Education Unlimited - academic summer camps and pre-college summer programs

Emerging Writers Institute creative writing camp is a two-week summer writing program for teens. Rising 10th-12th graders experience a unique curriculum designed to develop and support students’ imaginative writing across literary genres. This creative writing summer program encourages students to challenge themselves technically and artistically through guided daily writing workshops, one-on-one instructor evaluations, group editing sessions, and creative presentations of their work. Moreover, the participants in the program will be uniquely positioned to profit from the literary culture of the San Francisco Bay Area. By the program’s conclusion, students will produce and perfect quality pieces suitable for publication in their own literary magazine and professional teen publications.

What makes our summer creative writing programs at Stanford University and UC Berkeley distinctive?

• Literary Bay Area! Students will have the opportunity to stroll along the Berkeley poetry walk, visit the birthplace of the beat poets in San Francisco, discover Jack London Square, and read Ohlone Poetry! They will participate in coffee house poetry nights, attend author signings and readings, and get involved in the city’s robust and inimitable literary life*.

• A curricular emphasis in expressive writing as a process, rather than in rules or formulas. Students will discover and refine their own voice!

• Inclusion of critical reading exercises as an essential tool for growth.

• Seminars to ready students’ work for professional submission to youth publications, such as The Claremont Review, The Writer’s Slate, Stone Soup and Teen Ink.

Students elect a major focus area called a Writer’s Block. In each Writer’s Block, they will read classic and contemporary examples of the genre, craft and hone their writing composition, and prepare to present their piece to an audience of readers and listeners. This year’s Writer’s Blocks include:

• Short and Sweet: Short Story Seminar

• Well-Versed: Poetry Seminar

• The ‘Wright Stuff: Playwright’s Seminar

• The Real Word: Nonfiction Seminar

Diverse afternoon workshops in nontraditional writing genres, such as speech writing, ‘zine creation, graphic novels, journalism, nature writing, and advertising copy will engage participants, when they are not working on their principal piece. Furthermore, the program recruits guest speakers from the publishing industry and Bay Area authors to give readings and answer questions about literary life and labor.

In order to attend the EWI, students must demonstrate their potential as writers by submitting a creative writing sample in any of the four major areas of focus. This program assumes that its students possess a formidable understanding of the English language and are prepared to employ this familiarity in inspired and inventive ways.

"I learned to be true to my own voice and write about believable, developed characters." -Seth Newmeyer, 2008 EWI Camper

“I wouldn’t want anyone who likes writing to go through high school without coming to this camp and having as much fun as me!” – Annelise Hagar, 2007 EWI camper

“I liked it…my poetry class was small, so everyone got a chance to speak, read, and receive feedback.” – Jordan Knight, 2007 EWI camper

“I loved evening classes and I loved Fiction class. I learned so much. [My instructor] taught me that I not only have something to say, I have a LOT to say.” – Jessalyn Mattson, 2007 EWI camper<