Full list of Guest Writing Prompters for 2025

You really don’t want to miss out on a peek inside these writers’ brains!

Look at the wonderful roster of guest writers who are sharing ideas to inspire you, this May!

Kim Coleman FooteKim Coleman Foote is the author of Coleman Hill, named a finalist for the Carol Shields Prize, NAACP Image Award, and Audie Award, and long-listed for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize. Born and raised in New Jersey, Kim has been writing fiction since the age of seven(ish). In her spare time, she indulges in genealogy, dancing, singing, and word puzzles.

https://kimfoote.com/
Instagram/X/Facebook: @kimcolemanfooteF.E. ChoeF.E. Choe is a Canadian and Korean-American writer whose work has been published in adda, Augur, Clarkesworld, Fractured Lit, and The Moth Magazine. She is a 2023 alum of the Clarion West and Viable Paradise workshops, and an Editor at 100 Word Story. You can find her online at www.fechoe.com.P. Djeli ClarkPhenderson Djéli Clark lives in a small Edwardian castle in New England. And he writes stuff.Mary Robinette KowalMary Robinette Kowal is the author of The Spare Man, Ghost Talkers, The Glamourist Histories series, and the Lady Astronaut Universe. She is part of the award-winning podcast Writing Excuses and a four-time Hugo Award winner. Her short fiction appears in Uncanny, Tor.com, and Asimov’s. Mary Robinette, a professional puppeteer, lives in Denver. Visit at maryrobinettekowal.com.R. S. A. GarciaR.S.A. is a Nebula and Sturgeon Award winning writer of speculative fiction. She is also the winner of the Machine Intelligence Foundation for Rights and Ethics’ 2023 Media Award, and a Locus, Ignyte and Eugie Foster Award finalist.

Her Amazon Bestselling science fiction mystery, Lex Talionis, received a starred review from Publishers Weekly and the Silver Medal for Best Scifi/Fantasy/Horror Ebook from the Independent Publishers Awards (2015).

She has published short fiction in venues such as Clarkesworld Magazine, Uncanny Magazine, Escape Pod, Strange Horizons, The Sunday Morning Transport, and Internazionale Magazine.

Her stories have been long-listed for the British Science Fiction Awards, translated into several languages, and included in a number of anthologies, including the critically acclaimed The Best of World SF, The Best Science Fiction of the Year, The Year’s Best Fantasy, and The Apex Book of World SF.

Her sci-fantasy duology, beginning with The Nightward, is out now from Harper Voyager US.

She lives in Trinidad and Tobago with an extended family and too many cats.

