By Ada Limón