SUMMER WRITING WORKSHOPS | SUMMER JOURNALISM PROGRAMS | ONLINE COURSES

SUMMER WRITING PROGRAMS FOR TEENS

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Program	Eligibility	Location	Focus	Dates	Cost	Application	Deadline
92Y Unterberg Poetry Center: Young Writers Workshop	ages 12–14	New York, NY	poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction	7/6–7/16, 10am–12pm (nonresidential)	$1,000*	N/A	TBA
92Y Unterberg Poetry Center Young Writers Workshop	ages 15-18	New York, NY	poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction	7/6–7/23, 10am–3pm (nonresidential)	$2,400*	writing sample (5 pages)	early: 3/20 final: 6/5
Alfred University Creative Writing Camp	grades 10–12	Alfred, NY	poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, playwriting	6/30–7/4 (residential)	$930	writing sample (up to 8 pages) & deposit	5/1
Bard College at Simon’s Rock Young Writers Workshop	grades 10–12	Great Barrington, MA	poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction	7/12–8/1 (residential)	$2,975*	personal essay & teacher recommendation	rolling (January–May)
Barnard College Young Women Writers Institute	female-identifying students grades 10–12	New York, NY	fiction, creative nonfiction, lyric essay, journalism	7/18–8/1	$5,750* (residential); $4,995* (nonresidential)	personal essay, teacher recommendation & transcript	early: 1/20 final: 5/15
Emerson College Pre-College Creative Writers Workshop	grades 10–12	Boston, MA	fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, playwriting, comedy, graphic novel	7/7–8/11 (residential)	$6,535	statement, essay, teacher recommendation & writing sample (up to 10 pages)	5/13
Fir Acres Writing Workshop	grades 10–12	Portland, OR	fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction	6/21–7/4 (residential)	$3,250*	statement, writing sample, teacher recommendation & transcript	1/1
Interlochen Summer Arts Camp Creative Writing Program	grades 9–12	Interlochen, MI	fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, playwriting	6/27–7/18 or 7/19–8/9 (residential)	$6,100*	personal essay & writing sample	1/15
Interlochen Summer Arts Camp Novel Writing Institute	grades 9–12	Interlochen, MI	novel writing	6/20–6/26 (residential)	$1,575*	50-page manuscript	1/15
Interlochen Summer Art Camp Screenwriting Program	grades 9–12	Interlochen, MI	screenwriting	6/27–7/18 or 7/19–8/9 (residential)	$6,100*	personal essay & writing/film/photography sample	1/15
Interlochen Summer Art Camp Performance Writing & Spoken Word Institute	grades 9–12	Interlochen, MI	poetry	6/20–6/26 (residential)	$1,575*	writing sample	1/15
Iowa Young Writers’ Studio	grades 10–12	Iowa City, IA	fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction	6/14–6/27 or 7/5–7/18 (residential)	$2,400*	personal statement, writing sample, teacher recommendation & transcript	2/7
Juniper Institute for Young Writers	grades 10–12	Amherst, MA	fiction, poetry	7/19–7/26 (residential)	$2,100	personal statement, writing sample & teacher recommendation	5/1
Kenyon Review Young Writers Workshop	ages 16–18	Gambier, OH	fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction	6/28–7/11 or 7/19–8/1 (residential)	$2,475*	personal essay, teacher recommendation & transcript	3/1
New England Young Writers’ Conference	grades 10–11	Middlebury, VT	poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction	5/14–5/17	$385*	writing sample	11/21
NYS Summer Young Writers Institute	grades 10–12	Saratoga Springs, NY	fiction, poetry, playwriting, screenwriting	7/1–7/13	$1,870*	writing sample	4/3
Sarah Lawrence College Writer’s Village	grades 10–12	Bronxville, NY	fiction, poetry	7/14–8/2	$3,500 (nonresidential); $6,500 (residential)	writing sample	TBA
Sewanee Young Writers’ Conference	grades 10–12	Sewanee, TN	fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, playwriting	6/28–7/11 (residential)	$2,400*	statement, writing sample & teacher recommendation	rolling (February–April)
Shared Worlds	grades 8–12	Spartanburg, SC	speculative fiction	7/19–8/1	$2,500	TBA	4/1
Susquehanna University Summer Writers Workshop	grades 11–12	Selinsgrove, PA	fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction	7/19–7/25	$875* (before 5/1); $1,025* (after 5/1)	writing sample	TBA

*Scholarships/financial aid available.

92Y Young Writers Workshop

92Y’s Young Writers Workshop offers two rigorous workshops for driven, intellectually curious young people who want to explore and develop their writing in a supportive, focused environment in the middle of New York City. 92Y gives high school students access to opportunities only New York City and the Poetry Center can offer. Participants in the Young Writers Workshop meet with members of the Poetry Center’s extended family: once a week, an award-winning author meets with students to discuss both the craft and trade of writing over lunch.