R.S.A. was diagnosed with breast cancer in December 2021. She is currently in treatment and doing well. If you’d like to help, please donate to her GoFundMe organised by her friends. Jennifer HudakJennifer Hudak is a Nebula-nominated speculative fiction writer whose work can be found in venues such as The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet, and The Sunday Morning Transport. She is a 2018 graduate of the Viable Paradise workshop and a member of the Codex Writers’ Group. Originally from Boston, she now lives with her family in Upstate New York where she teaches yoga, knits pocket-sized animals, and misses the ocean. Find out more about her at JenniferHudakWrites.comPeyton EllasPeyton Ellas lives in rural California. When not writing, they are farming, running a micro farm animal sanctuary and creating native plant gardens as a landscape contractor. They are the author of “Gardening with California Native Plants: Inland, Foothill and Central Valley Gardens.” Their work has appeared or will appear in Milk House, Pilgrimage Press, streetcake magazine, Copperfield Review Quarterly and elsewhere. They write the (not) obsolete newsletter on substack and can be reached at peytonellas.com.Lani Diane RichLani Diane Rich is a story expert and NYT bestselling author with twelve novels published by the Big 5. She leads the Year of Writing Magically, a transformational year-long writing program that guides writers from inspiration to completion in a supportive, community-driven space. The Drafting module—running from June 21 to September 6, 2025—is a 12-week immersion designed to help writers build momentum, get words on the page, and bring their stories to life with accountability and joy.Sasha BrownSasha Brown is a Stoker-nominated writer and gardener whose surreal stories have been called “Creative! But in a bad way.” He’s in lit mags like X-R-A-Y and Split Lip, and in genre pubs like Bourbon Penn and Weird Horror. He’s on bsky at sashabrown, and online at sashabrownwriter.com.Patricia A. Jackson
Patricia A. Jackson is online here:
http://www.bybirthright.com/advocacy.htmlLori OstlundLori Ostlund is the author of Are You Happy? (Astra House, May 2025). Her novel After the Parade (Scribner, 2015) was a B&N Discover pick, a finalist for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, and a NYTimes Editors’ Choice. Her first book, The Bigness of the World (UGA, 2009; Scribner, 2016), received the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction, the Edmund White Debut Fiction Award, and the California Book Award for First Fiction. Her stories have appeared in the Best American Short Stories, the PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories, ZYZZYVA, and New England Review, among other places. Lori has received a Rona Jaffe Foundation Award and was a finalist for the Joyce Carol Oates Prize. She has served as the series editor of the Flannery O’Connor Award since 2022 and is on the board of the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund. She lives in San Francisco with her wife, the writer Anne Raeff. www.loriostlund.comAllegra HydeAllegra Hyde is the author of the story collection THE LAST CATASTROPHE, an Editors’ Choice selection at The New York Times and a finalist for the Ohioana Book Award. Her debut novel ELEUTHERIA was named a best book of the year by The New Yorker, shortlisted for the VCU Cabell First Novelist Prize, and featured on Late Night with Seth Meyers. Her first story collection, OF THIS NEW WORLD, won the John Simmons Short Fiction Award. Hyde has also received four Pushcart Prizes and the O. Henry Prize. She currently lives in Massachusetts and teaches at Smith College.

For more, visit: https://www.allegrahyde.com/
Marta Pelrine-BaconMarta is an author and artist who fuels her imagination with coffee and naps.Emma BurnettEmma Burnett is a researcher and writer. She has had stories in Nature:Futures, Mythaxis, Northern Gravy, Radon, Flash Fiction Online, Apex, Utopia, MetaStellar, Milk Candy Review, Roi Fainéant, JAKE, and more. Her favourite story this month is Rebirth of the Rain by Vivian Chou in Penumbric.
You can find Emma @slashnburnett.bsky.social or emmaburnett.uk.Neha MedirattaNeha Mediratta Chaudhuri is an independent writer, editor and consultant based in Mumbai. For more about her visit: www.nehamediratta.com

Managing home, hearth, and work, she writes about things she has mulled over for more than two decades. Her latest book is a collection of short stories, Death Chips and Love Fries which you can find here.Michele ReisingerMichele E. Reisinger’s work has appeared in Across the Margin, Stories That Need to be Told, Sunspot Literary Journal, Dreamers Creative Writing, and others. She studied English and Political Science at the Pennsylvania State University and received an MA in English Literature from the University of Delaware. She lives near Philadelphia with her family and never enough books. Find more of her writing her online at mereisinger.com.Walter LawnWalter Lawn writes poetry and short fiction. His work has been published at The Bangalore Review, On the Run Press, Heartwood Literary Magazine, Every Day Fiction, and Lily Poetry Review. Walter is a disaster recovery planner, and lives outside of Philadelphia.Tim WaggonerTim Waggoner is a Four-Time Bram Stoker Award-Winning Author
Website: www.timwaggoner.com
Blog: http://writinginthedarktw.blogspot.com/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/#!/tim.waggoner.9
Twitter: @timwaggoner
YouTube ChannelGrant FaulknerGrant Faulkner is the co-founder of 100 Word Story, the co-host of the Write-minded podcast, and an executive producer on America’s Next Great Author.

He is the author of The Art of Brevity: Crafting the Very Short Story.

Listen to his podcast Write-minded and subscribe to his newsletter Intimations: A Writer’s Discourse.

