Prompt to Page With Martha Greenwald

Each month, we interview a published writer who shares their favorite writing prompt. 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 5

For our fifth episode, we talk to Martha Greenwald, the director of the WhoWeLost and WhoWeLostKY projects. The WhoWeLost projects serve as “a sheltering place for remembrance” for victims of COVID-19. Martha offers suggestions for writing memories about loved ones and explains how you can share your stories on the WhoWeLost websites.

She also provides a writing prompt suitable for all genres and topics that encourages writers to slow down and let their ideas develop. As she notes, “I’ve found some people really need to be slow and take their time with [writing]. So this is geared toward that idea that the slowness is okay.”

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About Our Guest

Photo of Martha Greenwald, a white woman with long, highlighted hair. She is leaning her face into her hand.Martha Greenwald is the Founding Director, creator, and curator of the WhoWeLost and WhoWeLostKY projects.  She is the author of the poetry collection Other Prohibited Items, which won the Mississippi Review Prize for Poetry. In 2020, she was the first prize winner of the Yeats Poetry Award. Her poems have appeared in Poetry, Rattle, Nurture, Slate, Best New Poets, The Threepenny Review, and numerous other journals. 

She has been both a Wallace Stegner and Pearl Hogrefe Fellow, has received fellowships from the Kentucky and North Carolina Arts Councils, and been supported by Yaddo and the Vermont Studio Center. She taught creative writing, literature, and ESL at the high school and college level for nearly twenty years. She’s teaching a new class at the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning and collaborating on a radio series with WUKY 91.3 that gives a voice to stories from the WhoWeLost websites.

Join the Prompt to Page Writing Group

Tuesday, Jan. 25, 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.

Registration is required.

Register for Remembering and Writing About Our Loved Ones

Part 1: Monday, Jan. 24, 6:00 PM

Writing is a healthy way to cope with grief, but it’s often hard to get started. In part one of this class, taught by the director of The WhoWeLost Project, we will learn how to write short remembrances of our loved ones. We will focus on the stories and details of their lives, whether they died due to the pandemic or other causes. All level writers welcome.

Registration is required.

Part 2: Monday, Jan. 31, 6:00 PM

In the second part of Remembering and Writing About Our Loved Ones, you’ll have the chance to share and receive feedback on the writing you began in part one.

Registration is required.

Submit Your Writing

We’d love to see what you’re writing! Submit a response to the episode prompt for a chance to have it read on a future episode of the podcast.