March 30 - April 6
Dearest Book Buds:
I hope you all are living the dream. I can’t wait to see you all this week.
First, a reminder that Book Club is coming up! We’ll gather on April 14th, Tuesday, at 7pm instead of Gen Writing that day. We’re reading Liz Moore’s novel, God of the Woods. If you want to know more about it then you can read the synopsis and stuff here. I loved this one, and hope you do too. It should be a really fun discussion. I just read that they’re making a movie of it starring Maya Hawke.
In other news, for those of you that loved Rufi Thorpe’s book Margot’s Got Money Troubles, the Apple TV series they made of it launches on April 15! I’m excited to watch.
Feedback Group Submission Schedules!
IRL Group Wednesdays @ beautyland 6:30-8:30: Rich will have the floor for the upcoming April 1 meeting, no fooling. He’s already sent pages. Bella will be a special guest this week. The following meeting is April 15 and Genna and either Johanna or Aimee can have a slot then. Since Chris is taking a hiatus, let’s mess around with the schedule when we’re next together.
Noon Crew Thursdays 12pm - 1:30: The next meeting is April 2 and Sara will have the floor. Her pages are already in. Ezra is up next when we meet on April 16.
Weirdlings Wednesdays 12pm - 1:30: We meet again on April 1 and Ed has the floor and his stuff is ready for us in inboxes. The next meeting will be April 15 and I believe it’s Erika’s turn then but am only 80% sure I’m correct about that. Elizabeth, did I mess that up, is it you?
Kool Kids Thursdays at 7pm - 8:30: Our next meeting is April 9 and Morgan has floor time. Pages are due April 2!
OG Crew Thursdays at 7:30pm - 9: The next meeting is on April 2 and Malavika and Garth will have the floor with pages due March 26. Garth has got his pages in already. Malavika, let us know if you need to punt your time! All good if so.
Saturday besties 12:30pm - 2: The next meeting is April 11 with floor time for Helen and Ali. Pages are due April 4.
Book Buddies Being AMAZING in the wild
You all are doing so many cool things lately. Keeping the announcements up from last week and adding a few:
Genna Sarnak has a forthcoming poem (out March 15!) in Faoilenach Journal: https://www.faoileanachjournal.com/. She’s also got another poem out via Scapegoat Review. You can read it here. AND she has another poem in PHIL LIT journal which you can read here and also vote for as your fave from that journal’s Spring issue. Let’s all rally for Genna and get her poem up to #1!!
Johanna Wilbur won a partial scholarship to this summer’s Martha’s Vinyard Institute of Creative Writing’s Summer Conference which she’ll be attending in June.
Dana Wilde has artwork in issue #8 of Contemporary Collage Magazine. Find her stuff on page 37!!
Casey Liston is raising money for 826 Boston, a nonprofit that runs free writing and publishing programs for students in Boston Public Schools. To thank her donors, she is writing microfiction stories on a subject of their choosing for anyone who gives $50+. She would love to write you a story while supporting this great cause! The fundraiser runs through April 16 and you can view her page here.
Rebecca Tiger has a piece out today in Hot Flash Literary: https://hotflashliterary.com/anosmia/ which she wrote based off a prompt from gen writing! Hurray!
Gen writing Prompt for this week:
April 1 and 5, 2026
Guilt
I talk and think a lot about the relationship between a character’s motivations and plot. The idea here is that it’s crucial to understand what drives a character to behave, to make choices, to take action, to respond to what happens to them in order to understand the impact of the events of the story/what they mean. I think interesting things happen to people when they feel guilty for something — they make choices that people close to them might think unlike them, sometimes guilt clouds things so completely it’s hard to understand what the impact is. That’s why, this week we’re going to work with guilty characters as a way to launch a new story or even to spice up a scene that might be feeling very sticky.
Your job is to write a new piece in the genre of your choice about a character who feels guilt about one of the scenarios I’ve listed below. You can also use this as fodder for a work in progress if something on the list feels fitting or you’re just interested in working with a character who feels guilty.
Let’s try one of these scenarios. A character is feeling guilty because they:
Burned their apartment down accidentally but the accident was really stupid (ie. they fell asleep smoking a cigarette)
Are responsible for the loss of someone else’s very precious item
Are involved in some scenario of infidelity - the cheater or the cheated on
Have lied to their adult child about something very important since the day they were born
Is married but has a second family somewhere else
Murdered someone purposefully for a reason that they later discovered was based on a lie
Murdered someone accidentally
Publicly humiliated a colleague or friend
Have ghosted from a relationship (romantic or otherwise)
Are stalking an ex
Stole an idea from someone and took credit for it
Was cruel to someone they love
That’s all for now! Remember, you are the best writers I’ve ever met in my life.
Your bestie -
Kate
