A Writers Twitch
By Haley Hindsley, Illinois
2026 Write Now Winner - Current UI Student
When the audience applauded the last author to read — Rita paused — revering the works she heard. Poetry and prose that infused her soul with love, that struck grief into her heart over the silence between lines.
Her fingers twitched as their words sank into her arms’ bones and tendons. Spreading from her fingernails, wrists and elbows, to her heart and mind — siphoning lines into her journal.
Rita wrote until she held a novel with her name on the cover; until she recited a passage to keen ears in Dey House. When she finished, she saw others' hands begin to twitch.
