Write Now with Malik Wilson

This Wednesday evening session will be hosted by writer and editor Malik Wilson who will offer the inspirational framework for the event.

Session includes:

✨ A 10-minute creative prompt or reading

✍️ 90 minutes of dedicated writing time

🤝 20 minutes of optional sharing & reflection

Whether you're drafting a novel, journaling for clarity, or just trying to make time to write, this space is for you.

More about Malik: Malik Wilson has worked at the intersection of creative writing, creative non-fiction, editing, and ghostwriting for more than 25 years. Beginning in college at the University of Pennsylvania as an award-winning columnist at The Daily Pennsylvanian, Malik also served as Editor-in-Chief of The Vision, an African American literary quarterly, and was an ambassador for Writing Across the University, a program assisting students with essays. After graduating in 2000, he became a founding partner in a local start-up that profiled Philadelphia’s rich musical, cinematic, and artistic heritage. Eventually recruiting 50 writers and helping to secure second-round financing, he wrote more than 250 articles and essays and edited many more. After the company was sold, Malik edited books for MIT Press and the University of Virginia Press while teaching high school literature and writing for various publications. Through Takoma, his writing, ghostwriting, and editing services company, he has worked closely with the National Museum of African American History and Culture and Smithsonian Books. In 2015, Malik accepted a faculty fellowship at American University, assisting their Continuing Education program. A visiting Humanities Fellow at the University of Maryland since 2018, Malik is launching Takoma Books, a publishing imprint based in Washington, this fall.

Malik’s approach to writing embraces courage, each person's singular voice, and how writing presents a unique ability to improve oneself - to grow and develop - each time the pen touches the paper. He loves the idea that great writing, and great writers, don't have to come from privileged spaces. Rather, anyone who dares to look within, to really examine, really explore, has the opportunity to do something, and be something great.

Malik Wilson was teaching literature when he realized that writing, with oneself as the audience, held a call on his life. He left teaching that year, and sought jobs that gave him space to be in his own head - and in the world - freely. Tending bar, working at a bookstore, with days and nights free for composition. Four years later, he published his first novel, and has been quietly at work ever since. Though he eventually came back into writing, research, and teaching, serving on the faculty at the University of Maryland, it was that first decision to leave that made everything possible.

Write Now: Generative Creative Writing Sessions are held every Wednesday evening and Saturday morning for writers of all genres and levels. Drop in for a boost of inspiration, or come every week to build a consistent writing practice.

Know what’s Happening Next — before everyone else does.

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Host or Publisher The Inner Loop: A Literary Reading Series