How to reconnect with creative habits
Let's talk about time and big projects.
Header illustration by Heather.
Rather than strict resolutions for the new years, I’m interested in what creative habits and practices I want to continue, or nourish, from 2024.
I know there’s a lot going on. And there’s a lot we need to fight for in the coming years. There’s no “but” here — I know things will be bleak some days, and I also believe in the importance of creative practice and expression, even if it’s just you and a sketchbook or a notebook.
On that level, just you and the page, there’s space for catharsis. There’s space for anger and grief.
And maybe it’s naive of me, but I do think that creative outlets make us more empathetic people. “Creative outlets” in my mind can be anything, and everything, really. Cooking a meal. Doodling. Rolling down a hill in a park.
The other day I wrote down a weird little story thread I had in my head—the kind that makes me ask “could this be anything?” or “will this sound weird on the page?”
I don’t usually follow these threads because A) I don’t get them too often, since my brain is full of other things and B) I don’t always have time to write them down before they flit away, like a delicate little idea-butterfly that I will never see again!!
But on this particular day, I took a few minutes and wrote it all down. I didn’t ask anything of it, just put down what was in my head and then closed my laptop.
I rolled down the hill, then got back up and marveled at the act of just following the momentum.
I hope you find what you need for your creative practice, and for your full self, this year. And if there’s a specific topic or question you want me to cover in future issues, hit REPLY and let me know!
Keep scrolling for 30+ opportunities for creatives below! This is a big issue!
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💡 January Deadlines
🎨 Due 1/15: 2025-2026 Folger Institute Artistic Research Fellowships
✍🏼 Due 1/15: Georgia Review Prose Prize
✍🏼 Due 1/15: Gregory Djanikian Scholars in Poetry
🎨✍🏼 Due 1/17: Los Angeles Public Library Creators in Residence
💭 Due 1/17: Museum of International Folk Art Summer Research Fellowship Program
🎨 Due 1/17: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Community Arts Initiative: Artist Project (2025-2026)
✍🏼 Due 1/19: Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing Voices of Color Fellowships
🎨 Due 1/31: Taft Museum of Art Duncanson Artist in Residence
🎨 ✍🏼 Due 1/31: Clyfford Still Museum 2025 Institute Residential Fellowship Program
💭 Due 1/31: 2025 Autry Research Fellowships
✍🏼 Due 1/31: Eliud Martínez Prize (Hispanic, Latino/a/x, or Chicana/o/x writers)
🎨 Due 1/31: 2026 Duncanson Artist-in-Residence, Taft Museum of Art
🎨 ✍🏼 Due 1/31: Barbara Deming Memorial Fund (feminist writers and visual artists)
✍🏼 Due 1/31: The 2025 Terry J. Cox Poetry Award
🎨 Due 1/31: American Museum of Ceramic Art 2024-2025 Artist in Residence
🌷 February Deadlines
🎨 Due 2/1: Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts - 2025 Summer Residency
🎨 Due 2/1: Artadia Awards - Los Angeles
💭 Due 2/1: Smithsonian American Art Museum Audrey Flack Short-Term Fellowship
🎨✍🏼 Due 2/10: MacDowell Fellowship
✍🏼 Due 2/14: In-Person Native Children’s and YA Writing Intensive 2025
✍🏼 Due 2/14: Undocupoets Fellowship
🎨✍🏼 Due 2/15: Forge Project Fellowships 2025
✍🏼 Due 2/16: Aldo & Estella Leopold Residency
✍🏼 Due 2/24: Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowships (technically the registration due date, see link for more info)
✍🏼 Due 2/28: Imagine Little Tokyo Short Story Contest
✍🏼 Due 2/28: AWP Award Series (Poetry, Creative Nonfiction, Short Fiction, Novel)
🌞 March Deadlines
🎨✍🏼 Due 3/2: Voices of the Wilderness Artist-in-Residence
✍🏼 Due 3/3: Poetry Foundation Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowships
💭 Due 3/3: New York Public Library Short-Term Research Fellowships
✍🏼 Due 3/15: Naomi Long Madgett Poetry Award
✍🏼 Due 3/31: Laura Boss Narrative Poetry Award
🎨 Application opening in March: Haystack Mountain School of Crafts Open Studio Residency
🌸 April Deadlines
🎨 Due 4/1: The Clay Studio of Missoula Artist Residency
✍🏼 Due 4/9: National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowships
✍🏼 Due 4/17: Pen Parentis Writing Fellowship for New Parents