For graphic novelist Rachel Elliott, drawing comes more easily than writing. "I think prompts really help me make that move from drawing a goofy kid, drawing a talking animal," she says, "into...what is this story about?"
Rachel shares a writing prompt that helped her understand her main character in The Real Riley Mayes. She also discusses her love of drawing Martin Short, the importance of the freedom to read, and her upcoming workshop at JCPL, Inventing Comic Characters for Teens.
About Rachel Elliott
Rachel Elliott is an author, illustrator, and cartoonist. Her debut middle-grade graphic novel, The Real Riley Mayes, was released in May of 2022 and became both a Stonewall Honor Book and a Sid Fleischman Humor Honor Book.
If you love secret codes, parallel cat universes, and dude-ish girls who act out humorous death scenes, you’ll want to read this book. She is now working on two different graphic novel book series for two different publishers.
Rachel grew up queer during the 1980s in rural Oklahoma. She has worked as a volunteer “zooteen,” a plaster-caster, a crumpet baker, and a children’s museum grant writer. She now lives in Kentucky with her wife and teaches comics writing at the University of Kentucky.
She’s a big fan of dance music, tacos, cats, comedians, and her niece’s ice hockey team. In her spare time, she plays badminton with her wife and draws Martin Short way too much.
Don't think your writing is important? Singer-songwriter and music professor Dr. Kevin Holm-Hudson disagrees.
"I think that's a positive contribution to the atmosphere, to society, to the planet," he says, "to create something where there had been nothing."
On this episode, Kevin discusses his songwriting process. Whether you write songs, prose, or poetry, Kevin's favorite writing prompts will inspire you to create something new.
Kentucky Writers Hall of Fame author Fenton Johnson doesn't believe in writer's block. "Fighting with the white page over a week, a month, a year, sometimes 10 years," he says, "that's what we call writing.... That's just part of the process."
Fenton shares several writing prompts that can help you move beyond the blank page. He also discusses his most recent book, At the Center of All Beauty: Solitude and the Creative Life.
About Fenton Johnson
Fenton Johnson is the author of three novels and four works of creative nonfiction, most recently At the Center of All Beauty: Solitude and the Creative Life, a New York Times Editors’ Pick.
He has been a contributor to National Public Radio, Harper’s Magazine, and the New York Times Magazine, and has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, among other literary awards.
He has taught in the nation’s leading creative writing programs and continues to lecture and teach nationally. In 2024, he was named to the Kentucky Writers Hall of Fame.
Poet Leatha Kendrick believes that creativity is a habit. "To exercise your creativity is to keep it active and alive," she says. "You have to get up and walk to the library and then something can happen."
Exercise your creativity with Leatha's favorite writing prompt. It will help you turn off your conscious mind and remember forgotten details.
About Leatha Kendrick
Author of five poetry collections, Leatha Kendrick received Transylvania University’s 2025 Judy Gaines Young Award, recognizing exceptional works by Appalachian authors.
Leatha grew up on a southern Kentucky farm. Her adult life was spent in eastern Kentucky where she and her husband raised three daughters.
Kendrick began writing seriously in midlife and found her first community of writers at the Appalachian Writers Workshop. She received her MFA in Poetry (at the age of 45) from Vermont College of Fine Arts.
Recent poems and essays appear in anthologies such as Troublesome Rising: A Thousand-Year Flood in Eastern Kentucky and in journals including Appalachian Journal, Still: The Journal, and Hood of Bone Review.
"A teacher giving a prompt is the same as the world nudging you to write something," says poet and educator Christopher McCurry.
On this episode, Christoper shares two prompts that will inspire you and help build your writing skills. Consider them a nudge to create something new.
Christopher also discusses Workhorse, a community and publishing company that supports working writers. Plus, he describes what young and adult writers can learn from each other.
About Christopher McCurry
Christopher McCurry is the author of Open Burning and The Gospel of God Boy (Accents Publishing). In 2015, he co-founded Workhorse, a publishing company and community for working writers.
He's creator of The Poetry Gauntlet and the Young Writers Conference and lives in Lexington, KY, with his wife, daughter, newborn son, and two dogs.
For author Wes Blake, a former West Jessamine High School English teacher, writing about his obsessions helped him find his subject matter.
"When you write about what obsesses you," he says, "it guides you towards things that are important to you, maybe in some way that you don't fully understand."
On episode 44, Wes shares how he channeled his obsessions into his book, Pineville Trace. Learn to recognize and write about your own obsessions with help from his favorite writing prompt.
About Wes Blake
Wes Blake is the author of Pineville Trace, winner of the Etchings Press Novella Prize and finalist for the Feathered Quill Book Award for Debut Author (University of Indianapolis’ Etchings Press, 2024); the book was featured on Deep South Magazine’s Fall/Winter Reading List 2024-25.
