Summer Camp

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

Modeled after collegiate and MFA workshop programs, the high school and early college summer workshop is geared towards 13-19 year olds who desire to immerse themselves in their craft and make long-lasting connections with other writers. This program will require writers to bring forward two pieces of writing that they desire to be workshopped by their small, 10 person workshop cohort. At the end of the program, writers will leave with two polished pieces or a critiqued-full piece, techniques to improve their craft, ideas for future works, and life-long friends.

What Is Included?

Daily workshops in which writers will provide discussion and feedback for a piece, two authors a day.
Daily writing sprints and exercises
Exposure to literature and craft-building tools
Community feedback and networking
Professional development workshops

Genres

FICTION: Beginner, Experienced, and Novel
POETRY: Beginner, Experienced, and Chapbook/Full Length Poetry Book

You will only be able to participate in one workshop

Why Summer Camp Is Worth It

TYWI Summer Camp has always aspired to be a free, accessible, and meaningful experience for our campers. To further stay dedicated to that mission, we want to ensure that those who enroll in summer camp take full advantage of the opportunity and can dedicate at least 4-5 hours a day (1-2 synchronous) to the program. By the end, you will have two pieces ready to send out for publication consideration. If you are part of the full-length workshop, you will be paired with a writing partner in your section. Overall, this years program is much more structured and guided to help you achieve long-term success and true exposure to the world of writing.

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

Time Committment

We ask that you can dedicate 4-5 hours per weekday for this program, and are committed to reaching deadlines, like submitting annotations to your peers, attending workshop discussions of your peers' writing, giving active feedback, and submitting your own work for feedback.

Sessions

Informational Sessions
Week 1: Collegiate Writing and MFA Talk
Week 2: Literary Magazines and Submissions OR Full-Length Publication Talk
Week 3: Maintaining Strong Mentorships and Community

Eligibility

Must be 13-19 years of age.
You can be from anywhere in the world as this is a virtual camp
No prior experience is necessary, we accept writers of all levels who are passionate and motivated!

Leadership Opportunities: Workshop Leader

Rather than having summer camp counselors, we will assign one workshop leader per cohort. If you are interested in a unique leadership opportunity to put on your college applications and resume, look no further. Workshop leaders will be in charge of making sure that workshop and discussion sections are productive. You will be given resources to help guide conversation and run the workshop. It is a great experience that involves skills of facilitation, teaching, communication, organization, and creativity.

Responsibilities are as follows:

Run workshops and ensure they're on the right track
Ensure people are uploading their feedback for each piece
Distribute the week's readings at the beginning of the week so people have time to annotate
Encourage participation in the sprints
Lead or delegate book club discussions
Communicate with Summer Camp Leaders (Riya and Sydney) about the workshop weekly.
Optional: create fun opportunities for your workshop class

APPLY

Applications will be due by July 1st. We will release acceptances between July 5th -10th. The workshop will begin July 15th and last until August 15th. Weekends will be off, so you don't have to anticipate work during this.

Applications are currently closed!!

If you have any other questions, please comment under our "summer camp" Instagram post, ask on our community discord, or email [email protected]