Liz Kruse and Heather Porteous have been friends since they were 10 years old. On Tuesday, July 7, the two sat side by side in the Evanston Public Library's Community Meeting Room, colorful mini notebooks in hand, writing poems and flipping through stacks of poetry books spread across the tables.

Porteous was visiting from Spain. She heard about the Poetry Playspace event when she arrived in Evanston and told Kruse they had to go.

"Over the years, we did much growing up and writing together," Kruse, a teacher at Chicago's Catherine Cook School, told the Daily Northwestern. "I love the community that comes with writing. Language is meant to be shared."

The free evening event brought 16 adults into Room 107 of the Main Branch for 90 minutes of poetry writing, experimentation, and sharing. It was a collaboration between the Evanston Public Library and the Evanston Writers Workshop, and part of EPL's Summer Writing Challenge, which runs through August 31 and asks participants to log 45 hours of writing over the season.

EPL Library Assistant Jeff Hester organized the session from scratch. Hester, who studied poetry in college, handed out notebooks, pens, and one-page guides to short-form poetry styles including haiku, senryu, and haibun, each with tailored prompts.

His message to the room: don't worry about getting it right.

"There are guidelines in poetry, but they are not the law," Hester told the Daily Northwestern. He said the series aims to lower the barriers to writing and reach a wide audience.

Participants spent half an hour writing. Some stuck to the forms. Others tossed the rules aside. Poetry books from the library's collection circled the room for inspiration.

Then came the sharing. Kruse read first, a poem about her mom. Others followed with pieces about "iPad Babies," nature, and the Fourth of July. One participant recited her poem in French. The group discussed each other's work, unpacking how they'd played with language and form.

Hester said afterward that the participants made the library a "beautiful place to be."

The Poetry Playspace is part of a broader summer push by EPL. Adults who complete the 45-hour writing challenge can bring their progress to the Main Library's second-floor desk to claim a Summer Writing Challenge patch. Additional Writing Room sessions are scheduled at the Main Library on Friday, July 17, and Monday, July 20, with more programming through the end of August.

The Evanston Writers Workshop, which has connected local writers since 2007, co-organized the event.