Prompt to Page Authors

These authors have appeared on the Prompt to Page writing podcast!

Each month, a JCPL librarian interviews a published writer about 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.

Updated November 21, 2024
Jessamine County Public Library
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\"In her powerful debut, Kristina Erny questions whether sustenance will come in the desert places in her faith and what it might mean to journey forward anyway. In meditations set within imagery in 1 Kings, Erny borrows the voices of long-dead prophets, widows, and ravens to explore her own contemporary faith-life, becoming the angel nudging herself forward. Everyday human moments of grief, longing, desire, and doubt sit alongside celebrations of simple life.\"

Tell Me What You See
Terena Elizabeth Bell
Paper Book
Tell Me What You See is a collection of ten experimental short stories about coronavirus quarantines, climate change, the January 6th invasion on the US Capitol, and other events from 2020-2021. Written in both word and image, pieces from the collection have been called "&...
I loved you in another life
Arnold, David
Paper Book
A USA Today bestseller! A poignant love story about two teens whose souls come together time and again through the ages--for fans of Nina LaCour and Matt Haig. Evan Taft has plans. Take a gap year in Alaska, make sure his little brother and single mother...
Mosquitoland
Arnold, David
Paper Book
"Top-notch" --USA Today "Illuminating" --Washington Post "A breath of fresh air" --Entertainment Weekly "Memorable" --People   After the sudden collapse of her family, Mim Malone is dragged from her home in...
Painted Daydreams
Beck, Elizabeth
Ebook
Every bone a prayer
Blooms, Ashley
Paper Book
"Blooms has taken the voice and names of Appalachia, tended, and evolved them, and created a book that is at once haunting and hopeful."--NPR Praised by BuzzFeed, Good Housekeeping, POPSUGAR, Bustle, and more! Misty's holler looks like any of the thousands of hollers that fork...
Where I can't follow : a novel
Blooms, Ashley
Paper Book
"Haunting and hopeful...a magic so vivid it feels more like a memory than a work of fiction."--Alix E. Harrow, New York Times bestselling author of The Once and Future Witches NAMED A MOST-ANTICIPATED BOOK BY Good Housekeeping, Gizmodo, Den of Geek, Tor.com, and more! Walk through...
Mr. & Mrs. Witch : a novel
Bond, Gwenda
Paper Book
Savannah Wilde is a witch, a very powerful one--an identity that only her fellow witches know. Following a whirlwind romance that surprised herself and her family, Savvy is all set to marry the love of her life. But she isn't the only one with a secret that needs to be kept, even from her soon-to-be...
Suspicious minds
Bond, Gwenda
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * If you think you know the truth behind Dr. Brenner's experiments at Hawkins Laboratory, prepare to have your mind turned Upside Down in the first official Stranger Things novel--"the prequel story that fans have been waiting for" (Kirkus Reviews<...
Breakfast Served Anytime
Combs, Sarah.
Ebook
A coming-of-age debut evokes the bittersweet joys and pangs of finding independence in one unforgettable summer away at "geek camp." When Gloria sets out to spend the summer before her senior year at a camp for gifted and talented students, she doesn't know quite what to...
Martians don't take temperatures
Dadey, Debbie.
Paper Book
The Bailey School kids are suspicious of the new school nurse, whose bright green bandages seem to have an instant healing effect.
Mermaids don't run track
Dadey, Debbie.
Paper Book
The running coach at Camp Lone Wolf is a beautiful woman who looks just like the mermaid the kids have seen in a picture. Will the campers run across the truth as they practise for the big running race?
True Ghost Stories and Eerie Legends from America's Most Haunted Neighborhood
Domine, David
Paper Book
The most haunted neighborhood in America? That's what many are calling Old Louisville, an extensive preservation district with hundreds of old mansions and beautiful homes in Kentucky's largest city. Wherever you go in this eye-popping neighborhood, it seems that a haunted house is not far away. Or...
A dark room in Glitter Ball City : murder, secrets, and scandal in Old Louisville
Dominé, David
Paper Book
This true crime saga--with an eccentric Southern backdrop--introduces the reader to the story of a murder in a crumbling Louisville mansion and the decades of secrets and corruption that live within the old house's walls. On June 18, 2010, police discover a body buried in the...
Weedeater : an illustrated novel
Gipe, Robert
Paper Book
A finalist for the 2019 Weatherford Award in Fiction, Weedeater  is a contemporary story of love and loss told by a pair of eastern Kentucky mountaineers: Gene, the lovelorn landscaper who bears witness to the misadventures of a family entangled in drugs, artmaking, and politics, a...
Trampoline : an illustrated novel
Gipe, Robert.
Paper Book
Dawn Jewell is fifteen. She is restless, curious, and wry. She listens to Black Flag, speaks her mind, and joins her grandmother's fight against mountaintop removal mining almost in spite of herself. "I write by ear," says Robert Gipe, and Dawn's voice is the essence of his debut novel,...
Who we lost : a portable COVID memorial
Greenwald, Martha (Poet)
Paper Book
