Podcast Preview
In this episode of 12-Minute Convos with Jesus Believers, Engel Jones connects with Karen Prior from beautiful Central Virginia. A lifelong lover of books whose mother read to her daily, Karen shares her profound passion for reading and how writing naturally became her way of processing the world. She offers incredibly practical advice for budding authors, challenging them to stop relying solely on natural talent and to truly treat their writing as a dedicated, practiced craft.
Listen in as Karen shares the charming, analog way she disconnects from her phone in our busy world using a simple 30-minute sand hourglass to focus! She also reflects on her 41-year marriage to her husband, who originally thought he was marrying a future social worker rather than a writer and professor. If you need a gentle reminder to trust God's provision or simply want to improve your focus, Karen’s beautiful assurance that the Lord is good, kind, and always near will deeply anchor your soul!
Guest's Bio
Karen Swallow Prior, Ph. D., is the 2025-26 Karlson Scholar at Bethel Seminary. She is a reader, writer, and speaker., she is the author of You Have a Calling: Finding Your Vocation in the True, Good, and Beautiful (Brazos 2025); The Evangelical Imagination: How Stories, Images, and Metaphors Created a Culture in Crisis (Brazos 2023); On Reading Well: Finding the Good Life through Great Books (Brazos 2018); Fierce Convictions: The Extraordinary Life of Hannah More—Poet, Reformer, Abolitionist (Thomas Nelson 2014); and Booked: Literature in the Soul of Me (T. S. Poetry Press 2012). She is co-editor of Cultural Engagement: A Crash Course in Contemporary Issues (Zondervan 2019) and has contributed to numerous other books. She is a contributing writer at The Dispatch and has a monthly column for Religion News Service. Her writing has appeared at Christianity Today, New York Times, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, First Things, Vox, Think Christian, The Gospel Coalition, and various other places. She hosted the podcast Jane and Jesus. She is a research fellow at Comment and a Senior Fellow at the Trinity Forum. She and her husband live on a 100-year-old homestead in central Virginia with dogs, chickens, and lots of books.