Written by Camille White \/\/ Photo by Macy Cox<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This past summer, two Harding students published their first books. Senior Kayln Epperson wrote a children\u2019s book, \u201cHello Hospital,\u201d <\/em>and graduate student Karrisa Neal wrote a poetry book, \u201cThe Things I Never Said.\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Epperson, a senior child life major and president of the Family and Consumer Sciences Student Association, said she started writing her book in May, and it was published July 29. \u201cHello Hospital\u201d <\/em>is an informational book for children. It includes pictures, graphics and descriptions of common medical equipment and personnel they might encounter in the hospital. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI did a practicum this summer, which is like a mini internship, and there were so many kids that I would talk to and they would be like, \u2018I just don\u2019t know what\u2019s going on,\u2019\u201d Epperson said. \u201cThe next thing I know, the Lord is having me writing all these thoughts down, and next thing I know I was writing a book about how to explain the hospital to children.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Epperson said she used Canva Pro to design and Amazon to self-publish her book. Additionally, she said that her next book, \u201cHello Jesus,\u201d <\/em>is already written, and she is currently working on a children\u2019s book discussing diabetes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Neal is a graduate student pursuing a certification in project management and serves as the program coordinator for the Mental Health and Wellness graduate program. Neal said she began writing \u201cThe Things I Never Said\u201d <\/em>in February of 2023. It is the first book in a three-part poetry series. Additionally, she said she is planning to release her first novel in December of 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe idea for the novel was what really kickstarted everything, and then I had ideas for different things,\u201d Neal said. \u201cThis wasn\u2019t the first poetry book idea I had, it was just the first one that went through every process.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe Things I Never Said\u201d <\/em>discusses body image, relationships and reconciliation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI literally was trying to look at it from the point of view of like me kind of talking to my 16-year-old self,\u201d Neal said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Assistant professor of English Paulette Bane, who published in 2022 both a poetry collection called \u201cWading Through Lethe\u201d and an additional 25 poems in the anthology \u201cWild Muse: Ozarks Nature Poetry,\u201d shared her advice on writing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf you want to be a writer, you have to write,\u201d Bane said. \u201cYou have to make time. That includes silencing the inner critic long enough for you to get words on the page. You can invite the critic back at a later stage, but during the writing phase just get to work.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Written by Camille White \/\/ Photo by Macy Cox This past summer, two Harding students published their first books. Senior Kayln Epperson wrote a children\u2019s book, \u201cHello Hospital,\u201d and graduate…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15068,"featured_media":18855,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15068"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18854"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18854\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18856,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18854\/revisions\/18856"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}