writing

• Olive Tree Writing Club - every Sunday, $10
• Q-Wave Writing Group - monthly, shared on Q-Wave's listserv
• Queer Writers of Queens - free
• Shut Up and Write - free
• Slant'd
  • Blank Page Revival - month-long writing program, $
• Two Truths and a Lie - workshop series, $
• UNSCHOOL MFA - monthly links to lots of free writing resources
• Yu and Me Books Art Analysis Workshop - $25, next in August?

reading

• Catherine Project - free
• Close Reading NYC - series and one-offs, $

The Reading, The optional notebook, 7/1/2026

• The practice is simple: write in your optional journal only when you feel the urge to say something. I number every entry, but you can easily separate them with dividers if you prefer... I usually write a couple hundred entries before I go back and reread, often finding seeds for new work that way. The key is not to read them or expect them to be any good later on. When they are, it is a surprise, and newly delightful as well as, yes, productive.
• It takes time and distance for those brief notes to sound good to my critical ear, especially when I first put the words down. Writing first, then figuring it out later, but truly waiting several months or even years, has only made it easier for me to put off the pressure that everything I write must immediately be publishable.

Lillian Li, The Creative Independent , 8/10/2026

• I heard that to get into focus, it takes about 15 minutes for you to access that space, and then less than a second to get out of it. Once I got that ratio into my mind—this idea that it takes a really long time to cultivate the kind of focus that’s necessary to dig deep into a creative work, and you can send it all tumbling within a second of just clicking to see an email—I think that has helped me resist that urge, because it is so easy to click away.

Sarah Thankam Mathews, Getting Off with ... , 8/6/2026

• “People overestimate their own willpower,” Plante said. They figured that if tech really became a problem for them, they would know it and be able to quit. But the explosion of screen-mediated connection and the atrophy of non-digital avenues...

Chelsea Stark, Polygon Exit Interview, 5/29/2026

• What was important to me is if people aren’t struggling with operational problems, they can work better. If everyone understands where to go for things, it makes their lives easier. I've certainly worked at places with confusing or frustrating operational systems. And overall, having worked at good and bad workplaces, I really wanted to make sure we had a place where people felt supported and like we were creating a good culture. Sometimes, it feels like you're climbing a mountain, because the work never stops, and it is hard, and at the end of the day it’s largely vibes. And sometimes, some stuff is not your fault, or people will be upset at you for things outside of your control, and you just kind of have to eat that. That’s what it is. [...] I just wanted to make sure we had a place where no one is y...

Tony Howard Arias, Post Games(?) (can't remember), 4/15/2026

• Lecturing or starting from a conclusion [isn't] an effective way to have a dialogue [with an audience].

Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley, Post Games, 4/15/2026

• Leaving the experience [of a piece or game] with a story or "I" statement

Meredith Gran's game dev playthrough of Perfect Tides, 2/9/2026

• Video games are a way to share embodied experience of what it was like to be alive/use technology at a certain time
• Mechanics serve theme/plot, e.g. point and click mirrors awkwardness of navigating the world(!)

games and game design

• Game designers usually don’t tell us exactly what to do. They aren’t like novelists, who fix every action of every character. Game designers work a step back. They shape the general contours of our action, but not the precise details. They give us motivations and abilities, and an environment full of obstacles to face—but then set us free to act, to figure out how to achieve those goals. Our actions are still our own.
• Scoring systems can be used to explore alternate selves. Games are a library of agency.
• This is the incredible part of games: Whatever feeling you want, whatever kind of absorption or intensity you desire, whatever level of difficulty works for you at that moment, you can find it. Games offer you the freedom to sculpt the world, the tasks, and the goal to give you whatever...