The persistent grey of winter often darkens the human spirit. Let’s spend a day focused on light as a guide for inventive new writing. Starlight, dappled light, lamplight, bonfire, bioluminescence—we’ll shine it all onto the page using a series of well-lit writing prompts. At the conclusion, you’ll have multiple fresh drafts.

Kelly Madigan is the author of a collection of poetry, The Edge of Known Things (SFASU Press) and a how-to book titled Getting Sober: A Practical Guide to Making it Through the First 30 Days (McGraw-Hill). She is a recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Creative Writing, and the Distinguished Artist Award in Literature from the Nebraska Arts Council. Kelly’s poetry, creative nonfiction and editorial writing has appeared in anthologies, newspapers, websites, and literary journals such as Terrain.org, Prairie Schooner, CNN, Omaha World Herald, The Ecopoetry Anthology, A Face to Meet the Faces: An Anthology of Contemporary Persona Poetry, Crazyhorse, The Massachusetts Review, Nebraska Presence: An Anthology of Poetry, and Best New Poets 2007.