Blake has been called a “writer to watch” by Pulitzer Prize finalist Lee Martin. His work has appeared in Electric Literature, storySouth, Los Angeles Review of Books, and Louisiana Literature Journal, among others, and he holds an MFA from the Bluegrass Writers Studio.
Wes lives in Nonesuch, Kentucky, with his wife and cats, where they’ve planted over 100 trees. Learn more at wesblake.com.
Poet Lynnell Edwards enjoys using what she calls "external prompts" from other authors. But she believes that "ultimately as writers, we've got to have sort of internal prompts."
On this episode, Lynnell shares questions that will help you create your own personalized writing prompts. Learn how to generate a series of poems, essays, or linked short stories based on what you've already written.
About Lynnell Edwards
Lynnell Edwards is the author of six collections of poetry, most recently, The Bearable Slant of Light, which documents the onset of bipolar disorder in her son, the impacts on the family, as well as constructions of mental illness as depicted in literature and history.
She is Associate Programs Director for the Naslund-Mann Graduate School of Writing at Spalding University where she mentors and lectures in Poetry. She is also Book Reviews Editor for Good River Review, Spalding's literary journal.
Find her at lynnelledwards.com for more about her work, including essays, poems online, interviews, and upcoming events.
When novelist Tammy Oberhausen feels "stuck or uninspired," she tends "to wallow around with it for a while and feel bad." Writing prompts help her ideas flow again. "Don't wallow too much," she says. "Get the prompt and go with it."
On this episode, Tammy shares how to use your dreams—which she says are like "personalized prompts"—in your writing.
About Tammy Oberhausen
Tammy Oberhausen is the author The Evolution of the Gospelettes, a novel published in 2024 by Fireside Industries.
She earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English from Western Kentucky University and an MFA in Creative Writing from Spalding University.
While working as a book editor and teacher and raising two daughters, she kept coming back to a story about a family of gospel singers that wouldn’t let her go.
After three decades of developing her craft and writing and rewriting that story, the Gospelettes finally made their debut. A Kentucky native, she lives in Bowling Green with her husband.
Amelia Zachry, author of Enough: A Memoir of Mistakes, Mania, and Motherhood, didn't think anyone would want to read about her trauma. But being vulnerable about her experiences "invited people to be vulnerable" in return.
"And so that is the power of the word from page to the reader," Amelia says, "that we can transform that sense of healing to others through our words."
On this episode, Amelia discusses several writing prompts that will help you tap into your emotions and "share your truth."
About Amelia Zachry
Amelia Zachry is the author of Enough: A Memoir of Mistakes, Mania, and Motherhood.
She began writing her debut memoir after finding her voice, shedding silence and fear. Enough reveals secrets of sexual assault and subsequently a bipolar disorder diagnosis.
She is an advocate for mental health and sexual assault awareness, supporting causes to dismantle rape culture and normalize mental health.
When she’s not writing, she can be found sculpting Raku-Yaki pottery or hiking with her husband and two magnificent daughters. Amelia currently resides in Nagoya, Japan.
Author Jessica Handler believes "that when we write well, we're writing about what matters to us."
What matters to you? On this episode, Jessica shares a prompt that will help you understand what you're trying to do with your writing. It's one that she often used while working on her memoir, Invisible Sisters.
Jessica also shares a prompt that will help you regain focus and use your senses in a work in progress. Her third prompt will help you generate ideas for future projects.
About Jessica Handler
Jessica Handler is the author of the novel The Magnetic Girl, winner of the 2020 Southern Book Prize and a nominee for the Townsend Prize for Fiction, a 2019 “Books All Georgians Should Read,” an Indie Next pick, Wall Street Journal Spring 2019 pick, Bitter Southerner Summer 2019 pick, and a Southern Independent Bookseller’s Association “Okra Pick.”
Her memoir Invisible Sisters was also named one of the “Books All Georgians Should Read,” and her craft guide Braving the Fire: A Guide to Writing About Grief and Loss was praised by Vanity Fair magazine.
Her writing has appeared on NPR, in Tin House, Drunken Boat, Full Grown People, Oldster, The Bitter Southerner, Electric Literature, Brevity, Creative Nonfiction, Newsweek, The Washington Post and elsewhere.
For poet and fiction writer B. Elizabeth Beck, "making sure that you are actively engaged in a community is... the salvation to your sanity and to your work."
On this episode, Elizabeth discusses her participation in writing and music communities. She founded Teen Howl and Poetry at the/ˈtā-bəl/, two Lexington-based reading series where poets of all ages support each other's writing.
Elizabeth has also discovered community with fellow fans of the Grateful Dead and Phish, and these experiences, as well as her love of visual art, often inspire her writing.
