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!
For more details on workshops, instructors, and guest writers, check the full workshop schedule.
On-campus Workshops (2026 information will be available shortly)
Fiction
Whether your characters are traveling through time, aisle 8 in the grocery store, or a broken heart, we’ll look closely at what makes them tick and how to make them feel like real people. We’ll talk about the building blocks of a scene: action, dialogue, and place. Expect lots of laughter, some lightbulb moments, and a sprinkling of magic. You will return to your desk with new tools, fresh inspiration, and more confidence in your work. Let’s tell stories! Taught by Kristin Bair
Fiction
To write, and write compelling stories readers cannot put down, a writer must, well, write a lot, and study the craft of fiction. In this workshop, through journaling, reading published work, and completing generative exercises writers will develop original stories and master craft techniques to fill your writing toolbox. These techniques will benefit writers in high school, college, and beyond. We’ll form a support community and assist our fellow literary artists in making discoveries on the page. All writers’ welcome! Taught by Jotham Burrello
Non-Fiction
Whether you’re inspired by personal experiences, curious about the world, or passionate about important topics, this workshop will guide you in transforming your ideas into powerful nonfiction. Through creative exercises, readings, and plenty of opportunities to write and share our work, we'll explore how to structure stories, bring our ideas to life with vivid details, and refine our voices. Together, we’ll create an exciting space to practice and grow as writers. Taught by Lara Ehrlich
Deconstructing the Muse
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
Uncover the ‘Truth Inside the Lie”
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
Online Workshops
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
Non-Fiction
Creative Nonfiction asks us to explore what we don't know (or don't yet know) about what we know (ourselves). In this course, you will read and write a wide variety of nonfiction, drawing on memory, place, identity, and creative research. We will experiment with different forms: from the diary and travel writing to the essay--all the while defining, redefining, and refusing to define this dynamic and ever-expanding genre that begins with YOU. Taught by Emily Skillings
Poetry
Poetry is experimentation. It’s using the ordinary and making it special. It’s the willingness to reach acceptance through exploring the confusions of our lives. We will sift through the specifics of our memories to be precise in our expression. We will play with traditional and unconventional forms, and we will create new forms. Through meaningful discussions, writers will provide prescriptive and thought-provoking feedback. Your poems will deepen your understanding of yourself and offer insight to your readers. Taught by Nick Chhoeun
Fiction
In this class I am eager to work with emerging poets and writers of creative prose. We’ll dive into cross-genre creation, rooting our inquiry in techniques of the craft while taking inspiration from our observation site on campus and in New Haven for a maximum of orientation toward the fine-grained details. You’ll undertake an experiment, or multiple experiments, that are all your own, as a group attending to common variables like voice, structure, story. Come ready to use your writing to think through some problem you can’t get at in any other way, and be prepared to be surprised by what you write. Taught in Jaqueline Feldman