Prompt for the Week "The New York Times’s recent “More Than a Meal” series featured essays by renowned writers about memorable meals experienced in restaurants at a time when reminiscing about dining out has been the restaurant goer’s solace. The meals described range from Ruth Reichl writing about a fancy restaurant in Paris, to Samantha Irby writing about the Cheesecake Factory, to Alexander Chee writing about waiting tables at a Theater District restaurant in Manhattan. Write a scene that takes place in a restaurant. Is this the first time your character has dined out in a long time, or does she frequent this [...]

“Your Favorite Spot,” is a new short video series from the Office of Sustainability, in which Princeton University students, faculty, and staff write about their favorite outdoor spot on campus and, through the magic of video, are transported there. This series is narrated by Claire Wayner '22. Videos are produced by Jared Flesher. The first video features a submission from Wesley Wiggins '21, a Geosciences major from Washington, DC, who wrote about his experience watching the sunrise over Carnegie Lake. Watch and Share on Facebook and YouTube. Submissions are accepted on a rolling basis, so please share the form and submit your writing.

Prompt for the Week “What’s in your guts, in your muscles, in your blood?” asks Sarah Bellamy in her Paris Review essay “Performing Whiteness” in which she uses her experience as a stage director to examine the ways in which racial trauma and sentiments are manifested in our physical bodies. “Bodies arrive written with racial scripts that inform the meaning of gesture, stillness, and movement onstage.” Write a personal essay in which you focus on the way you move your body in the world and how those physical gestures and subtle movements inform who you are. What kind of tension, freedom, joy, [...]

Prompt for the Week "In response to the increasingly searing and muggy days, a recent Bustle article detailed the effects of humidity on the body. “You may feel more uncomfortable on a humid day because your body is not as easily able to evaporate the sweat on your skin, due to the moisture in the air,” says physician assistant Christina L. Belitsky, adding that “evaporation of sweat on our skin is our body’s way of naturally cooling us down in warm temperatures.” Write a poem where you discuss an aspect of how the body—internal organs, skin, or your own joints—functions in [...]