Alfred University Creative Writing Camp

This five-day summer writing program introduces rising high school sophomores, juniors and seniors to many different genres, including poetry, short fiction, creative nonfiction and drama. Students read and discuss the work of established authors and participate in writing-intensive exercises and workshop sessions led by Alfred University faculty members. Campers stay in university housing and enjoy a variety of recreational activities outside of classes and workshops, such as movie nights, games, and social gatherings.

Bard College at Simon’s Rock Young Writers Workshop

The Young Writers Workshop is a three-week program for high school students. Unlike conventional workshops in expository and creative writing, Simon’s Rock’s focuses on using informal, playful, expressive writing as a way to strengthen skills of language and thinking. Out of these informal writing activities, using techniques of peer response, students develop more polished pieces, ranging from personal narratives to stories, poems, and exploratory essays.

Barnard College Young Women Writers Institute

Barnard’s two-week Young Women Writers Institute encourages writers to find their voice and share it with the world. Students will spend their mornings learning from Barnard instructors in courses such as The Art of the Very Short Story, Writing Place, and Rewriting Your Life with the Lyric Essay, on the same campus where writers like Greta Gerwig, Zora Neale Hurson and Jhumpa Lahiri got their start. Afternoons will be spent in intensives focused on developing a writing portfolio, getting published, and careers for writers. Off campus, students will tour some of the iconic neighborhoods that birthed movements such as the Harlem Renaissance and the Beat Generation.

Emerson College Creative Writers Workshop

Emerson’s Creative Writers Workshop is a five-week studio program for rising high school sophomores, juniors and seniors to develop their writing skills in a variety of media, including fiction, poetry, screenwriting, graphic novels and magazine writing. Participants attend college-level writing classes exploring these genres and write and present their own work, creating a final portfolio of their writing, contributing to the workshop’s anthology and presenting a reading for family and friends. On-campus housing for the duration of the workshop is available.

Fir Acres Writing Workshop

At Fir Acres Writing Workshop, sixty high school students from across the country come together for two weeks to write and join a community of writers on the beautiful, wooded campus of Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon. In daily Workshops, participants study great writing and produce their own under the guidance of dynamic, thoughtful, published faculty. At night, participants gather to socialize, meet and hear from distinguished visiting writers, and work on their own poetry, fiction, and creative prose. The Workshop’s mission is to provide a high-caliber, pre-collegiate, creative educational experience to bright, inventive, and passionate high school students.

Interlochen Summer Arts Programs

Each summer, aspiring young writers from all over the world come to Interlochen to hone their craft. They will study and create poetry, fiction and plays, working under the apprenticeship of professional writers and alongside other students who share their passion for writing. Students can apply to the three-week creative writing program or one-week programs in novel writing or performance writing and spoken word poetry.

Iowa Young Writers’ Studio

Students at the Iowa Young Writers’ Studio’s Summer Residential Program spend two weeks living the writing life in Iowa City, Iowa, a mecca for creative writers. Students take core courses in fiction writing, poetry writing, or creative writing (which includes some combination of fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction) with teachers who are students or graduates of the renowned Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Students in the Summer Residential Program share their writing with teachers and peers, receive constructive critique, participate in writing exercises and activities, and attend readings and literary events. A key goal of the Summer Residential Program is to bring adolescent writers together to appreciate and celebrate all that they have in common, and to welcome them into the larger community of writers in Iowa City and beyond.

Juniper Institute for Young Writers

Over the course of eight days at Juniper, high school students find access to the writer’s life. Through a curriculum that facilitates wild invention, participants generate new writing, experiment with style and form, access tools for finding inspiration in their day-to-day lives, and learn how to connect with an audience. Living together in close-knit “pods,” Young Writers participate in workshops, studio sessions, readings, and field trips. Many also earn academic credit while they enjoy a pre-college residential experience on the UMass Amherst campus in an area rich with literary history.

Kenyon Review Young Writer Workshop

Young Writers is an intensive two-week workshop for intellectually curious, motivated high-school students who are eager to develop their creative and critical abilities with language—to become better, more productive writers and more insightful thinkers. Writers discover what they want to say—their ideas, images, narrative direction—in the act of writing (and rewriting). At Young Writers, students write to explore ideas, then develop those ideas through further writing. Because good writers are also avid readers, students read short stories, poems, and essays to discuss, write about, and use as inspiration for their own work.

New England Young Writers’ Conference

The New England Young Writers’ Conference (NEYWC) at Bread Loaf is a four day writing-focused workshop for high school students in New England and from around the country. The long weekend is packed with writing seminars, workshops, readings, and opportunities to meet fellow young writers.

