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.

About Kevin Holm-Hudson

Singer-songwriter and covers revivalist Dr. Kevin Holm-Hudson holds a genuine earned doctoral degree in music composition, which he has frittered away ever since writing songs instead of symphonies. 

By day he is Professor of Music Theory at the University of Kentucky; evenings and weekends, he writes and sings songs about desperate characters, disasters, dogs, and Pablo Casals, both as a solo performer and with his band Dr. Kevin Holm-Hudson & The Adjuncts.

His eclectic musical style is best described as indie-folk with numerous influences ranging from Americana to psych. His albums have been nominated for Album of the Year in the Lexington Music Awards, Appalachian Arts & Entertainment (APPY) Awards, and the Nashville-based Josie Awards.
 

His latest album is Travelers Rest, released in February 2025. All of his albums are available to stream and purchase at kevin-holm-hudson.bandcamp.com

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.