The Prompt
Look up “funny news stories” or find as many local newspapers, real estate magazines, Craigslist ads, or NextDoor posts as you can. Which headlines speak to you? Some of my favorite from the last year are: “Urgent! Stolen Turkey!!!!!!” from NextDoor, “Man in Chicken Outfit Robs Supermarket” on my local news channel, and “Raccoons are at it again” on a Facebook post. Don’t read the story; make it up based on the headline.
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Jared Lemus
Jared Lemus is a Guatemalan-American author and finalist for the PEN America/Robert W. Bingham Prize for debut short story collection for his book, Guatemalan Rhapsody. His stories have appeared in The Atlantic, The Kenyon Review, Story, and elsewhere, and his debut novel, Magic in the Land of Eternal Spring, is forthcoming with Ecco-HarperCollins in the Spring of ’27. He holds an MFA from the University of Pittsburgh and is currently the Kenan Visiting Writer at UNC-Chapel Hill.
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