The Kenyon Review Young Writers Workshop is a program created to give young writers and students opportunities to interact and collaborate with other student writers while also making their college applications stand out. The program also offers prizes and scholarships for students who want to continue their academic and professional writing pursuits in addition to professional critiques of students’ and writers’ works from experts in the field.
The Kenyon Review, which was first founded in 1939, offers students a way to publish their works and gain recognition in the literary world. The literary magazine is well-known among professional writers and is acknowledged as the nonprofit publication that has received the most O Henry Awards for Short Stories.
By providing the coveted Young Writers Workshop, a two-week workshop-based program from June to July for motivated high school students, the program gained additional recognition. The program’s goal is to assist eager students in developing their language-related critical and creative skills. It offers a stimulating and encouraging environment where student writers can compete with one another and improve their written work. The workshop allows students to explore their existing ideas further by writing essays, short stories, poems, and other literary works.
June 25–July 8 and July 16-29, 2023
Session Dates:
*June 25-July 8, 2023 *July 16-29, 2023
Tuition and Fees:
$2575 No application fee Need-based financial aid is available
Apply Now:
Online application form; 300-word personal statement; official or unofficial high school transcript; letter of recommendation; optional financial aid information.
Please email youngwriters@kenyonreview. org or call 740-427-5391. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google.
A Residential Creative Writing Workshop for High School Students (ages 16-18)
The Young Writers Summer Residential Workshop is a two-week intensive workshop for high school students who are intellectually curious and motivated and eager to develop their creative and critical language skills—to become better, more effective writers and more perceptive thinkers.
In generative workshops, students write in a variety of genres, such as short stories, poems, and essays, to explore concepts and create original work. Students discuss writing (and rewriting) techniques with their teachers and peers in order to hone their skills and find their own distinctive voice.
Select a topic for more information.
If you will be between the ages of 16 and 18 when the program begins, you may apply. Also qualified to apply are sophomores in high school who will not turn 16 until after the program. During the program, the majority of our participants are rising juniors and seniors, but on occasion, we accept talented students who have just graduated high school.
Students from other countries and students who have previously taken Young Writers Online workshops are both eligible to apply. Rising sophomores are not eligible to apply. Applications are not accepted from students who have previously participated in the Young Writers Residential Workshop.
Participants in Young Writers are a diverse group, representing a variety of academic and extracurricular interests. If you enjoy working with others, are open to experimenting with new methods, are willing to be playful and take some risks as a learner, and are more interested in the process of learning than in the results, you should apply for the Young Writers program.
The program’s total cost is $2,575, which includes program tuition, lodging, all meals, and all extracurricular activities. We do not cover travel costs.
Accepted students must submit enrollment paperwork by April 5th and a non-refundable $500 deposit in order to enroll in the program. The remaining program cost must be paid in full by June 1st.
In order to help families who can’t afford the program’s costs, we provide need-based financial aid. Financial aid decisions are made on a case-by-case basis. Most of the time, we are able to provide all accepted students with the amount of financial aid requested. Admissions decisions are made in conjunction with financial aid decisions, but aid requests have no bearing on acceptance decisions.
Please complete the “Financial Aid” section of the online application form to request need-based financial aid.
A complete application consists of the following:
- The online application form
- A 300-word statement (you can be as direct or as creative with this prompt) that explains why and/or how writing has had a significant impact on your life.
- A high-school transcript (we accept official and unofficial transcripts)
- the email address of the instructor who will write the recommendation letter
- Financial aid information (optional)
Applications must be submitted by March 1st. Teachers have until March 7th to upload recommendation letters. We do not accept applications beyond the March 1st deadline.
The 300 word statement and teacher recommendation are given special consideration by the selection committee. We are seeking students who possess genuine writing talent and passion as well as those who will excel in both the workshop and residential settings. Our goal is to enroll a diverse group of students with a variety of academic and extracurricular interests.
