https://stonesoup.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Poetry-Soup-Ep.-20.MP3.mp3 Transcript: Hello, and welcome to Poetry Soup! I’m your host, Emma Catherine Hoff. In this episode, I’m going to do something different from what I normally do – instead of talking about a particular poem or poet, I’m going to be talking about a writing technique called ekphrasis. Ekphrasis is a literary device that ..read more

https://stonesoup.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Poetry-Soup-Ep.-19.MP3.mp3 Transcript: Hello, and welcome to Poetry Soup! I’m your host, Emma Catherine Hoff. Today, I’ll be talking about a poem by David Shapiro, titled, “Falling Upwards.” David Shapiro was born on January 2, 1947, in Newark, New Jersey. His family was very big on music – they often performed string quartets together. This might’ve been part of what influenced today’s poem, which is about a violin player. Like Kenneth Koch and John Ashbery, poets I have talked about on past episodes of this podcast, Shapiro was a member of the ..read more

Sania Hernandez is a talented, young songwriter. Listen to her song, "Crossing the Amazon," below! https://stonesoup.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Sania_Hernandez_audio.mp3 ..read more

A conversation between Sofie Dardzinski, 13, and Emma Hoff, 12, discussing Hoff’s poetry collection, An Archeology of the Future ..read more

When my mother asked my brother and me to watch the new movie Sight, centered around a Chinese immigrant’s journey, I hesitated. I am usually interested in movies with fast-paced action and adventure, so my expectations of this movie were modest—I anticipated an unremarkable and uninspiring documentary. However, I acquiesced because my mother emphasized the importance of supporting our Asian-American community, especially given the rarity of biography movies featuring an Asian main character protagonist in the United States. Surprisingly, despite the genre not aligning with my taste, I left t ..read more

Write a modern retelling of a myth or fairytale. Try rewriting Robin Hood or the Three Little Pigs ..read more

Congratulations to our Poetry, Story, and Art Prize winners and honorable mentions! Thank you to everyone who submitted poems, stories, and artwork to our new contest series. The entries were impressive, and we’re so excited to be publishing all of the pieces below in upcoming issues of Stone Soup! The results are: The Stone Soup Poetry Prize Winner “That Wild Place” by John Gabriel Sperl, 11 Honorable Mentions “The Cracking” by Natalie Chien, 13 “Who You Really Are” by Goldie Leitman, 9 “Regret” by Isabella Lin, 13 “Ocean’s Surface” by Micki Mermelstein, 13 The Stone Soup Story Prize Winner ..read more

Our June 2024 Flash Contest was based on Prompt #308 (provided by Stone Soup intern Sage Millen), which asked that participants write a story from the perspective of one of their favorite childhood toys. According to these submissions, stuffed animals go on some pretty incredible journeys when we aren't looking, and dolls are very adventurous too! They are also prone to fears of being forgotten by the children who once called them their best friends, replaced by computers and phone screens. But as one doll learns, a donation box can often lead to wonderful places. As always, thank you to all w ..read more

Look around Pinterest for the weirdest piece of art you can find, then write a story about it ..read more

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr is a historical fiction novel centered around two teenagers during World War II in Europe. It details the journeys of Marie-Laure LeBlanc and Werner Pfennig, who have drastically different yet similar experiences in war-torn countries, whose paths intertwine through secret radios and a mythical stone. As the book’s name suggests, the author’s goal is to show how people go out of their way to be kind to others despite challenging circumstances. Marie-Laure, one of the primary protagonists, is blind and lives in Paris with her father, Daniel LeBlanc ..read more