Each month, a JCPL librarian interviews published writers who share their favorite writing prompts. Whether you’re just getting started or have written for years, you’ll find ideas and advice to inspire you and help you become a better writer.
Prompt to Page is brought to you in partnership with the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning.
Listen to Episode 1
For our first episode, we talked to two poets with connections to both JCPL and the Carnegie Center: Kristina Erny and Jeremy Paden. Kristina and Jeremy share their favorite writing prompts, discuss their love of libraries, offer suggestions for getting started with prompts, and provide tips for sharing work and finding a community of writers.
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About Our Guests
Kristina Erny is a third-culture poet who grew up in South Korea. She holds an MFA from the University of Arizona. Her work has been the recipient of the Tupelo Quarterly Inaugural Poetry Prize and the Ruskin Art Club Poetry Award, and has been published by The Los Angeles Review, Yemassee, Bluestem, and Tupelo Quarterly, among other journals.
After over a decade of living as an expatriate abroad, she currently lives and teaches in Jessamine County, Kentucky, with her husband and three children.
Jeremy Paden is Professor of Spanish and Latin American literature at Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky and on faculty in translation at Spalding University’s low-residency MFA. world as sacred burning heart, his full-length collection of poems on the Spanish colonization of the Americas, was published in April of 2021.
Under the Ocelot Sun, a bilingual, illustrated children’s book, won the 2020 Ada-Campoy Prize for Children’s Literature from the North American Academy of Spanish Language. His bilingual collection of poems, Self-Portrait as an Iguana, which co-won the first Poet in New York Prize by Valparaíso USA, has just been published.
Resources
Jeremy recommends that you read and study the poem “Eviction” by Eavan Boland before attempting his prompt. The prompt can easily be adapted for fiction or nonfiction writers.
Kristina suggests visiting a local art gallery for writing inspiration. If you aren’t able to visit in person, check out 21C’s online gallery.
Listen to the podcast for the complete description of their prompts.
Join the Prompt to Page Writing Group
Tuesday, September 28, 6:00 PM
Spend time working on this month’s Prompt to Page podcast writing prompts, get feedback, and share writing tips with a community of other writers. Open to all writing levels.
Submit Your Writing
We’d love to see what you’re writing! Submit a response to the episode 1 prompts for a chance to have it read on a future episode of the podcast.