Each month, we interview a published writer who shares 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.
Prompt to Page is brought to you in partnership with the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning.
Listen to Episode 21
For this episode, Elizabeth Kilcoyne, author of Wake the Bones, discusses her own complicated relationship to writing prompts. She used to think she was “anti-prompt,” but now she appreciates their help with what she calls “the sticky bits of literature.”
In other words, she continues, with “that part of your manuscript that you keep wanting to turn away from and keep wanting to turn away from and keep ignoring…. I feel like [writing prompts] are always the sort of saving grace that I go to, to move into the next phase of a draft.”
Move into the next phase of your draft with help from Elizabeth’s prompt. Listen below!
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About Elizabeth Kilcoyne

Elizabeth Kilcoyne is an author, playwright, and poet, born and raised in Kentucky. Her first novel, Wake the Bones, a YA Southern Gothic from Wednesday Books, is a finalist for the William C. Morris Debut Award, and received a starred review from both Publisher’s Weekly and Kirkus, who described her as “a new standard-bearer in YA Horror.”
She currently lives in Lexington, Kentucky, where she gardens, serves on the organizational team for a local community vegetable market, and teaches writing.