[caption id="attachment_2212" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Maurice, Alice, and Fred at the Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen Writing Workshop."][/caption]

Writing Prompts from The Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen Writing Workshop

            In her interviews with Ian Frazier, Alice Phillips, and Susan Shapiro about the HASK Writing Workshop, T&W intern Jane Moon asked about the typical workshop protocol, and all three writers spoke of the importance of the writing prompts they use to start off each session. Sometimes these prompts are suggested by the workshop participants themselves, and sometimes they are brought in by the teachers, but almost always, the focus of the prompts is autobiographical.

            “We have a basic subject that we’ve used for years which is ‘How I Came to New York’,” said Frazier.  “Usually we focus on personal stories, and a lot of other subjects come off of that personal story. The fact that someone is in a soup kitchen means that there’s a story there.”

            Many of the prompts used at the HASK Workshops are used over and over again, in different forms, and all of them would work in a variety of different writing classrooms.  Below is a brief selection you might find helpful in your classroom.

• How I Came to New York
• My Best Mistake
• Where I’m From
• My First Love
• Things I Hide from Myself
• When One Door Closes, Another Opens
• My Worst Night