Prompt to Page, Ep. 58: Mandi Fugate Sheffel Carrie: [00:00:00] Welcome to the Prompt to Page podcast, a partnership between the Jessamine County Public Library and the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning. I'm your host, librarian and poet Carrie Green. Each episode, we interview a published writer who shares their favorite writing prompt. Our guest today is Mandi Fugate Sheffel. Mandi was born and raised in Red Fox, Kentucky. She is a graduate of Eastern Kentucky University and is currently the Sycamore Fund Project Coordinator at the Foundation for Appalachian Kentucky. She is the Board Vice Chair of Mountain Association. Additionally, she owns and operates Read Spotted Newt, an independent bookstore in the coal fields of Eastern Kentucky. Her work can be found in Still: The Journal, Lexington Herald-Leader, Courier-Journal, Appalachian Review, Salon, and the anthology "Troublesome Rising: A Thousand [00:01:00] Year Flood in Eastern Kentucky." Her memoir, "The Nature of Pain," available now through the University Press of Kentucky, was voted one of the seven best new nonfiction books of October 2025 by Book Riot and was shortlisted for the 2025 James Patterson Bookshop.org Book Prize. Welcome, Mandi, and thanks so much for joining us. Mandi: Thanks for having me. I'm super excited to get to talk to you. Carrie: I have been wanting to hear about Read Spotted Newt, which, as you mentioned in your bio, you're the owner/operator of it. Can you talk about what made you wanna open the bookstore? Mandi: Sure. Yeah. Read Spotted Newt quickly became my legacy. I became known as the lady who owns the bookstore above all else. [Laughter] Which I'm- Carrie: Hey, Mandi: I mean, Carrie: if you're gonna be known for something, that's a pretty good thing. Mandi: Exactly. I'm not upset about it. Yeah. So, [00:02:00] I mean, obviously I opened in 2020, just months before the pandemic. That- Carrie: Mm-hmm ... Mandi: was not exactly in the business model. Carrie: Right. [Laughter] Mandi: But it has been of some benefit, I will say, actually. But I wanted a place, and this was after my first summer at the Appalachian Writers' Workshop, which I was kinda already thinking about it as a reader and a writer in the region with no real bookstore infrastructure. You know? We were taking trips to Lexington most of the time to get to visit a physical bookstore. And so, after that summer at Writers' Workshop, it just kinda cemented that idea for me that I was like, "Okay, we need this location. We need someone in the region to promote the literature, to offer the literature, to highlight the diversity of the region." Carrie: Mm-hmm. Mandi: Which is sometimes considered a monolith to some people, you know. And so- Carrie: Right ... Mandi: I wanted a place where all [00:03:00] that could sit together, a gathering place, a third space. And it has grown above and beyond anything I ever imagined. And the original space I was in on Main Street, we quickly grew out of and was in a new location. I opened in January, was in a new location by March, or, Carrie: Wow ... Mandi: November. So. Carrie: Yeah. That's great, especially given all that was happening at the time. Mandi: There was some flooding that happened pretty much immediately after I opened. And then the pandemic and really the funny part about that is, is that both of those things kinda highlighted the business outside of the region. I got some press coverage. And then having folks at home during COVID was a real captive audience, and I kinda shifted my model. I started delivering within the city limits. People were just kinda driving by like a drive-through bookstore and they were- Carrie: Yeah Mandi: ... ordering online. And so people were home more [00:04:00] and I think got back to reading and puzzles. Puzzles were huge during COVID. And so I just kinda shifted. With everything that happened, I would just shift the model and be like, "Okay, now I'm gonna have to do this for this to survive." And of course, folks that live in this region really wanted the bookstore to survive. So they were real intentional about supporting me, during COVID. Carrie: Yeah. That's great. It sounds like some of what we had to do as a library as well, you know, we were shut for several months, but then when we reopened, it was kind of a, you know, people would come curbside and we would give them the books, you know. So that's how we first started to reopen. So it is... And yeah, people were home reading more, I think. Mandi: Yeah. Carrie: You just mentioned the Appalachian Writers' Workshop, and I know that that was also really instrumental in [00:05:00] your development as a writer. Do you wanna talk about that, especially maybe for people outside the area who don't know about it? Mandi: Oh, yeah. I jump at every opportunity to sing its praises. So the Appalachian Writers' Workshop is at the Hindman Settlement School in Hindman, Kentucky. And this summer will actually be, the 49th year. Carrie: Wow. Mandi: We're doing a little planning for the 50th next year of the Writers' Workshop. Founded in... Well, it was a group of writers, Albert Stewart, Gurney Norman, Jim Wayne Miller, just to name a few, were really instrumental in starting