Who We Lost is the first book that directly acknowledges the free-floating grief of the COVID-bereaved, affirms that it must be addressed, and offers a purposeful activity that respects mourners as well as the mourned.  In 2020, Martha Greenwald invited mourners to...
Swiss vendetta
De Hahn, Tracee
Paper Book
Swiss Vendetta, Tracee de Hahn's mesmerizing debut, is an emotionally complex, brilliantly plotted mystery set against the beautiful but harsh backdrop of a Swiss winter. Inspector Agnes Lüthi, a Swiss-American police officer in Lausanne, Switzerland, has just...
The magnetic girl : a novel
Handler, Jessica
Ebook
Not here to stay friends
Hill, Kaitlyn
Paper Book
Two childhood best friends reunite in L.A. the summer before senior year-but when one of them ends up starring on a teen reality dating show, their feelings for each other get complicated. Perfect for fans of friends-to-lovers rom-coms and The Bachelor! Sloane McKinney...
Wild about you
Hill, Kaitlyn
Paper Book
Two total opposites. One race through the Great Outdoors. In this grumpy-sunshine teen romance from the author of Love from Scratch and Not Here to Stay Friends, the trail to true love doesn't always come with a map. Natalie Hart has always been loud, unfiltered,...
Lark ascending : a novel
House, Silas
Paper Book
Winner of the Southern Book Prize ​for Fiction * Winner of a Nautilus Award (Gold)​ A timely, powerful story of survival set in the not-too-distant future that Margaret Renkl (Late Migrations) calls "a beautiful book...shot through with...
Southernmost : a novel
House, Silas
Paper Book
"A novel for our time, a courageous and necessary book." --Jennifer Haigh, author of Heat and Light In this stunning novel about judgment, courage, heartbreak, and change, author Silas House wrestles with the limits of belief and the infinite ways to...
When stars rain down : a novel
Jackson-Brown, Angela
Paper Book
Opal is an eighteen-year-old Black woman working as a housekeeper in a small Southern town in the 1930s--and then the Klan descends. A moving story that confronts America's tragic past, When Stars Rain Down is both heartwarming and heart-wrenching. The summer of 1936 in...
Wake the bones
Kilcoyne, Elizabeth
Paper Book
The sleepy little farm that Laurel Early grew up on has awakened. The woods are shifting, the soil is dead under her hands, and her bone pile just stood up and walked away. After dropping out of college, all she wanted was to resume her life as a tobacco hand and taxidermist and try not to think...
My Withered Legs and Other Essays
Lambert, Sandra Gail
Paper Book
My Withered Legs and Other Essays is a collection of personal essays by Sandra Gail Lambert that reflects upon her experience becoming a writer alongside discussions of disability, queerness, and aging. A seventy-year history of disability is threaded throughout these essays and...
Forever is now
Lockington, Mariama
Paper Book
I'm safe here. That's how Sadie feels in her girlfriend's arms on a perfect Summer day. But then her girlfriend suddenly breaks up with Sadie. Moments later, she witnesses a scene of police brutality, which upends what now feels like a mirage of security. I'm not safe anywhere. That's how Sadie...
In the key of us
Lockington, Mariama
Paper Book
In Grand Rapids, Michigan, Andi is grappling with grief following the death of her mother. Zora is exhausted by trying to please her success-oriented parents. Both feel very much alone. Until a summer music camp brings them together.The only two Black girls at camp in a sea of white children, Andi...
Many-Storied House Poems
Lyon, George Ella
Ebook
Born in the small, eastern Kentucky coal-mining town of Harlan, George Ella Lyon began her career with Mountain, a chapbook of poems. She has since published many more books in multiple genres and for readers of all ages, but poetry remains at the heart of her work. Many-Storied House<...
Football triple threat
Maddox, Jake
Paper Book
Michael has the speed to be a great wide receiver, but he struggles to consistently catch passes. The defensive coach sees potential in Michael's speed and has him try his hand at defensive back. Then the head coach puts Michael on special teams to return kicks. Michael is grateful for all of the...
Lacrosse legend
Maddox, Jake
Paper Book
Eager to follow in his father's footsteps, Ramon Hill wants nothing more than to be a starting attacker on his lacrosse team. But his dreams don't go as planned, and he's moved to a different position. Playing as a midfielder lets Ramon put his skills and talent to best use, but he can't help but...
The Occupation
McCoy, Jay
Paper Book
In these formally assured, richly alive poems, Jay McCoy shows us the body untamed, 'brimming / with sweat' and 'musk-ripe, ' driven by hunger and need, slipping beyond will and art. I admire these poems for their candor, their exuberant lyricism, their grief, their vibrant, queer vernacular. The...
Beware the tall grass : A Novel
Morris, Ellen Birkett
The Jordan Prize-winning Novel of 2023
Lost Girls: Short Stories
Morris, Ellen Birkett
Paper Book
Lost Girls is a collection of stories that explores the experiences of women and girls as they grieve, find love, face uncertainty, take a stand, find their future and say goodbye to the past. It is a chronicle of the female experience at a time when the experiences of women and girls are being...
Two brown dots
Quintos, Danni
Paper Book
Selected by Aimee Nezhukumatathil as the winner of the A. Poulin, Jr. Poetry Prize, Danni Quintos carves a space for brown girls and weird girls in her debut collection of poems. Two Brown Dots explores what it means to be a racially ambiguous, multiethnic, Asian American...