Learn how to engage with art and music in your own writing with help from Elizabeth's favorite prompt.
About B. Elizabeth Beck
lizabeth Beck is a poet who writes fiction. Dancing on the Page (Rabbit House Press, 2024) is her fifth poetry collection. Accents Publishing will publish Swan Songs, her debut collection of short stories, in 2025.
Mama Tried (Broadstone Books) won the American Book Fest Prize for Poetry. She was a finalist in the Kentucky State Poetry Society Grand Prix Prize and has been nominated several times for the Pushcart Prize.
Elizabeth is a recipient of The Kentucky Foundation for Women grant.
Her work appears in journals and anthologies, including Poetica Magazine, Appalachian Review, Limestone Blue, and Harvard Education Press.
Elizabeth founded two poetry series, Teen Howl, and Poetry at the/ˈtā-bəl/ in Lexington, Kentucky.
Novelist Jacinda Townsend believes that "writing is a habit, and the imagination begets the imagination." Having a set writing routine helps her create because "the imagination is a kind of muscle."
On this episode, Jacinda explains the steps she takes each morning to fire up her imagination, including using writing prompts.
Her favorite prompt to share focuses on pacing. Her students generate such strong work with this exercise that some have even published their finished pieces.
About Jacinda Townsend
Jacinda Townsend is the author of Trigger Warning (Graywolf, 2025) and Mother Country (Graywolf, 2022), winner of the 2023 Ernest Gaines Award for Literary Excellence.
Townsend's first novel, Saint Monkey (Norton, 2014), winner of the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize and the James Fenimore Cooper Prize for historical fiction, was an Honor Book of the Black Caucus of the American Library Association.
A former broadcast journalist and elected official, Townsend has written nonfiction for Al Jazeera and The White Review.
Novelist Robert Gipe believes that when you use writing prompts, "you're just kind of fishing for something that works."
If you're lucky, you might end up with "a couple of sentences that have some energy to them, that have some heat." Robert says those sentences can help you build a piece of writing "you feel good enough about to share with others."
Try your luck with three of Robert's favorite writing prompts. According to him, these prompts use form "as a way of letting your unconscious drive the content."
About Robert Gipe
Robert Gipe won the 2015 Weatherford Award for Outstanding Appalachian Novel for his first novel, Trampoline. His second novel, Weedeater, was published in 2018. His third novel, Pop, was published in 2021.
All three novels are published by Ohio University Press. In 2021, the trilogy won the Judy Gaines Young Book Award.
From 1997 to 2018, Gipe directed the Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College Appalachian Program in Harlan.
Gipe is founding producer of the Higher Ground Community Performance Series and has served as a script consultant for the Hulu series, Dopesick, and a producer on the feature film, The Evening Hour.
Gipe resides in Harlan County, Kentucky. He grew up in Kingsport, Tennessee.
When creative writer Deidra White feels stuck with her writing, she tells herself to "write the poem that you need to read." This exercise helps with one of the most challenging aspects of writing: visualizing your audience.
Deidra shares several other ways she likes to jump start her writing. She also describes how she rediscovered her passion for words as a nontraditional college student, why she enjoys teaching young people, and more.
About Deidra White
Deidra White is a Lexington, KY, native, a University of Kentucky MFA graduate, and an aspiring Affrilachian poet.
She received the 2022 Farquhar Award for Poetry for “Meihua;” the Patricia and William Stacy Endowed Fellowship for Distinguished Honors in English; and the William Hugh Jansen Fiction Award in the Art of Storytelling/Folklore for “Woodstock.”
White was the 2023 winner of the Broadside Poetry Contest for “When They Came” and the 2023 winner of the Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing Nonfiction Award for her contemporary piece, “DUCK." She was also the Keynote Speaker for the 2024 Youth Poet Laureate commencement.
Her work engages the tradition of Affrilachian writing and explores the intricate dynamics of Black womanhood with an eye to connections of the past to present.
Are you an aspiring writer who thinks you’ll write a novel when you have more time or your children are older? If so, author and Kentucky Poet Laureate Silas House has some advice for you.
“Often you cannot create the perfect conditions for your writing,” he says. “I think if you wait around for that, you’re never going to get anything written.” Silas knows this from experience, having written his first three novels when his children were small. “Sometimes you just have to do it,” he continues.
Silas shares a multi-step writing prompt that will help you create vivid characters, whether you’re working on fiction, poetry, or memoir. It’s the perfect opportunity to stop waiting and start writing.
About Silas House
Silas House is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of seven novels, four plays, and one book of creative nonfiction. His writing has been featured in Time, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, and many other publications.
House currently serves as the Poet Laureate of Kentucky and is a 2022 winner of the Duggins Prize, the largest award for an LGBTQ writer in the nation. He has been a finalist for a Grammy Award and the Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction.