this. And, you know, I don't have a lot of experience in workshops outside of the Appalachian Writers Workshop, but what I have found in that community is a community that is really welcoming and encouraging, and you can have someone as an [00:06:00] instructor one year and then they'll be sitting next to you as a student the next year. And so it's not a lot of ego, a lot of willingness to lift up Appalachian voices, which I think is critical, again, when I go back to highlighting what's special about this region that people outside of this region may not understand. And so highlighting all the voices and all the stories and realizing that they're all important. And, it's a really magical week and place. Silas House refers to it as a thin place, which I always love. And, you know, it's situated, it's not even like out in this remote part of Knott County. It's literally right in downtown Hindman, so. But it feels like you're on an island when you're there that week. We rarely leave campus and everything we need is there, and so we're all just kind of there together. And it's my favorite week of the year. It's like adult summer camp. I [00:07:00] look forward to it every year, and some people I only see there, you know? But it's pretty special and, you know, that's where I signed this book deal. I don't, well, I'm pretty positive if it weren't for the Appalachian Writers Workshop, I wouldn't have had the opportunity to publish. Or it would've been a lot more challenging, I think. Carrie: Right. Right. Yeah. Well, that's, that's wonderful, and we're so glad that people have that opportunity. And I think having attended some workshops myself, I do think that is a rare experience of collegiality. It's not always like that. Mandi: Yes. That's my understanding also. Once I learned that, I decided not to venture too far away. [Laughter] Carrie: Yeah, absolutely. So I heard you speak on another podcast about the fact that you didn't intend to write a book when you first started [00:08:00] writing, that you were kind of journaling as a way of holding onto your memories and working through some stuff. What made you ultimately realize, and maybe it had to do with going to the Writers Workshop, that you wanted to share your story with a larger audience? Mandi: Yeah. So exactly that. I was, you know, I was processing some grief and had kinda just used the practice of writing in recovery early on. Knowing that there's a freedom when things are out on the page, that it tends to stop in your head when you physically can get it down on paper. So it was a practice that I had utilized a lot early in recovery, and of course had been a journaler my whole life. I actually went to see Gurney Norman, a Kentucky writer, who we lost in October, critical part of the writing community in Kentucky. I went to see him at the Hazard Community College in April of [00:09:00] 2019 for Poetry Month. It was a tribute to a poet out of Whitesburg who had passed. And so I go to a reading, it's the first time I had met him, first time I had seen him read live. And we strike up a conversation after. Gurney is super interested in where you come from and who your people are, especially if you're from Eastern Kentucky. That's kind of like our connection point. And so I was explaining to him that, I told him I was from Red Fox. We started talking about Carr Creek High School basketball, and I tell him about my grandpa playing. He asked me if I had written down any of these stories that my grandpa had told me, and I hadn't, and regretfully at this point. But I was like, "You know, I have some things that I write." You know, it's not, I wouldn't have called myself a writer at that point. But he was like, "I'd love to read that." And so I go home, send him this very rough, like, stream of consciousness [00:10:00] mess of a, of a document that, ignorance was bliss at that, 'cause I would never send that out now. So I send it to Gurney, and within a couple of hours he emails me back and has picked out lines that, and he's like, "You know, this is a strong voice. You've described this in a way I've never heard anybody describe it. We gotta get you to the Appalachian Writers Workshop." Carrie: Wow. Mandi: And so, you know, I think submissions had probably already closed at that point, and, he... I sent in a draft and he was instrumental in getting me in. Carrie: That's great. Mandi: And that's pretty much where that started. And then just having that workshopped and fine-tuning it and getting it to where it was readable, where I felt comfortable having people read it. [Laughter] Carrie: Yeah. Mandi: And I workshopped it for years at Hindman before, UPK[00:11:00] was interested. But I think it was there and in that moment that I was like, "Okay, I will call myself a writer." Carrie: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And that's so generous of him, too, to have been so encouraging and welcoming. Mandi: Yeah. And you know what? I thought, I mean, if Gurney Norman said that it was readable and something that people were interested in, I was inclined to believe him. [Laughter] Carrie: Absolutely. Mandi: And so I think that gave me, 'cause I had imposter syndrome. It was just, and still do. But, you