Advertise on podcast: Prompt to Page

If writing sometimes feels like a chore, author Melissa Scholes Young has some advice for how to change your outlook.  "I like to think about when I show up to my writing desk as sort of a date rather than a punishing part of the process," she says, "and I wanna set that date the night before." That means setting out her favorite pen, journal, and coffee mug—all of which helps her look forward to her writing time. Shifting perspectives is something Melissa likes to do in her work as well, and she shares a writing prompt that will help you think "bigger and then smaller about the world." She also discusses her new Lexington bookstore Bond House Books, the art of revision, and more. About Melissa Scholes Young Melissa Scholes Young is the author of the novels Flood and The Hive. Her poetry collection, Another Word for Longing: Saudade, is forthcoming in the New Women’s Voices series from Finishing Line Press. Her stories and essays have appeared in the Atlantic, Ms., Washington Post, Poets & Writers, Literary Hub, Joyland, Brevity, and The Believer. Her poetry has appeared in Poet Lore, Tapestry, New Madrid, and Gargoyle.  A first generation college student from Hannibal, Missouri, she is Professor in Creative Writing at the University of Kentucky.

Author and editor Josh Boldt knows how challenging it can be to find a publisher. "It's just really hard to find the exact right fit that you need," he says. "So the person out there that's...feeling that way right now, I'm right there with you." On this episode, Josh discusses Brown Hound Press, a literary magazine he started partly as a way to reach other writers like him. He also shares a writing prompt that will help you get out in the world, something that's important to his own creative process. About Josh Boldt Josh Boldt is a crime and mystery writer from Lexington, Kentucky. His novels include Moneymaker, The False Favorite, and Slurry.  He has worked a long list of jobs—from restaurants and horse farms to construction and grocery. These experiences informed his writing with many of the people and places that now fill his fiction.  He eventually earned a master’s degree in English from Eastern Kentucky University and taught writing at the University of Georgia for several years. Josh is the editor of the popular literary magazine Brown Hound Press and serves on the Board of Directors for the Lexington Writer’s Room. When he’s not writing, he spends his time with his lady, Gwenda Bond, and their many animals.

Author Mandi Fugate Sheffel has always kept a journal, which she thought of "as this internal thing, a summary of my thoughts and feelings for the day." She had to learn to pay more attention to sensory details. "What you recognize in a moment is significant as a writer," she says, because "that's where voice comes from." On this episode, Mandi shares several writing prompts, including one that will help you become a better observer. She also discusses why she opened a bookstore in Eastern Kentucky and the joys of attending the Appalachian Writers' Workshop.

Do you feel too distracted to write? Poet and nonfiction writer Lucy Oquaye believes prompts can help. "What's most beneficial about using prompts," she says, "is really that you're just taking time to write." Lucy says that writing for 20 minutes in a notebook—without phones or computers—has transformed her college students' writing. She notes, "That kind of focus is really beneficial to anyone's writing practice." So grab a pen and paper and try Lucy's favorite writing exercise! About Lucy Oquaye Lucy Oquaye is an educator and writer from Louisville, Kentucky. She earned her MFA from the University of Kentucky, where she received the Betsy Owen Combs Recruitment Scholarship (2021) and the MFA Award in Creative Nonfiction (2022). She won Fourth Genre’s Multimedia Essay Contest in 2023, and her poetry won the 2024 Kentucky Monthly Penned contest.  A Foundation House resident and Kentucky Foundation for Women Artist Enrichment grantee, her work appears in Georgia Review, Vast Chasm, Deep Overstock, and The Big Windows Review. She teaches English and Creative Writing at Bluegrass Community & Technical College and serves on the board of the Kentucky State Poetry Society.

Author Eugenia Johnson-Smith believes writers should focus on getting their thoughts down in a first draft and worry about grammar and style later. "Don't be too critical," she says, "because you've got to get the words on the page." Eugenia shares some of the prompts that help her and her students write without pressure or judgment. She also discusses the Kentucky Black Writers Collaborative, including her new role there. About Eugenia Johnson-Smith Eugenia Johnson-Smith is the author of Positive Power: 31 Devotions to Help Unleash Your Positive Power. She is a coach, international inspirational/motivational speaker, and freelance writer. Eugenia is the owner and CEO of Positive Power, LLC., Training and Development. Her work has been published in the Kentucky Monthly Magazine, Presbyterians Today Magazine, and she is a columnist for The Lextropolis Magazine. In addition, she has stories in numerous anthologies, and she currently works at the Carnegie Center as the Kentucky Black Writers Collaborative Associate. She teaches several classes at the Carnegie Center, including Free Writing Practice.