His most recent novel, Lark Ascending, won the Southern Book Prize and the Editor’s Award from Booklist, among other honors.
Kaitlyn Hill, who writes young adult romantic comedies, didn't always take those stories seriously, even though she was drawn to them. "It was just really powerful for me to come to the realization that there is so much value in stuff that is fun and light and happy," she says.
As Kaitlyn's writing prompt illustrates, she tries to keep fun in her process. Kaitlyn also shares how reading fueled her desire to be a writer, her love of fan fiction, and more.
About Kaitlyn Hill
Kaitlyn Hill is a writer who lives to tell love stories and make people laugh. While books make up most of her personality, Kaitlyn also enjoys messy reality TV, has never met a tea she didn't like, and thrives on overly ambitious home improvement projects.
She resides in Kentucky with her real life romance hero. Kaitlyn is the author of Wild About You and other young adult romantic comedies, and can be found on social media @thekaitlynhill and at thekaitlynhill.com
Sandra Gail Lambert, author of My Withered Legs and Other Essays, started writing in her forties. She believes her age helped her cope with the "rough and tumble world" of publishing.
"There's so much rejection [in publishing], and there's so much feedback that is not necessarily accurate or kind," Sandra says. "And when we're older, we just have tougher skin."
That resilience allowed Sandra to "look for something in their critique... that helped me be a better writer without paying attention to their attitudes or assumptions or prejudices against me."
Sandra shares several prompts she relies on when she's feeling lost in her writing. She also discusses why she chose to self-publish her novel The Sacrifice Zone: An Environmental Thriller; why she always returns to the body in her writing; and more.
About Sandra Gail Lambert
Sandra Gail Lambert writes fiction and memoir that is often about the disabled body and its relationship to the natural world. She's the author of the recently released My Withered Legs and Other Essays from the University of Georgia Press, the Lambda Literary Award nominated memoir, A Certain Loneliness, and two novels, The River's Memory and The Sacrifice Zone: An Environmental Thriller.
Do you wonder if you have a book inside you? According to Kentucky Writers Hall of Fame member George Ella Lyon, "you have to write to find out." George Ella says writers "have to dwell in uncertainty. Because that's the one thing that's certain, is that you'll be uncertain."
George Ella, who writes for all ages in multiple genres, shares the prompt that inspired her to write Many Storied House: Poems. So take out some paper (two sheets of at least 8.5 x 11") and get ready to draw your way into your next story, poem, or essay.
About George Ella Lyon
Harlan County native George Ella Lyon writes in multiple genres for readers of all ages. She has published five poetry collections, a novel and memoir for adults, novels and poetry for young people, and many children’s picture books. Her most recent titles include Back to the Light: Poems (Univ. Press of Ky 2021) and Time to Fly (Atheneum 2022).
Her poem “Where I’m From” has gone around the world as a writing model. Married to musician and writer Steve Lyon, she served as Kentucky Poet Laureate (2015-2016) and was recently inducted into the Kentucky Writers Hall of Fame.
If you're a writer who works another job to make a living, poet Robin LaMer Rahija has some advice for you. "I think ideas and thoughts and little tiny chunks of motivation come to all of us throughout the day," she says. "Just stop and write them down and save them for later. And get in the habit of not ignoring that impulse toward a creative act."
Robin says her favorite writing prompt "feels like a dare" and is especially helpful "when you want to do something new and crazy." Up for a challenge? Listen to the episode!
About Robin LaMer Rahija
Robin LaMer Rahija is originally from Kansas City, MO and has lived in Kentucky for over a decade. She received her MFA from the University of Kentucky, where she is currently the Department Manager Associate in the Department of English.
In 2010, she co-founded and edited Rabbit Catastrophe Press, a handbound, feminist, book arts micropress. In 2015, she co-founded Workhorse Writers Collective, a publishing and education platform for poets outside of academia.
Her poems have appeared in Puerto Del Sol, FENCE, Guernica, and elsewhere. Inside Out Egg is her first full-length book, published by Variant Lit in April 2024.
Author and arts administrator JC McPherson is also a trained master electrician who approaches poetry with a troubleshooting mindset. He says that "writing a poem is no different than wiring up a new room, like putting new lights in the outlets. And it's a process."
JC often returns to his favorite writing prompt because it "shakes something loose" and helps him relax into his writing. Shake up your writing process and have fun while doing it with his help!
About JC McPherson
JC McPherson has a background in writing, electricity, and general troubleshooting. A recipient of the 2022-2023 National Leaders of Color Fellowship through South Arts, he is an associate for the Kentucky Black Writers Collaborative, Creative Writing Instructor, and arts administrator.
He is a member of the Affrilachian Poets and the author of numerous collections of poetry. He’s also a member of the Society of American Baseball Research.