know, that gave me a level of confidence that I was able to go because he believed in the work. And so I did, too. And I later found out that I wasn't unique in that, that he'd been doing this for years. That there, they had a celebration at UK called Gurney Fest to kinda celebrate his legacy and work and just one person after another gets on the stage [00:12:00] and talks about Gurney did this, and I'm like, "Oh, I'm not unique in this way at all." Like, he's been doing this for years. And I think it was Crystal Wilkinson who called him the Johnny Appleseed of Appalachian writers. Carrie: Oh, wow. Mandi: And so- Carrie: Yeah ... Mandi: I could see his legacy just, it continues on because then that kinda instilled in me that to be a good citizen of this literary community is like, who do I encourage to go to Hindman? Whose voice sounds unique to me? And so then his legacy lives on in that way through all the people he's been able to influence. Carrie: Yeah. Yeah, and I think, you know, I think a lot of people outside Kentucky don't realize what a strong writing community we have. But yeah, it is people like that who are instilling that community, I guess. Mandi: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. I think it, you know, Gurney and, and Wendell Berry, Bobbie Ann Mason, James Baker Hall, Ed McClanahan, like these are the fab five that I think [00:13:00] really brought us into, to present day Appalachian literature, you know? Without, you know, forgetting about James Still and Jesse Stuart and- Carrie: Right ... Mandi: and kind of the founders. But it seemed like those five were the ones that kind of shifted the way people thought about literature in Kentucky. Carrie: Yeah. So you have talked about your journaling process. Do you, have you used prompts as well? Has that been a part of your writing process? Mandi: So I really, it wasn't until I started going to workshops that I really started to use prompts. And I will admit, I don't use 'em often because I tend to know when I go to the page what needs to come out. I tend to know that, but have also been pleasantly surprised in workshops when I utilize prompts, what comes out that, that maybe wouldn't. [00:14:00] You know? And so, and I will if I'm stuck, it will help to keep things going. I will use prompts just to keep the rhythm going. So I'm not an avid prompt user, I will say, but I have never I've never had someone give me a prompt or used one that I thought this was pointless. [Laughter] That has never happened, so. Carrie: Right. Mandi: So I think it's an excellent practice. Carrie: So would you like to share your favorite prompt? Mandi: Sure. So I think this one was in a workshop with Darnell Arnoult, and I think I had a piece come out of this that ended up being in the-- It wasn't in "The Troublesome Rising" anthology about the flood, but it was in the companion website. I think it ended up being published there. So there was something that came out of this that was published. But she had us, [00:15:00] after the first class, like the last 10 minutes of class, we kind of separated out, went to a space, and just quickly listed five to 10 memories. And this can be dependent on how much time you have. I think we did 10. Just to quickly list the first memories that come to your mind. And with the idea that maybe you start early, perhaps the first memory that you have, and then, and then kind of come forward. And organize them in bullet points, couple of sentences, and really just the memory as a snapshot. Don't spend more than two or three minutes on it. And really let the memories come to the top. Like don't overanalyze, don't let your interior editor come out and stop you. Nobody's seeing this list but you. And to describe those, and then when you have that list, circle the memory that has [00:16:00] the highest energy and the one that has the lowest energy. And the definition of energy is kind of up to you. It may be that the one with the highest energy came really quickly and with a lot of detail, and maybe the one with the lowest would require a little more digging maybe. And once you have those two memories circled out of the 10, you set a timer and you freewrite about both of them. And so you freewrite 10 minutes for the highest energy memory that you have. And in freewriting, you don't let your pen come off the page, or you don't stop typing. Even if you get to a spot where you're stuck and things are not really flowing, maybe have some- something that you repeat, a word or a sentence, like, "I don't know what comes next," or thinking, thinking, thinking. You know, as long as you keep, you got to keep writing in that moment. And then [00:17:00] immediately following that, you pick the lowest energy and you write for 15 minutes on that. Carrie: Okay. Mandi: And so with the rationale that any memory that's able to surface has to be significant among your whole lifetime of memories. You think about all the different things that could be on that list. Carrie: Mm-hmm. Mandi: And to make it to the top 10, it has to have some level of significance. And then after that, you know, ideally something comes out of either one of those- and it can be used. I'm primarily a nonfiction writer, so