Weekly Writing Prompts: #21


There is beauty and writing in everything, and the world around us is an excellent source of poetry if you take the time to see it… A lot of time and energy goes into selecting a book title, for example. It must encapsulate the novel yet leave desirable mystery, it must sound intriguing, it must be a piece of art all on its own.

This week’s writing prompt is a poetic exercise in finding beauty in your bookshelf.

Book Spine Poetry

The idea of book spine poetry began in 1993 with artist Nina Katchadourian’s Sorted Books project, with a recent online resurgence from people having a go at home. We thought this would be the perfect writing prompt to get your creativity flowing, especially when you’re not in the working mood.

This is a kind of poetry that even writers who devoutly protest they “are not poets” can have a bit of fun with. Scour your bookshelf for inspiration and put some pretty words together. It’s as simple as that. Here’s one we tried ourselves:

Book Spine Poetry
Why not try your hand at this week’s writing prompt?

It turns out that this writing prompt is trickier than it first appears, but the scope for creation is wide open and it’s a quick and playful exercise that really makes you think about sentence structure and deeper meanings within words.

Share your book spine poetry with us on Facebook – we’d love to see what you come up with! And don’t forget to check out the rest of our writing prompts for more inspiring challenges. Happy writing!

Kyra Thomsen

Kyra is a writer and editor from Wollongong. She works full-time as a content writer while reading on the train and drafting short fiction stories in her spare time. Kyra won the 2012 Questions Writing Prize and has been published in Kindling, Seizure Online, Space Place & Culture and Tide. She enjoys admiring her bookshelves, watching cheesy shows on Netflix, and browsing her Tumblr. You can learn more about Kyra's previous publications, plus find fortnightly posts, on her website: kyrathomsen.com.

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