NYS Summer Young Writers Institute

Participants in the Summer Young Writers Institute receive instruction in poetry, fiction, and dramatic writing (screenwriting, playwriting, and dramatic monologue) and engage in the critical evaluation of each other’s work. By bringing top high school student writers together to work extensively with professional writers, the Institute provides young artists with recognition, respect, opportunities for artistic development, and peer support.

Sarah Lawrence College Writer’s Village

Students in Writer’s Village will participate in two daily writing workshops: fiction and poetry, each led by members of Sarah Lawrence’s celebrated writing faculty or other published authors who have taught at the college level. Readings, craft talks, and generative sessions are also part of the program and are designed to supplement learning in the classroom. Students work together alongside their instructors to improve each other’s writing, explore their passions and deepen their appreciation of craft. Together, students produce an anthology of pieces written in the program and create a literary community that will last into the future.

Sewanee Young Writers’ Conference

This two-week program offers specialized workshops in fiction, poetry, playwriting, and creative nonfiction to studnts in grades 10–12. In workshop, students will read and discuss the works of great authors and try to apply their lessons, free-write and write from prompts, and, above all, read and respond to the work of their peers. Young writers arrive with varying levels of experience, but nearly all of them leave with a portfolio of which they can be proud.

Susquehanna University Summer Writers Workshop

An exciting weeklong experience, this workshop provides America’s most talented high school writers with the opportunity to work in intensive, small-group workshops led by nationally recognized authors. Classes are limited to 15 students to ensure close supervision and individual conferencing.

ADDITIONAL SUMMER PROGRAMS

Additionally, here are some specific schools/organizations that may offer summer writing programs for high school students (check individual sites for the most current information; scroll down for programs specifically focused on journalism):

• Alpha Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror Workshop for Young Writers (PA)
• Brandeis University (MA)
• Brown University (RI)
• Boston University (MA)
• California College of the Arts (CA)
• California State Summer School for the Arts (CA)
• Columbia College Chicago High School Summer Institute (IL)
• Columbia University (NY)
• Denison University (OH)
• Duke University (NC)
• Emerging Writers Institute (CA)
• George Mason University Northern Virginia Writing Project (VA)
• Georgetown University Creative Writing Academy (DC)
• Hollins University (VA)
• Idylwild Arts (CA)
• Johns Hopkins (MD)
• Naropa University (CO)
• Overland Summers (various)
• Pratt Institute (NY)
• Putney School (VT)
• Rhodes College (TN)
• Stanford University (CA)
• Syracuse University (NY)
• Walnut Hill Summer Arts Programs (MA)
• Wolfeboro Camp School (NH)

OVERSEAS PROGRAMS

• Centauri Arts Camp (Ontario, Canada)
• Spoleto Study Abroad (Spoleto, Italy)
• University of St Andrews (St Andrews, Scotland)

SUMMER PROGRAMS IN JOURNALISM

• Asian American Journalists Association JCamp (CA)
• Boston University Academy of Media Production (MA)
• California Scholastic Press Association Journalism Workshop (CA)
• Columbia Scholastic Press Association Summer Journalism Workshop (NY)
• Indiana University High School Journalism Institute (IN)
• Michigan Interscholastic Press Association Summer Journalism Workshop (MI)
• North Carolina Scholastic Media Institute (NC)
• Northwestern University Medill Cherubs (IL)
• Shirley Povich Summer Journalism Sports Camp (MD)
• WHYY Summer Journalists (PA)

ONLINE PROGRAMS

Adroit Journal Summer Mentorship Program

The Adroit Journal’s Summer Mentorship Program is an entirely free and online program that pairs experienced writers with high school and secondary students (students in grades 9-12) interested in learning more about the creative writing processes of drafting, redrafting and editing. The 2020 program will cater to the literary genres of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. The aim of the mentorship program is not formalized instruction, but rather an individualized, flexible, and often informal correspondence. Poetry mentorship students will share weekly work with mentors and peers, while prose mentorship students will share biweekly work with mentors and peers.

Iowa Young Writers’ Studio

The Iowa Young Writers’ Studio offers online courses for high school students independently of the summer residential program in creative writing, fiction writing and poetry writing. All courses will be taught by graduates of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. The courses will run twice a year for six weeks (January–February and June–August). The online courses will require approximately three hours of engagement per week, which will include writing assignments, reading assigned materials, critiquing classmates’ writing, and participating in online discussions. The courses are asynchronous, meaning that students can complete the weekly assignments and post in the discussion forums on their own schedule in their free time. Students who complete the course and meet all requirements will receive one college credit from the University of Iowa.