"I have found myself growing exponentially in the past couple weeks."
                                                                                                                   -Riley Courtney, TYWI Summer Camp 2020 Alumni

Summer Camp

The Young Writers Initiative is honored to offer our 2nd annual virtual Summer Camp, one of our most beloved programs. At TYWI, we believe that education, community, and feedback are pillars to a young writers success in any of their endevours, so we are proud to say that this program is 100% free. Running from June 1st-August 1st, TYWI Summer Camp is a relaxed, virtual program in which young writers are given challenges to improve their writing, a close knit community of fellow writers, and weekly workshops and events that will enhance their expierence in the writing world. 

What Is Included?

• Workshops (both craft and general) taught by summer camp counselors
• Camp Author and Publishing Professional Visits (ie. Author Vists, Agent Panels, etc). Some of our vistors last year included literary agent Suzie Townsend, author Malavika Kannan, Anika Nayak, and more.)
• Daily activities and challenges (optional but encouraged)
• Community Feedback and workshopping
• Portfolio Creation (for poetry, journalism, and prose)
• Novel outlining, support, and writing (for fiction campers)
• Community Write-ins, sprints, and writing chat sessions

Genres

• FICTION (novel writing with some short story)
• POETRY/PROSE (both poetry and short prose)
• NONFICTION (journalism, articles, essays, blogs)

you can be in more than one category, but if we exceed our cap, then we will restrict you to one category

Why Summer Camp Is Worth It

TYWI Summer Camp is not a rigid program that is supposed to stress you out or feel like school. Your involvement with summer camp is dependent on how much energy you think you can give. If you can't commit for the whole two months, that's okay, we still would love to have you as part of our community. Of course, it's important to be involved with summer camp, our counselors and Program Directors work really hard to create a virtual camp that will increase your love and skill in writing. The more you engage with summer camp, the more you'll get out of it.

But what makes TYWI Summer Camp special is the community and the relationships made through it. Many of the friends we made in summer camp are still our friends and writing buddies today, and having a supportive community to bounce your ideas off and to get feedback from is invaluable. Our workshops, led by camp counselors, are specific to category and are incredibely impactful to young writers. Our guest vistors are not only inspirational, they give you advice that sticks and help clear up the doubts you may feel about your journey as a writer.

And at the end, we host a writing career fair, where you can see exactly all the options you can pursue, both full-time, part-time, and in your freetime, to keep your writing alive. Summer camp will be the highlight of your summer.

Don't believe us? Well, click here to read last year's camper testimonials!

Time Committment

Summer camp is dependent on what you can handle, and what you want to put on your plate. If you want a general guide of how active you should be to make the most out of the program, 2-3 hours a day is a great sweetspot in engaging with the community, participating in challenges, attending events, and also balance your summer. Of course, the more you participate, the most you get out of it, and not spending that much time is totally okay too!

June and July Focus

JUNE

• June Focus for novelists: Outlining, character development, and plot structure
• June Focus for poets: exploring poetry styles, writing poetry, and studying poetry
• July Focus for freelancers/bloggers: exploring styles of journalism, writing, and curating content

JULY

• July Theme: In conjunction with Camp NaNo, writing or editing a novel, post-novel support, finding supportive novel writing friends.
• July theme for poets: revise and compile your poetry collection, poetry publishing, submitting to journals
• July theme for freelancers/bloggers: refine portfolio and submit to publications

Eligibility

• Must be under 23 years old
• Need to either be able to attend workshops or watch them after hand and complete an assignment
• You can be from anywhere in the world, this is a virtual camp

REGISTER

We are accepting a maximum of 300 summer campers per category, but that may change considering demand. First come, first served.
REGISTER FOR YOUR CATEGORY BELOW

rEGISTER FOR fICTION

REGISTER FOR POETRY

register for nONFICTION

What is the time commitment?

This is not a typical summer camp where you spend the whole day doing the work. The only mandatory events that we have are our 1 hour long workshops, which are once a week. Of course, we hope you take full advantage of this opportunity and invest more time in the challenges, networking with other writers, giving and getting feedback, and interacting with the summer camp.

What if the times don't work for me because I'm in a different time zone?

That's okay! We are aware that times won't work for everyone, so we will record every workshop. If you aren't at the workshop, we'll give you a week to watch it and complete a short assignment on it.

What are some fun parts of this program?

There are a lot!

1. We have weekly challenges and daily writing exercises! The weekly challenges will be things like submit to a contest or develop a writing schedule. They won't be difficult and aren't mandatory!

Do I have to be from the US?

Nope! Our summer camp is open internationally and is completely virtual.

What happens if I get too busy or fall behind on camp activities?

Just communicate your situation with your camp counselors! We understand that life happens and will do everything we can to keep you on track throughout camp.

If you have any other questions, please comment under our "summer camp" Instagram post, ask on our community discord, or email elizabeth@tywi.org or eliza@tywi.org