this was really appealing to me. But I could see how it could be useful in any form. And it, and really when you sit down, I could sit down today and do this prompt, and it would be 10 different things than if I sat down tomorrow and did it. Carrie: Right. Mandi: So it just feels like an unlimited amount of material. And even if you sit down and do it once, [00:18:00] you've got the two that you've identified, but then there are eight more there that you can write on. Carrie: Yeah. Mandi: For a very quick exercise. Carrie: Yeah. So, I mean, I think it's really interesting that you're doing the highest and the lowest energy. What have you found in, like, is there a difference when you're writing both of those? Or do you realize that, oh, it's not as low energy as I thought? I mean... Mandi: Yeah, and I think for me, the ones that I consider low energy are, and, you know, especially in nonfiction, in looking at personal memory, the low energy ones are the ones maybe that I'm not quite ready to visit. Carrie: Yeah. Mandi: Like it's things that I'm reluctant to write about, and I'm like, "Oh, and this happened." Carrie: Mm-hmm. Mandi: You know? And then, and I think that's, that's the intent when she gave the prompt where you spend more time writing about the low energy one. And I think that's kind of the realization that it's like, oh no, actually [00:19:00] this is the memory where you have the potential to go a little deeper. And just being really intentional about when it comes time to, to write, to focus on sensory also. To make sure that... And it seems like the more you do it, the more it opens up, like the more you're willing to write. And, and I think in her particular class, we weren't allowed to use punctuation. So we just had to say and, then, but, like we just had to write with no punctuation. Which is really freeing, you know? That's the first time that I had ever done that. And it was a micro class, like, you know, trying to get things down to like 500 words for micro fiction and nonfiction submissions, which I enjoyed. Carrie: Mm-hmm. Mandi: You know, I really feel like there's a sweet spot for me in shorter pieces. Carrie: Mm-hmm. Mandi: 1,000 to 1,200 [00:20:00] words seems like the sweet spot for me. So it was really appealing to me. Carrie: And I think focusing on keeping it shorter probably forces you to pay attention to the details that you're including and, you know, maybe getting rid of some of the stuff that doesn't need to be there. Mandi: Yeah. Yeah, there's no time to linger when you're writing a piece like that. Carrie: Yeah. Or focusing on a particular moment or- Mandi: Yeah ... what, Carrie: I mean, it's almost like writing, more like writing a poem than- Mandi: Exactly. Carrie: Yeah. You mentioned you might have another prompt. Did you wanna talk about that as well? Mandi: Sure. Yeah. Of course, that one was the first one that came to mind just because I've gone back and used that quite a bit. And I will say also that one thing that I didn't even write down that I utilized a lot, even for the book, was music and photographs. Those were two big ones for me, and I think those are kinda [00:21:00] self-explanatory, and I guess that's why I didn't note that as something for us to talk about. But I was really amazed at how a photograph could open up memories that weren't even associated with the photograph. Carrie: Okay. Yeah. Mandi: You know, I could look at pictures of my family and not pay attention to the focal point, which would be, like, me or my dad or, you know, when I was writing about him, and I could look past that to, like, what's sitting on the coffee table, and then a whole other flood of memories would come. So-I think it's super useful to use photographs. And then, I have a really strong connection to memory and music. And so those, both of those were pretty instrumental in, for "The Nature of Pain" when I would be like, "What do I..." Because it, you know, it wasn't a comprehensive memoir, obviously. It was intended to be written about a particular time and topic. And so when trying to figure out what I wanted to [00:22:00] include and where I needed to go next, I utilized that a lot. But- that is not what I have written down. Carrie: Well, that's okay. Mandi: So I had Neema Avashia, who is a writer from West Virginia who wrote a great memoir called "Another Appalachia." I had Neema at Hindman, and we came into class one day and she had us write down a list of five things, and this was probably like a 9:00 AM class. Five things that had happened to us or that we had seen from the time we woke up to the time we got to class. And so for most of us, that wasn't a very significant amount of time. Carrie: Mm-hmm. Mandi: But the things that came out of that, the things that happen all around us all the time that maybe we're not paying attention to, and I think as writers that's huge, is our ability to pay attention in every moment to every detail. And some of [00:23:00] it is just that's naturally what we're doing all the time, but also knowing that there are times where you have to be really intentional about that. And so I thought a lot about my friends who are writers that incorporate movement into their routine. Whether that