In a writing slump? Need a little nudge, a kiss of inspiration? Enjoy this prompt from our Advanced Fiction instructor from Chris Belden:
Ashtray by Marcus Jackson
Filling with my mother’s smolderings,
this tawny, six-sided, three-pound glass dish
has sat forty years at the table’s center.
During lapses in labor or happiness
my mother smoked Merit after Merit, her mind
a crowded parlor of plans, self-hate,
and urgent glimpses of encounters long past.
She split the skin atop my father’s skull
once with this ashtray as he grabbed her.
Weekly, after she emptied and washed it, Friday’s light
entered the drafty sash and upheld this ashtray
as the crown of one woman’s quiet country.
Think of an object from your life. It doesn’t have to be a super important object—it can be small and seemingly inconsequential, but sometimes when we start writing about things that we still remember, they start to become more important to us. Describe the object, then tell us what you remember about it. See where this takes you.
Instructor Michael Belanger is an author and high school history teacher. His debut novel, The History of Jane Doe, was a finalist for the Connecticut Book Award and received a Kirkus starred review. More recently, his writing has appeared in Flash Fiction Magazine, Pigeon Review, Bright Flash Literary Review, and the 2025 Connecticut Literary Anthology.
BY AMANDA PARRISH MORGAN It’s become a bit of a truism to point out that if a career has an “appreciation week” it’s a sign those employees are underpaid. After all–while I very much appreciated the anesthesiologist who administered the epidural I’d begun asking for the moment my water broke,
