by Ellen Santasiero | January 2, 2026 When I arrived at graduate school, the director of my MFA program bid us new students to file into an old-fashion classroom with tiered seating; the seats were the wooden ones with that paddle-shaped desk thing issuing from the right side. Outside the windows, the wind spun snow against a navy sky while our take-no-prisoners director chalked on the blackboard, “Always Be Closing.” The phrase comes from a scene in David Mamet’s film Glengarry Glen Ross...

by Mike Cooper We’re finishing up the generative phase of The Forge 2025-26. Our Smithys are freewriting to music, then organizing and revising and sharing with their peers for feedback and revision. We’ve given each other some feedback so far, especially in our discussions on the Discord channels, and now we’ll dip our toes into the process of workshopping.   And why workshop?   Hemingway said, “The only writing is rewriting.” John Updike said, “ Writing and rewriting are a constant search...

Metaphor in creative writing helps the mind make sense of the body by speaking directly through the senses.