Writer’s block. We’ve all experienced the dreaded symptoms. Your hand frozen over the page. The blank screen staring back at you like an unblinking eyeball. The fear rising, whispering “you’ll never ...

The weekly Writers’ Block Poetry Night has some elements you might expect. At a recent show, many poets signed up to read pieces on grief and identity, generating snaps and applause from the audience.

Writing can often feel like an exercise in fruitlessness. And yet, I can’t help but shake the notion that if I were to just approach it from the right angle, it wouldn’t prove to be so unapproachable.

Emily Dickinson wrote, “Much Madness is divinest Sense / to a discerning Eye / Much Sense — the starkest Madness — / ’Tis the majority.” Writers are seemingly mad to the rest of the world. We’re ...

Welcome to Poetically Yours. Poetically Yours features poems by northern Illinois poets and a few from other states. Today’s featured poet is Susan Goldberg.

She didn’t realize it until later on in her life, but the words were always finding their way to, and through, Gerda Govine Ituarte. “I’m connected in so many different ways to words. Back in the day, ...

As a creative writing major, I hate starting sentences with “as a creative writing major.” The phrase comes loaded with expectations for how I should, and probably do, write. Pristine sentences, ...

Writers Block is an innovative online platform presented by the New Media Film Festival that celebrates the voices of writers, scheduled to take place during the festival on June 4-5, 2026.