Prompt to Page

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.