Young Writers is a highly selective program. Every year, we have to reject a large number of talented writers because we can only accept a small portion of applicants. We encourage you to reapply if you weren’t accepted this year but will still be qualified next year.
We are unable to comment on specific applications or provide feedback on application essays due to the volume of applications we receive each year.
Each day for five hours, workshop groups of 12–14 students meet. Every workshop has a common curriculum that covers all writing genres. Freewriting, responding to writing prompts and assignments, discussing assigned readings, and sharing and discussing each other’s work are all done during the workshop period.
Every day, everyone in the classroom, including the teachers, writes and shares their work. The workshop has no grades, and the student work is not formally assessed. Instead, teachers place a strong emphasis on methods for analyzing students’ work in a way that will enable them to identify their own strengths, potential, and areas for fruitful revision. Instructors also meet with each student in individual conferences.
Students have the option to enroll in a genre session, which is a short, three-part workshop that focuses on a particular genre or craft element, in addition to the regular workshop group. The opportunity to work with a different instructor and student group in these sessions allows students to focus on a particular aspect of writing that they are interested in. Genre session topics vary each session.
Talented writers and educators from all over the country who have a long history with the Kenyon Review and the Young Writers program serve as our instructors. Several of our instructors are Kenyon College graduates and many of them have published in the Kenyon Review. The majority of them teach high school and/or college during the academic year and have advanced degrees in creative writing. Our instructors are a strong team with a thorough understanding of the curriculum and philosophy of the Young Writers program because many of them have been lecturing in it for a while.
We have not yet finalized our COVID-19 protocols for this summer’s workshops because COVID-19 transmission rates and CDC recommendations may change closer to the start of the program.
The Kenyon Review mandated that all participants and staff in its residential summer programs complete a recognized COVID-19 vaccination by the summer of 2022. Depending on the current levels of transmission, masks were either required or highly recommended.
We will closely collaborate with Kenyon College and keep an eye on the COVID-19 transmission rates to determine what protocols and rules might be required in 2023. More specific information will be provided when we send acceptance notifications in late March.
From June 18 to June 23, 2023, there will be a Young Writers Summer Online Workshop. Early March will see the opening of applications for this workshop, which are due on April 20. Students are welcome to apply to both Young Writers Workshop programs, but they may only attend one per summer.
- “The community you form there, the wonderful kindness and guidance of your peers, and the incredible, amazing leadership of the instructor are the best aspects of the workshops,” one participant said. I have had such a great time in workshop, learning and developing as a writer and as a person, and my group is so close. ” .
- “This program taught me both technical and communal values. For example, I’ve learned about ekphrasis, slippage, centos, etc. and enhanced my writing, but being a part of a group, hearing others work, and providing encouragement was just as beneficial. ” .
- “Each person could write something truly personal, something special about themselves, thanks to the varied prompts and nonthreatening environment.” That’s how I felt confident sharing my work and came to see myself as a different writer—not the “best” or the “worst,” but rather a person with something to say. ” .
- “The most beneficial aspect of the workshop is just being in a room full of passionate, talented writers,” You hold yourself to a high standard of writing because you know you’re in there writing with them and sharing before and after one of them. ” .
- “I thought it was really helpful and fruitful that we were allowed a lot of writing autonomy throughout the workshops,” Freewriting, independent/self-directed writing, and guided writing with prompts seemed to be well-balanced, in my opinion. In addition, I enjoyed the readings we discussed, and I’m grateful to have had the chance to read such outstanding literature over the past two weeks. ” .
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The Kenyon Review Young Writers Workshop
FAQ
Is Kenyon Young writers prestigious?
The Kenyon Review, one of the most esteemed journals in the literary world, is used to receiving submissions from well-known writers and poets. However, the journal also welcomes a deluge of literary works from unknown authors each year and relies on Kenyon students to act as gatekeepers.
Is Kenyon good for writing?
The first creative writing degree program to be offered at an American university and the first to grant thesis credit for creative work in the arts were both pioneered by the Iowa Writers’ Workshop at the University of Iowa in Iowa City.