In this edition of Inside the Den, we’re excited to introduce Sara Sanguinetti, who joined the Black Fox team in early 2024. In just a short time, Sara has become a trusted and consistent presence behind the scenes. With a…
Dialogue for All by Katherine Koller
I began writing for radio drama, so for me, dialogue is everything. Music, sound effects, and silence also contribute to audio plays, but the main ingredient is dialogue. When I read fiction, nonfiction, or poetry, I’m attracted by the dialogue…
Train Your Pet Words by Noelle Sterne
I was elated when I received an acceptance for my short story “Casey.” But seeing the critique that followed, I was horrified to learn this story housed an entire menagerie of unwanted editorial pets—words, phrases, and grammatical constructions. Pets can…
2025 Winter Writing Prompts (Part 1)
There will be no writer’s block on our watch this winter! We have a new batch of winter prompts as promised. We hope to keep posting prompts, so be on the lookout for part two next. If you do end…
Five Mysteries of Publishing by Lev Raphael
Despite two and a half years in a top-ranked MFA program, nobody told me anything about what the writing life was like—especially outside the shelter of academia. In our writing workshops we analyzed the short stories everyone was writing in…
A Conversation with Jarret Keene
Jarret Keene earned his Ph.D. in creative writing at Florida State University. A beloved and highly sought after professor, Dr. Keene is an assistant professor in the Department of English at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas where he teaches…
The Haptic: The Tugboat of Narration by David Massey
There is an open canal between the body and the mind where feelings are concerned, and a sensation in the body is felt immediately in the mind. It may seem absurd to mention such an obvious point, but this truism…
5 Prompts to Use with Our Contest Theme: Rhapsody of Regret (Part 2)
As promised, we’re giving you the second set of prompts related to our current writing contest theme, Rhapsody of Regret! We hope the prompts provide you with inspiration and get you motivated to put words on the page! Even if…
“Method Writing”: Where Acting and Creative Writing Overlap by Charissa Roberson
I attended a theater camp every winter when I was in high school. Usually, I played a background character who delivered a line or two during the production. But my senior year, I got a small, yet substantial role that…
Finding Your Genre: Grief, a Pandemic, and a Blind Date by Rosemarie Dillon
Once upon a time, I wrote fantasy. My mind gave birth to gorgeous characters and creatures…until eventually, the daunting task of world building brought those journeys to an irreverent halt. You see, I’d never been much of a plotter. I…
La Vie En Rose by Jerrice J. Baptiste
As a little girl, I often encountered dead bodies on my way to school during the Baby Doc dictatorship in the 1980’s. We’d hear the gunshots fired outside of my Catholic school and take cover under our desks. There were…
How to Write a Book While Parenting by Isabel Mader
When your second child is born, you and your partner will decide that it makes the most sense for you to be a stay-at-home parent for a little while. Not forever, just for a little while. And you are thrilled…