Think your story doesn't matter? Author Willie Carver Jr. believes that "each of us has a story that can help contribute to the complexity of all of us...." When Willie uses writing prompts to unlock his story, "they're almost always body related." That's because he thinks "the truth of things is already in your body."  On this episode, Willie shares a prompt that will help you discover what your body already knows. He also discusses his new book, Tore All to Pieces; why learning to write is like learning a foreign language; and more. About Willie Carver Jr. Willie Carver Jr. is a youth advocate, Kentucky Teacher of the Year,  and the author of Gay Poems for Red States, a recipient of awards from Stonewall, American Library Association, World Pride, Read Appalachia, Whippoorwill, and Book Riot.  His fragmented novel, Tore All to Pieces, was published in March 2026 by the University Press of Kentucky. Willie’s writing has been published in textbooks, anthologies, and journals, including Testament, Discarded, Rural and Outrooted, Appalachian Journal, Southern Humanities, Louisville Review, Another Chicago, Harbor, Smoky Blue Literary, Miracle Monocle, Good River Review, Salvation South, and Gay & Lesbian Review.

Poet Kevin Nance uses writing prompts regularly because they "can take you places that you never could have gone any other way." On this episode, Kevin discusses ways to access the part of the brain that author Marilynne Robinson believes is most creative—your "back mind." He also shares a prompt that helps his writing students "tap into their inner angst." About Kevin Nance Kevin Nance is a photographer, arts journalist, and poet in Lexington. He has published widely in newspapers and magazines including the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, and Poets & Writers, and has work in literary journals, including The North American Review, Poet Lore, Willawaw, and Still: The Journal. His four books include Smoke, published last year by Accents Publishing. Kevin was recently announced as the new editor of Yearling, the poetry journal of Workhorse Writers.

Poet Shauna M. Morgan understands that feeling "weighed down by all of those things happening around us" can make writing even more challenging. For her, it helps to remember "that generations of my forebears created art in times of abject crises and bore witness to what was happening." On this episode, Shauna shares what she calls the "weight prompt." It will help you reflect on the subjects that feel heavy to you as well as the subjects that feel light. About Shauna M. Morgan Shauna M. Morgan is a poet-scholar and Associate Professor of creative writing and Africana literature at the University of Kentucky.  Her poetry has appeared in A Gathering Together, Interviewing the Caribbean, and A Literary Field Guide to Southern Appalachia, and her debut collection, Ground Provisions, was published by Peepal Tree Press in the United Kingdom.  Shauna tends a small, hopeful provision ground at her home in the East End Artists’ Village in Lexington, and she continues to explore the environmental and cultural linkages between her rural Afro-Indo-Jamaican upbringing and her US-Kentucky life.

While novelist Mary Anna Evans believes that studying writing is "very valuable," she also advises writers "to go out and live your life." She says that "all experience is useful" in writing. And she should know. Mary Anna's books have drawn on her former engineering career and her interest in archaeology, among other experiences.  Mary Anna's favorite writing prompt will help writers of all backgrounds and genres explore setting. She's successfully used it with fiction and nonfiction students and even environmental architecture students. About Mary Anna Evans Mary Anna Evans is an award-winning author with a PhD in English literature, a handy background for writing The Dark Library, the story of a woman menaced by her dead father, a literature professor whose rare book collection holds the secret to escaping him. Her crime fiction has earned recognition including two Oklahoma Book Awards, the Will Rogers Gold Medallion Award, the Mississippi Author Award, the Benjamin Franklin Award, and three Florida Book Awards bronze medals. In addition to writing crime fiction, she writes about crime fiction, as evidenced by the Edgar, Agatha, Macavity, and HRF Keating Award-nominated Bloomsbury Handbook to Agatha Christie, co-edited with J.C. Bernthal. Bloomsbury will publish her Agatha Christie and the 20th Century Woman: Rewriting Female Justice in 2027.

Poet and educator Dorian Hairston encourages all writers—from his high school students to adults—to make their writing fresh and new. Dorian believes "if we can just find ways as artists to be interesting... we give ourselves a fighting chance at allowing love to blossom in our lives and surviving whatever we must." Keep your writing interesting with help from Dorian's favorite writing prompts. He uses these exercises in his own work as well as with students. About Dorian Hairston Dorian Hairston is a poet, educator, and former college athlete from Lexington, KY. His first collection of poetry, Pretend the Ball is Named Jim Crow, explores the life and legacy of Josh Gibson, the greatest catcher to play the game of baseball.  He is an Affrilachian Poet, and his work has appeared in Anthology of Appalachian Writers and Black Bone: 25 Years of the Affrilachian Poets. While he enjoys reading and writing poetry, what he loves most is cooking for his family, playing some good music, and dancing often.

On this special edition of the Prompt to Page writing podcast, we look back at some of our best moments so far.  Past guests—including Crystal Wilkinson, Gwenda Bond, Silas House, and Mariama Lockington—share tips on using writing prompts, finding time to write, nurturing your creativity, and more.

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.