For our eighth episode, we talk to Marianne Worthington, author of The Girl Singerand co-founder and editor of Still: The Journal. Marianne offers tips for submitting your work to literary magazines, discusses her favorite writing prompt books, and shares a prompt that will inspire both poets and prose writers. 

Marianne also discusses her own path to publication. “Don’t give up because you know, I’m three weeks away from retiring from my day job, which I have had for 32 years,” she says. “And I’ve been teaching college students for 38 years, and only this year was my first full length poetry collection published. So don’t ever think it’s not going to happen.”

About Our GuestMarianne Worthington is co-founder and editor of Still: The Journal, an online literary magazine publishing writers, artists, and musicians with ties to Appalachia since 2009. Her work has appeared in Oxford American, CALYX, and Chapter 16 among other places. Her work has been supported by the Kentucky Arts Council and the Kentucky Foundation for Women.

She co-edited Piano in a Sycamore: Writing Lessons from the Appalachian Writers’ Workshop and is author of a poetry chapbook. Her poetry collection is The Girl Singer (University Press of Kentucky, 2021). Marianne grew up in Knoxville, Tennessee, and writes and teaches in southeast Kentucky.

Marianne’s Book Recommendations

• Ordinary Genius: A Guide for the Poet Within by Kim Addonizio
• The Poet’s Companion: A Guide to the Pleasures of Writing Poetry by Kim Addonizio and Dorianne Laux
• Write It!: 100 Poetry Prompts to Inspire by Jessica Jacobs and Nickole Brown

Submit

We’d love to see what you’re writing! Submit your response to Marianne’s prompt for a chance to have it read on a future episode of the podcast.