A JCPL librarian interviews published writers about their favorite writing prompts. These exercises 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 motivation to keep writing.
Brought to you in partnership with the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning.
Listen to Episode 47
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. Listen below!
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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.