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, $

Jaya Saxena, The Creative Independent, 6/17/2026

• One of the things I always do when I find myself stuck, realizing my writing seems a bit flat, or that I’m just explaining something and not really breathing into it or letting it have life is, I pull away from the computer, and I tend to just pace around my room and try to literally talk it out as if I’m speaking to a friend. I’m not always trying to be conversational, but it helps me shake out in my head, what is the actual point I’m trying to make? And then, I can add the language on top of that.
• Maintaining your voice is an act of trying to build and keep confidence whenever you can — which is a struggle, which is difficult — and trying to remind myself, I have built a career, or I have a specific voice, and it is worth it to try to do what I can do the best that I can inst...

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...

Laurel Schwulst, The Creative Independen..., 6/15/2026

• Today more than ever, we need individuals rather than corporations to guide the web’s future. The web is called the web because its vitality depends on just that—an interconnected web of individual nodes breathing life into a vast network. This web needs to actually work for people instead of being powered by a small handful of big corporations—like Facebook/Instagram, Twitter, and Google.
• Plants can’t be rushed. They grow on their own. Your website can be the same way, as long as you pick the right soil, water it (but not too much), and provide adequate sunlight. Plant an idea seed one day and let it gradually grow.
• Fred Rogers said you can grow ideas in the garden of your mind. Sometimes, once they’re little seedlings and can stand on their own, it helps to plant them outsid...

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...