Advanced Writing Seminar

Advanced Writing Seminar sessions are an immersive two-week experience for dedicated teen writers. While most sessions have a multi-genre portfolio curriculum, some focus on a single type of writing.

Attendance for all sessions—including the in-person Residential Session in NYC—is application-only. The application deadline for all sessions is May 15th, 2022. Please email teenprograms@writopialab.org for more information.

Online Portfolio Session 1
June 27th, 2022 - July 8th, 2022

Join us online for 10 weekday sessions, including a visit with an agent and publisher/ editor each week. This session is open to rising high school sophomores, juniors, seniors, and rising college freshmen.

Time: 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM Eastern Time, 7:00 AM to 2:00 PM Pacific Time (Monday through Friday)

Tuition: $1,695. Limited financial aid is available (please email financialaid@writopialab.org with a copy of your tax returns and a brief statement of need).

Residential Session in NYC
July 10, 2022 - July 23, 2022

Join Writopia Lab for an immersive two weeks of writing in the heart of New York City!

Developed for dedicated teen writers, the Advanced Writing Seminar Residential Session features a multi-genre portfolio curriculum, and is open to rising high school sophomores, juniors, seniors, and rising college freshmen.

Writers will spend their mornings in intimate writing workshops led by published authors and produced playwrights. Afternoons and evenings will be spent expanding their writing horizons and exploring everything a global publishing capital like New York City has to offer!

Tuition: $3,950. Limited financial aid is available (please email financialaid@writopialab.org with a copy of your tax returns and a brief statement of need).

Options for commuters will be announced soon.

Learn more about this immersive program here!

Online Portfolio Session 3
July 25th, 2022 - August 5th, 2022

Join us online for 10 weekday sessions including a visit with an agent and publisher/ editor each week. This session is open to rising high school sophomores, juniors, seniors, and rising college freshmen.

Time: 1 PM to 8 PM Eastern, 10 AM to 5 PM Pacific (Monday through Friday)

Tuition: $1,695. Limited financial aid is available (please email financialaid@writopialab.org with a copy of your tax returns and a brief statement of need).

Online Novel Writing Session 4
August 8th 2022 - August 19th, 2022

Join us online for 10 weekday sessions focused strictly on Novel Writing. Open to rising 9th through 12th grades.

Time: 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM Eastern, 7:00 AM to 2:00 PM Pacific (Monday through Friday)

Tuition: $1,895. Limited financial aid is available (please email financialaid@writopialab.org with a copy of your tax returns and a brief statement of need).

Apply Here!

Please email us at TeenPrograms@writopialab.org for any further questions.

Writopia Lab’s Advanced Teen Writing Seminar is open to rising juniors, seniors, and college freshmen. Over the course of two weeks, participants will delve into their craft with published authors, and each session will have two meetings with a prominent literary agent and editor/ publisher. The Advanced Writing Seminar places an emphasis on understanding how writing in a variety of forms (narrative, poetry, memoir, script) enriches and informs every writer. These hybrid workshops are fun, engaging, and designed to expand skills. For session 1, each day will begin with a small multi-genre workshop (8 to 10 participants) led by a published author for three hours. During the workshop, writers will have time to develop their own creative pieces, participate in creative writing exercises, and receive feedback on their work from their instructor and their peers. In the afternoons, writers will have the opportunity to take electives in poetry, memoir, ekphrastic writing, comedy, and more with our staff of published poets, essayists, comedy writers, and playwrights.

For session 3, writers will begin with their electives, followed by the author-led writing workshop.

Participants will also have the opportunity to do community service hours this summer by either providing teaching support in a workshop with younger writers, (training included) or an internship working on the litmags.

During this program I not only discovered my love for the memoir genre (previously, I didn't think my life was worthy of discussion, let alone glorification via the written word), but was comforted by the presence of like-minded people my age who are deeply passionate about creative writing. It can't go without mentioning that everybody was supremely well-read and talented- it felt right to be surrounded by people who were on my level. Moreover, what I had thought was an incurable bout of writer's block was completely eliminated by the fun, diverse writing activities/prompts/games offered and initiated by my instructors. Because of those, I now have three works-in-progress that I'm particularly proud of and excited to continue writing for the rest of the summer. -Kimberly

Programming for Portfolio Sessions Includes:

Multi-Genre Workshop

Each day is rooted in the three-hour multi-genre workshop, in which writers will have the time to develop their work, whether it be fiction, poetry, plays, or memoir. In this supportive but rigorous environment, writers will receive daily feedback on their work and will also participate in exercises, games, and lively group discussions.

Memoir Elective

In the memoir elective, writers spend time in self-reflection and contemplate the memories and experiences that made them who they are. Writers will learn about the important interplay between the writer's past and present self, and how to turn their own experiences—both momentous and mundane—into beautifully crafted memoirs.Writing poetry is like turning on a light inside of someone else; you can illuminate thoughts, ideas, and feelings inside of another person, things that are there but maybe they didn’t see before. In this elective, writers will experiment with different approaches and forms, and learn how to define, create, and break their own rules of language.

In Conversation With…

Ta-Nehisi Coates wrote his 2015 masterpiece Between the World and Me in conversation with James Baldwin’s own 1963 masterpiece, The Fire Next Time. Playwright Tom Stoppard wrote Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, a farce about two minor characters in Hamlet. Last year, the singer Jamila Woods crafted an album of dazzling songs, each named after and inspired by a different artist of color. In "In Conversation With…", juniors and seniors in high school will expand their portfolios further by creating their own pieces of writing in conversation with art that provokes them. We’ll explore pairs of art that have existed in conjunction with each other, dive deep into the art we ourselves think is important and want to explore, and make brand new pieces of writing inspired by, and building off the themes of, that art.

Ekphrastic Writing Elective

Ekphrastic writing is inspired by a piece of visual art. In this elective, writers will explore different literary genres and art styles through virtual gallery tours and games that blend art and writing. Writers will work towards curating their own galleries and will have the opportunity to give a virtual tour of their selected artworks and the pieces they wrote in response.

Flash Fiction Elective

How do you tell a story and communicate powerful themes in 500 words or fewer? In Flash Fiction, writers participate in writing exercises to create their own short, short fiction that resonates through imagery and juxtaposition.

Comedy Elective

Comedy not only provides fun, laughter, and levity, but it usually illuminates something true about the human condition and the world around us. In Writopia’s comedy writing program, writers will discuss what makes something funny, how to write something that will make others laugh but also think, discuss what can and should be made fun of in this world, and the ins and outs of how to write jokes, all led by an experienced NYC comedian. Through these conversations and games, writers will start their own humorous pieces and find the light in the darkness. Teens will participate in a writers’ room to give each other feedback and explore what it’s like to pitch jokes to their fellow comedians. Writers have the choice to complete a stand up set, a comedy sketch, a piece of humorous short fiction/memoir, or a satire article.