The lucky ones
Reisz, Tiffany
Paper Book
They called themselves "the lucky ones" They were seven children either orphaned or abandoned by their parents and chosen by legendary philanthropist and brain surgeon Dr. Vincent Capello to live in The Dragon, his almost magical beach house on the Oregon Coast. Allison was the youngest...
The pearl
Reisz, Tiffany
Paper Book
When Lord Arthur Godwick learns his younger brother is up to his bollocks in debt to Regan Ferry, owner of The Pearl Hotel, he agrees to work off the tab?in her bed. Soon the handsome but troubled Arthur discovers he's a pawn in an erotic game of revenge-and nothing, including his lover, is what it...
The navigating fox
Rowe, Christopher
Paper Book
The Navigating Fox is a fantastical fable of "knowledgeable creatures", in the vein of Brian Jacques's Redwall series but for adults, by Hugo and Nebula Award finalist Christopher Rowe"Half fable, half caper, and a pure joy to read."--Holly Black, New York Times bestselling author of Book of Night...
These prisoning hills
Rowe, Christopher
Paper Book
"Haunting and heartfelt, violent and vibrant."--Alix E. HarrowDeallocate all implications,Fortran harrows all the nations. In a long-ago war, the all-powerful A.I. ruler of the Voluntary State of Tennessee--Athena Parthenus, Queen of Reason--invaded and decimated the American Southeast. Possessing...
Feel the Bern
Shaffer, Andrew
Paper Book
Who knew fighting for a living wage could be so deadly? Bernie Sanders and his Gen Z intern are drawn into a murder investigation in a small Vermont town in this hilarious spin on cozy mysteries from the New York Times bestselling author of Hope Never Dies: An Obama Biden Mystery<...
Secret Santa
Shaffer, Andrew
Paper Book
The Office meets Stephen King, dressed up in holiday tinsel, in this fun, festive, and frightening horror-comedy set during the horror publishing boom of the '80s, by New York Times best-selling satirist Andrew Shaffer. Out of work for months, Lussi Meyer is...
The wishing game : a novel
Shaffer, Meg
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER * Years ago, a reclusive mega-bestselling children's author quit writing under mysterious circumstances. Suddenly he resurfaces with a brand-new book and a one-of-a-kind competition, offering a prize that will change the winner's life in this absorbing and whimsical novel....
Tiffany Reisz uses the pen name Meg Shaffer for this series.
Second Skin
Stoykova, Katerina
Ebook
Between a Bird Cage and a Bird House Poems
Stoykova, Katerina.
The fall of the Iron Curtain in the early 1990s ushered in a new tide of European immigrants to the United States. These populations, which hailed primarily from Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, were largely adrift in America's cultural melting pot. Laden with their belongings and...
Mother country : a novel
Townsend, Jacinda
Paper Book
Saddled with student loans, medical debt, and the sudden news of her infertility after a major car accident, Shannon, an African American woman, follows her boyfriend to Morocco in search of relief. There, in the cobblestoned medina of Marrakech, she finds a toddler in a pink jacket whose face...
Saint monkey : a novel
Townsend, Jacinda.
Paper Book
Fourteen-year-old Audrey Martin, with her Poindexter glasses and her head humming the 3/4 meter of gospel music, knows she'll never get out of Kentucky--but when her fingers touch the piano keys, the whole church trembles. Her best friend, Caroline, daydreams about Hollywood stardom, but both girls...
Drowned town
Waldrop, Jayne Moore
Paper Book
"They had been told their sacrifice was for the public good. They were never told how much they would miss it, or for how long." Drowned Town explores the multigenerational impact caused by the loss of home and illuminates the joys and sorrows of a group of people bound...
The animators : a novel
Whitaker, Kayla Rae
Paper Book
"A wildly original novel that pulses with heart and truth . . . That this powerful exploration of friendship, desire, ambition, and secrets manages to be ebullient, gripping, heartbreaking, and deeply deeply funny is a testament to Kayla Rae Whitaker's formidable gifts. I was so sorry to...
Perfect Black
Wilkinson, Crystal
Paper Book
2022 NAACP Image Award Winner Crystal Wilkinson combines a deep love for her rural roots with a passion for language and storytelling in this compelling collection of poetry and prose about girlhood, racism, and political awakening, imbued with vivid imagery of growing up in...
Praisesong for the kitchen ghosts : stories and recipes from five generations of black country cooks
Wilkinson, Crystal
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER . A lyrical culinary journey that explores the hidden legacy of Black Appalachians, throughpowerful storytelling alongside nearly forty comforting recipes, from the former poetlaureate of Kentucky."With Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts,...
The girl singer : poems
Worthington, Marianne
Paper Book
Feminism, Appalachian culture, and country music: three threads beautifully woven into one in Marianne Worthington's poetry collection The Girl Singer. The poet grew up in urban Appalachia, listening to country and folk music and letting it live within her. The speakers in The...

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