Education Unlimited offers both in-person and online options of its popular Emerging Writers Curriculum.

ONLINE: Online Emerging Writers 10-12 attendees may choose between three majors: fiction, non-Fiction, and poetry.  Students may repeat the course up to three times during the summer doing each of the three majors once.  The online courses are each one week in length. To learn more about the online version of this program,click here.

In-Person: In-person Emerging Writers 10-12 courses are each two weeks in length and will be held at UC Berkeley, Stanford, and UCLA in Summer 2024.  During the course, students will explore all three majors (fiction, non-fiction, and poetry), but will select one major to focus on.  They will complete their final capstone work in this area.   Please read below to find out more about our on-campus Emerging Writers program. 

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. Similar to our program for younger writers, students are challenged through small group seminars. In these seminars, and at daily writing workshops, students investigate the fundamentals of storytelling and discover how to read like writers. Writers will also read and experiment with new sub-genres in a safe, exploratory environment. Scheduled writing time and one-on-one instructor evaluations help students develop good writing habits that will serve them year-round. By the end of the two-week , students will share polished pieces for publication in our literary anthology.  Copies of the anthology will be mailed to families at the end of the summer. 

What makes our summer creative writing programs so distinctive?

• With a curricular emphasis on expressive writing as a process rather than in rules or formulas - students will discover and refine their own voices

• The 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

Specific Skill Development

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. Emphasis is placed on expressive writing as a process rather than in rules or formulas. Instructors consistently encourage students to discover and refine their own unique voices. We know that successful writers are also critical and voracious readers; as a result, the inclusion of reading exercises and analysis are woven into the program as an essential tool for growth.

Curriculum & Environment

Students have three blocks in the day. The first block is called Read Like a Writer; Write Like a Reader. They build skills, do generative writing exercises, read mentor texts, and practice with different types of voices and styles. The second block is called Genre Exploration where students learn about, read and try out the writing of different sub-genres, such as Science Fiction and Thriller. Finally, each day ends with Writers Block, where students work on their capstone piece, have one on one conferences with their instructor, and workshop their piece with peers.

This Year's Writers Blocks

In EWI, Students select a major focus area called a Writer’s Block. In each Writer’s Block, students 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.

• • Short and Sweet: Short Story Seminar (includes playwrighting) 
    
  • Well-Versed: Poetry Seminar
    
  • The Real Word: Nonfiction Seminar