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Prompt to Page with Tammy Oberhausen

A JCPL librarian interviews published writers about their favorite writing prompts—exercises that can help inspire, focus, and improve your creative writing.

Whether you’re a beginner or a pro, a novelist, essayist, or poet, you’ll find ideas and advice to motivate you to keep writing. 

Brought to you in partnership with the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning.

Listen to Episode 42

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. Listen below!

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Reading “Rednecks” by Taylor Brown

Books & Bites Podcast, Ep. 99

JCPL librarians bring you book recommendations and discuss the bites and beverages to pair with them.

Join our discussion of Rednecks by Taylor Brown, winner of the 2025 Southern Book Prize! On this episode, Michael Cunningham, Carrie Green, and guest John David Hurley share their thoughts on this novel about the West Virginia Mine Wars of 1920-1921.

Want to talk with other book lovers about the book? Register for our in-person book club discussion of Rednecks, which will take place on Tuesday, March 18 at 6:30 pm.

If you're participating in Winter-Spring Books & Bites Bingo, you can earn another free square by reading the book and either listening to this episode or attending the book club.

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Getting Started with African American Genealogy

Celebrate Black History Month by researching your African American family history!

To research your African American roots back to 1870, the process will be the same as anyone else's.

Genealogy is a little like detective work. You have to piece together information about your family, working backwards through time and using resources such as interviews with family members, birth certificates, family Bibles, obituaries, and other records.

more: Getting Started with African American Genealogy

Prompt to Page with Amelia Zachry

A JCPL librarian interviews published writers about their favorite writing prompts—exercises that can help inspire, focus, and improve your creative writing.

Whether you’re a beginner or a pro, a novelist, essayist, or poet, you’ll find ideas and advice to motivate you to keep writing. 

Brought to you in partnership with the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning.

Listen to Episode 41

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." Listen below!

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Rad Reads

Books & Bites Podcast, Ep. 98

JCPL librarians bring you book recommendations and discuss the bites and beverages to pair with them.

This month we're getting nostalgic with books set in the 1990s, one of the prompts in the Winter-Spring Books & Bites Bingo reading challenge.

Teenagers all figure prominently in our picks: a YA mystery, a thriller that celebrates horror's babysitter trope, and a novel where two teens accidentally start a moral panic.

Don't miss this episode—it's the bomb!

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Prompt to Page with Jessica Handler

A JCPL librarian interviews published writers about their favorite writing prompts—exercises that can help inspire, focus, and improve your creative writing.

Whether you’re a beginner or a pro, a novelist, essayist, or poet, you’ll find ideas and advice to motivate you to keep writing. 

Brought to you in partnership with the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning.

Listen to Episode 40

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 writing 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. Listen below!

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Get Cozy with Wintry Reads

Books & Bites Podcast, Ep. 97

JCPL librarians bring you book recommendations and discuss the bites and beverages to pair with them.

Start the new year with the Winter-Spring Books & Bites Bingo reading challenge! We hope our prompts will inspire you to read and have fun while doing it.

Up first, we share wintry books perfect for reading by the fire. Our picks include an Irish Christmas story, a horror novel set in a Pennsylvania orphanage, and a YA fairy tale.

Enjoy a hot beverage while you read and you can cross two squares off your bingo card. Listen below!

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