Ten writing prompts if I was In Charge:

1- Write the dictionary entry for a specific term in the language of the crows, including an etymology and use cases

2- Make a Metabolist architecture but in words. It must have potential for infinite future growth and change.

3- Write a piece that is itself a sign in broader speech composed of pieces that together form a calculus (Samuel Delany stolen valor!)

4- Argue that I should finally learn to drive solely for the purpose of owning one of those cute Japanese mini trucks. The style must be social realist novel mixed with Yeats.

5- Describe a city that couldn’t possibly be Venice. Focus on its coffeeshops, including their menu offerings.

6- Write for the severed heads of martyrs and thieves.

7- Compose an erotics of stationery as a ghazal or other historical form of appropriate verse style.

8- Write a review of a novel that doesn’t exist that you hate virulently or love without measure.

9- Compose a fragmentary passage of a natural history with a textual commentary that frames its changes from burnt Pompeiian scroll to manuscript to print. The textual commentator is of suspect character.

10- Look at the protruding veins when you bend your left wrist back. Count them and note the forkings. This forms a narrative or essayistic structure you must follow.