Ekphrastic Writing Challenge: Xavier Mellery

The Staircase, by Xavier Mellery (Belgium). 1889.

Ekphrastic Writing Challenge

Thank you to everyone who participated in our Anne Ryan writing challenge, which ends today.

The prompt this time is The Staircase, by Xavier Mellery. Deadline is October 19, 2018.

Everyone can participate! Try something new if you've never written from visual art before and discover why there are so many of us devotees. Ekphrastic writing helps artists and lovers of art to look more carefully, from different angles or mindsets, at visual art. And it helps writers discover new ways of approaching their work, their experiences, and writing itself. 

The rules are simple.

The Rules

1. Use this prompt as a springboard for your writing. It can be a poem or short prose (fiction or nonfiction.) You can research the painting or artist and use your discoveries to fuel your writing, or you can let the image alone provoke your imagination.

2. Write as many poems and stories as you like.

3. Have fun.

4. Send only your best results to [email protected]. 

5. Include XAVIER MELLERY CHALLENGE in the subject line so that your submission doesn't get lost in the sea of emails.

6. Include your name and a brief bio.

7. Deadline is October 19, 2018.

8. Please do not send revisions, corrections, or changes to your poetry or your biography after the fact. If it's not ready yet, hang on to it until it is.

9. Selected submissions will be published together, with the prompt, following the deadline.

​10. Rinse and repeat with upcoming ekphrastic writing challenges!