Workshop Descriptions
Your Workshop Experience
Over the course of five workshop sessions, you’ll dive deep into your writing practice generating new stories, poems and essays while in New Haven. Writers will learn new techniques and connect with other creative writers who share your passion for storytelling. Writers will be assigned required reading to complete for the start of the program.
Here’s what to expect:
- Lively group workshops where you’ll share your work, give and receive feedback, and celebrate each other’s writing.
- Helpful lessons in giving constructive feedback—you’ll learn how to offer thoughtful critique and use feedback to strengthen your own writing.
- Experiential Learning—writers will explore Yale’s world-class museums in an ekphrasis writing adventure—because sometimes inspiration begins off the page.
- Tips and techniques from your instructor on revision, style, and the writing process—plus insider advice on how writers grow their craft and share their work with readers.
- A creative, supportive community where everyone’s voice matters and encouragement is at the heart of every session.
The Welcome Orientation will take place on Sunday, June 21st, followed by a campus tour and dinner in Yale’s Dining Hall. Workshops kick off the next morning—so come ready to write, connect, and be inspired!
Required Reading for all Yale Young Writer Participants: Sasha Hom's book Sidework.
For more details on workshops, instructors, and guest writers, check the full workshop schedule.
On-campus Workshops
Deconstructing the Muse (FULL AND CLOSED TO FURTHER ENROLLMENT)
For too long, creativity has been seen as a gift from a mysterious “muse' linked to beauty, gender, and power. In this workshop, we’ll dispel that myth. Inspiration isn’t passive; it’s built through curiosity, persistence, and dialogue. We'll see how poetry can reclaim agency, amplify genuine voices, and challenge old stories. This space is for writers to learn that creativity is active, communal, and human. Bring your ideas, questions, and voice. Let’s create our own path. Taught by Summer Tate
Stories They Can’t Stop Reading
To write compelling stories that readers can’t put down, a writer must, well, write—and study the craft of fiction. In this workshop, we’ll journal, read published work, and try out lively generative exercises to spark fresh ideas and expand your writing toolbox. These skills will support writers in high school, college, and beyond. Together we’ll build a supportive community and help one another make discoveries on the page. All writers welcome! Taught by Jotham Burrello
Tell It True (FULL AND CLOSED TO FURTHER ENROLLMENT)
In this creative nonfiction workshop, young writers will learn how to shape real-life experiences into vivid, compelling stories. Through engaging prompts, close reading of published work, and supportive discussion, students will explore voice, memory, scene, and reflection. Writers will experiment with personal narrative, lyric nonfiction, and hybrid forms while building confidence and craft. This class welcomes all experience levels and offers a warm, encouraging space to tell meaningful true stories. Taught by Lara Ehrlich
Three Zucchinis Walk onto the Page: A Fiction Workshop
Unputdownable novels and short stories often emerge from the unexpected—an obsession, a voice that pops, a charged object or compelling question, even a rabbit hole. In this workshop, we’ll gossip about good writing and follow those sparks through short exercises, bold experimentation, and close attention to what surprises us most. Expect big laughs, shared discoveries, and generous company. All are welcome! Taught by Kristin Bair
Uncover the "Truth Inside the Lie” (FULL AND CLOSED TO FURTHER ENROLLMENT)
Stephen King wrote: “Fiction is a lie, and good fiction is the truth inside the lie.” Through journaling, prompts, critical reading, and discussion, we’ll dig for the emotional truth of your ideas. In a fun, creative space, we’ll explore the building blocks of story (character, setting, dialogue, action). You’ll leave brimming with inspiration and ideas, with new tools for your writer’s toolbox, and a supportive community to cheer you on as you write. Taught by Sarah Darer Littman
Who Gets to Speak?
In this workshop, we’ll break down how dialogue works, on the page and in the body. What makes it feel real, and what makes it fall flat. We’ll look at writers who use quotation marks and those who don’t, and what those choices signal about voice, power, and control. Through close reading and quick exercises, students will write dialogue that carries tension, reveals character, and refuses to just sit there. Taught by Daniel Barrios
Sentence + Scene = Style
In this course, we'll focus on two things that make good fiction good: strong sentences, on the one hand, and strong scenes, on the other. We’ll discuss how different authors built their distinctive prose styles through a series of small, sentence-level choices—and we’ll think about how to compose scenes that engage our readers’ senses. Students will come away with sharper technical chops and a more refined eye for luminous imagery. Taught by Maggie Millner
Exploring Identity and Interests through Fiction and Nonfiction
This workshop will focus on elements of fiction and nonfiction while engaging in topics that occupy students’ minds on a daily basis. What are subjects and news bits students can’t stop thinking about? How do their identity and interests show up on the page—whether in a short story or a personal essay? Through journaling, writing prompts, and written narratives that explore daily lives and interests, we will tackle the world of fiction, nonfiction, and even autofiction. Taught by Padya Paramita
Online Workshops
Graphic Storytelling (aka Thinking in Words & Pictures)
Storytelling exists in multiple worlds simultaneously, plotting a story, creating characters, and world-building, while also relying on images and visual description to move narratives forward. We’ll spend some time working with each of these elements while shaping our ideas into stories. Our workshop will begin with an idea and end with a plan. In between, we'll combine in-class exercises of varying length along with conversation about tools and techniques. Taught by Anne Thalheimer
New Worlds Workshop (FULL AND CLOSED TO FURTHER ENROLLMENT)
In this class with emphases on reading, craft, and workshop we will dissect the magic trick of how to make things happen on the page. Prepare to manipulate time, breathe life into dialogue, and conjure into being worlds only you could write. We'll discuss fiction writing as a mode of inquiry — as a way, put otherwise, of interrogating reality, as we explore its wildest possibilities and counterfactuals. Why tell a story? Come ready for invention. Taught by Jacqueline Feldman
Poetry: Forms of Attention (FULL AND CLOSED TO FURTHER ENROLLMENT)
“Attention,” wrote philosopher Simone Weil, “is the rarest and purest form of generosity.” This course examines how attention shapes what—and how—we notice, as well as the forms we create and inhabit. Students will engage with poetic forms such as the sonnet, the ode, and the ekphrastic poem, while also inventing their own. Together, we will explore the writing processes and discuss how to build writing practices that are both generative and sustainable. Taught by Emily Skillings
Writing About Yourself and Your World
This workshop is a chance to express your ideas, share your experiences, and explore the world around you through literary non-fiction writing. Using readings as our guides, we will ask ourselves how authors tell fascinating stories and make compelling points. Through discussions, creative exercises, and in-class workshops of your writing, you will have a chance to develop your own voice and style and to play with the many possibilities of the non-fiction form. Taught by Pamela Newton
Hope & Creative Writing
What role does hope play in art? Together, we’ll look at how writers balance honesty with idealism. We’ll explore how stories shape the way we see the world and can either support or challenge systems of power. We’ll also ask whether artists have a responsibility to offer hope, how writing can support moral courage, and how to create work that imagines possibility without ignoring reality. Through discussion and exercises, we’ll practice creating with care and clarity. Taught by Donald Quist