WriteMinded Podcast

Substack

GrantFaulkner.com

Facebook

InstagramJulie DuffyJulie Duffy is a writer who likes to think she is funny. She is the host of StoryADay May and, sometimes she juggles and knits, though rarely at the same time.Rich LarsonRich Larson was born in Niger, has lived in Spain and Czech Republic, and is currently based in Canada. He is the author of the novels Annex and Ymir, as well as over 250 short stories – some of the best of which can be found in his collections Tomorrow Factory and The Sky Didn’t Load Today and Other Glitches. His fiction has been translated into over a dozen languages, among them Polish, French, Romanian and Japanese, and adapted into an Emmy-winning episode of LOVE DEATH + ROBOTS. His latest book, Changelog, is now available for preorder. Angela SyvaineAngela Sylvaine is a Bram Stoker Award nominated author and self-proclaimed cheerful goth who writes speculative fiction and poetry. Her dark cheerfulness is on full display in her novel, Frost Bite, a ‘90s sci-fi horror comedy, and her retro ‘80s YA mall slasher novella, Chopping Spree. Her goth side is fully explored in her debut short story collection, The Dead Spot: Stories of Lost Girls.

Angela’s short fiction and poetry have appeared in over sixty anthologies, magazines, and podcasts, including Southwest Review, Apex, and The NoSleep Podcast.Rachel BoltonRachel Bolton is a Bram Stoker Award Nominated writer. Her work has appeared in Apex Magazine, Women Write About Comics, Strange Girls, and more. She lives with her cat in Massachusetts. You can follow her on Bluesky @raebolt.bsky.social and find out more at her website: https://rachelmbolton.wordpress.comJulia ElliottJulia Elliott’s Hellions arrives in April 2025. She is also the author of the story collection The Wilds, a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice, and the novel The New and Improved Romie Futch (both from Tin House). Her work has appeared in The Georgia Review, Tin House, Conjunctions, Granta (online), and the New York Times. She has won a Rona Jaffe Writers’ Award, and her stories have been anthologized in Best American Short Stories and Pushcart Prize: Best of the Small Presses. She teaches English and Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of South Carolina and lives in Columbia with her husband, daughter, and five hens. Her new story collection ‘Hellions‘ came out in April 2025.John WiswellJohn Wiswell is a disabled writer who lives where New York keeps all its trees. He won the 2021 Nebula Award for Short Fiction for his story, “Open House on Haunted Hill,” and the 2022 Locus Award for Best Novelette for “That Story Isn’t The Story.” He has also been a finalist for the Hugo Award, British Fantasy Award, and World Fantasy Award. He is the author of Someone You Can Build a Nest In, a Year’s Best pick by NPR and The Washington Post, and Wearing the Lion, and he can be found making too many puns and discussing craft on his newsletter, johnwiswell.substack.com.

Now out: the paperback edition of SOMEONE YOU CAN BUILD A NEST IN and you can pre-order his new release (coming in June 2025) now: WEARING THE LION Tiffany Yates MartinTiffany Yates Martin is a career book editor, working with
bestselling and award-winning authors, major publishers as well as indie authors. She is the founder of FoxPrint Editorial (www.foxprinteditorial.com, a Writer’s Digest’s Best Website for Writers) and author of Intuitive Editing: A Creative and Practical Guide to Revising Your Writing and The
Intuitive Author: How to Grow & Sustain a Happier Writing Career.
A regular contributor to writers’ outlets and a frequent presenter
and keynote speaker for writers’ organizations around the globe,
she is also the author of six novels (as Phoebe Fox).Julie DuffyJulie Duffy is a writer and the host of StoryADay May. She loves to poke around places she used to live.Gabrielle JohansenGabrielle writes fantasy and super soft sci fi from her NC home. She has been published in Haven Speculative and Across the Margin. As a regular at StoryADay, this is her fifth time participating in the challenge.Kai LovelaceKai Lovelace is a writer and musician born and raised in New York City. Links to his work can be found here.Julie Duffy
Julie Duffy
In 2010 Julie was a frustrated writer, who decided that writing a StoryADay in May would be a great way to kickstart her writing practice. 16 years later, it seems she was right. The rest of the writing world quickly caught on and now May is known as Short Story Month! Julie is the author of writing handbooks, articles, podcasts, workshops and courses, as well as a short story writer, and ‘Book Boss’ — your accountability coach for getting to ‘the end’.