be hiking or taking a walk. I have a good friend who mountain bikes, and if she's stuck on a sentence, that's where she goes. She goes and gets on her bike. And then just that movement and the ability to let your mind focus, you know, that you're not focusing on one thing. Like it's kind of like how it happens when you're in the shower or you're driving. Carrie: Yeah. [Laughter] Mandi: So kind of with that thought in mind that to incorporate movement into your process and that being a time, or even at the end of the day if you don't have time, if you don't have that in your process, to write a list of five things or of people [00:24:00] or just objects that you've seen in the last 12 hours. Circle the one that, that interests you the most, and then just go into a deep description of that. I mean, like detail, time of day, temperature, texture, smell, you know, and the more specific the better, obviously. And then once you have those physical details or sensory details to go a level deeper and write about thought, emotion, memory, whatever that object or person brings up that may have nothing to do with how you saw it that day. Could be a honeysuckle bush on your walk, and it has a smell and a color, and you may write about where you saw it. But then when you go a level deeper, that honeysuckle may bring up a memory from 30 years ago that has nothing to do with the walk that you were just on. Carrie: Right. Mandi: So using things outside of ourselves, because I think a [00:25:00] lot of times we think internally for prompts. Like, it's like what internally is happening, but how we can use things outside of ourself when we pay that deep attention. Carrie: Yeah. Mandi: And of course, that opens it up a lot more for poetry, fiction, essay. I think this one lends more. And as a journaling mechanism, because I had someone tell me, I think we think of, or I had always thought of journaling as this internal thing. Carrie: Mm-hmm. Mandi: A kind of, a summary of my thoughts and feelings of the day. And when in actuality it could be the things that I've noticed that make my voice unique as a writer. That I may have noticed somebody's shoes when they come into the bookstore. That I'm like, "Oh, you know, I like those shoes." And that wouldn't be something you would think that you would put in your journal at the end of the day. But using that object and then being able to pull from it later. [00:26:00] Carrie: Yeah. Mandi: If I'm gonna try to write fiction, that may be my main character's favorite shoes. Carrie: Yeah. Yeah, I think that's a great way of training yourself to pay attention to those details. Mandi: And I think one thing that I wish I were better at is just, I think the language of Appalachia and Eastern Kentucky is beautiful. The way we speak, the way we phrase things. Mm-hmm. And, and there's not, there's not a day that doesn't go by that I'm not in line or somewhere at the grocery store or at the bookstore or in, at work on a Zoom, that somebody doesn't say something that I'm like, "Man, that's good." That turn of phrase is good, the way they said that is good. Their pronunciation of whatever word. And, I would like to have a whole... [Laughter] I wish I had a journal full of that. Carrie: Yeah. Mandi: But I'm really horrible about writing it down, 'cause I just, like, clock it and then move on. Carrie: Right. [Laughter] Mandi: So. [00:27:00] Carrie: Yeah. That's great. Well, do you have any final writing tips you'd like to give our listeners? Mandi: I don't think so. Obviously the, the takeaway is to take good notes, which I- ... is one that I need to take away from this podcast. [Laughter] Carrie: Yeah. Mandi: 'cause I think, oftentimes I'm like, "Oh, I'll know, I'll remember this." Like, this is significant enough, and then I don't, you know, because it's kind of just like the routine of the day or the mundane. What feels like is the mundane, but really is, like, the good stuff- Carrie: Yeah ... Mandi: when you're diligent about note-taking and paying attention because what you recognize in a moment is significant as a writer. I think that's, that's something that I had to learn is, like, if I'm, if I'm at a, if I'm at a party and, and I'm kinda mingling around at a social event, you know, what I recognize maybe [00:28:00] is not what everybody else is seeing. And that's where voice comes from, and why it's significant. Carrie: Yeah. And I think even just, you know, like, if you have a sibling and you're remembering a particular event, you always remember different things about- Mandi: Exactly ... Carrie: the event, so I think that's natural to humans as well. Mandi: Yeah. Carrie: Yeah. Well, thank you so much for joining us, Mandi. We really appreciate it. Mandi: Thank you. Thanks for having me. Carrie: Thank you for listening to Prompt to Page. To learn more about the Jessamine County Public Library, visit jesspublib.org. Find the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning at carnegiecenterlex.org. Our music is by Archipelago, an all-instrumental musical collaboration between three Lexington-based [00:29:00] university professors. Find out more about Archipelago: Songs from Quarantine Volumes 1 and 2 at the links on our podcast website