<p>ProxyGC,</p>
<p>I’m not quite sure about how U Iowa’s undergrad program is received, but I do know of some other colleges that are known for outstanding creative writing programs. Kenyon College’s English and Creative Writing programs are both well-renowned, and are both associated with the Kenyon Review, which is very prestigious. Also, Hamilton, Carnegie Mellon, Hampshire, and Brandeis have strong CW programs.</p>
<p>Hope that helps!</p>
<p>This may sound like a silly question, but are there any free creative writing courses online? MIT used to have one, but they deleted them. 
Or anything close to a creative writing course–I just want this experience to improve myself!</p>
<p>I lost my acceptance letter to the Iowa Young Writers Studio this year, however, I was wondering if someone who has kept it could inform me on what the acceptance rate was for 2010? I recall it being mentioned in the letter. Thank you!</p>
<p>Johnnys1stmate,
When you get back from Iowa, I would love to hear your review.</p>
<p>I’d love to hear Johnnys1stmate’s review too. ;)</p>
<p>I’m bumping this so all who attended programs can post reviews for the young’uns to see. (And to remind anyone interested that I am an Interlochen-phile and would love to answer any questions that are PM-ed my way.)</p>
<p>If anyone wants to hear about the Sewanee Young Writer’s Conference, PM me! 
It’s a great program that I highly recommend.</p>
<p>Since this thread is pretty long, can anyone tell me which ones are more ‘major/big’?</p>
<p>Most would say Iowa and Kenyon, maybe UVA, but Sewanee also has a great reputation for creative writing. The Sewanee Review is a very prestigious literary journal, and the program itself is so amazing and well-run that I would definitely apply if I were you. :)</p>
<p>MissxSilverwing sent me her review on Sewanee. She asked me to post it on this thread. It is a great review. Thanks for sharing!</p>
<p>Re: Sewanee
Hi! Well, I’m happy to tell you. =)</p>
<p>Sewanee was an incredible experience for me as a writer and as a person. I’d gone to camp for three summers before for one week each time, but Sewanee, which is two weeks long, was truly a freeing experience that saw me grow as a person. They give you a LOT of independence at Sewanee, as much as possible imo, because during the day, you can basically go wherever you want on campus - to the workout facilities (which are very nice), the campus store, the library and the computer lab, Stirling’s (the coffee house), or even go down to the lake and explore. Nobody will come after you as long as you arrive at readings, discussions, and the workshops (9-12).</p>
<p>Now, when I first heard that the workshop was only three hours in the morning, I was worried that it wouldn’t be enough time and that I’d be bored the rest of the day. I’m happy to say that I was very wrong. The workshop was an amazing experience, but you truly do need the rest of the day to spend with your friends and work on poetry if you want the whole “Sewanee” package experience. And now I’ll get on to what you probably are most interested in - the workshop itself!</p>
<p>I was in the poetry workshop and my instructor was an Alfred U professor, Juliana Gray. She is a published poet and was truly amazing to work with (and you’ll have her as well if you go to Sewanee). My knowledge of poetry forms grew immensely during my time with her, as did my poetry-writing skills. If you think you’re a good writer before you go to Sewanee, you are WRONG. All you have is potential. But the workshops will change all of that if you truly listen to what your fellow writers are saying. Sewanee taught me so much about poetry - about being clear to the reader, about avoiding awkward line breaks, redundancy, and vagueness, and simply about what makes a good poem. We spent about half of every class discussing or reading over poems, doing exercises, and talking about our assignment for the day. Then came my favorite part - workshopping! Each person, when it was their turn, chose a poem that they’d written at Sewanee to discuss with the class. The ensuing discussion, which could last anywhere from fifteen minutes to almost an hour, was always brutal but fascinating. You really learn to appreciate what your fellow poets like about your work, because trust me, there is a LOT they won’t. But it’s work it, because it teaches you more about your audience then you will ever have known before.</p>
<p>Sewanee also offers a lot of super-fun activities, like Karaoke Night and the dance party on the last day. I have so many awesome memories of jumping around the Women’s Center - sorry, dance floor - and singing at the top of my lungs to the Backstreet Boys while jostled around by my fellow young writers. The social experience at Sewanee is like no other, and although I admit I didn’t bond as closely with the group as some, I still found some great friends there.</p>
<p>Onto some practical matters: the dorms are, well, not the greatest. Although the courtyard in Benedict, the SYWC dorm, is very beautiful, the rooms themselves are old and in need of redoing, but they’re livable of course. The showers, however, are not so great. The water pressure is horrible and the water will either be freezing or scalding. That’s why I suggest using the workout center showers as much as possible. They make for a much, MUCH more enjoyable bathing experience. The food was pretty yummy, but got tiresome after a while, since there’s only one dining hall. Usually, the cafeteria offers one main dish (ie tacos with Spanish rice and refried beans), hamburgers, veggie burgers, hot dogs, and fries, lunch meats/sandwiches, a salad bar, hummus, peanut butter and jelly, pizza, desserts (including two flavors of ice cream every meal!), and bread. It is very possible to eat healthily while there, but it’s hard to resist the greasier main dish and the delicious, but sugar/calorie filled desserts! Stirling’s - the campus coffee house - offers some delicious alternatives for when you tire of dining hall food, and becomes a very popular hangout for SYWC participants.</p>
<p>I strongly encourage you to apply to Sewanee and attend if accepted. It was the most amazing part of my summer, and although next year I will forsake writing camps for debate camps, I wouldn’t trade my Sewanee experience for anything (accept for qualifying to NFL nats lol).</p>
<p>And please, if anyone else ever asks you about Sewanee, don’t hesitate to share this message with them!</p>
<p>Not sure whether posting in this thread is worth it since its kinda old, but…</p>
<p>Does anyone know if the University of Virginia’s Young Writing Workshop is scheduled for 2011 yet? There website still says 2010, and when I called the number it hadn’t been updated since about April.</p>
<p>I also have a question. Does anyone know Kenyon’s requirement to apply for their summer young writer’s workshop? Is it to submit a poetry, a nonfiction/fiction? If so, how long? Thank you.</p>
<p>I"m reading this thread to find a program for our daughter next summer, and it sounds like the UVA one which we were thinking about will be too intense. Up at 6am writing til 11pm? She wants a program where she can also do other things on campus or maybe off campus…like having time to explore a neighboring city or something like that. The campus part sounds like Sewanee might be a good fit, and I’m also wondering about the Lake Forest program?</p>
<p>If anyone’s got Qs specifically about Iowa feel free to PM me. : )</p>
<p>How did you like Iowa program?</p>
<p>I went to Iowa as well. It’s the only writing program I’ve been to, so I can’t compare it to others, but I can say that my experience there was phenomenal. Their program has a really nice balance between downtime and class time. Our lunch break was over two hours long, so we could spend it exploring Iowa City or doing work for class. After 4, we had the rest of the night free, but there were always at least two or three options for activities to do. So we could spend the evenings doing work, or we could go to a poetry reading, or we could take talk to the counselors and arrange a trip to somewhere that we wouldn’t be able to get by foot. The people running the program were willing to coordinate trips to anywhere we wanted to go, and everyone was not only nice and fun, but also smart–Everyone was a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop.</p>
<p>As far as the education part goes, I feel that my writing got so much better during those weeks. Every class liked to swear that their class was the best one, and we also had opportunities to work with other teachers. And since our counselors were writers as well, we could talk to them about writing too.</p>
<p>And Iowa City itself was great. So many good places to eat and shop, and so many great bookstores, both with new books and used. It has a great vibe to it.</p>
<p>So @dke, I would recommend your daughter look into the Iowa Young Writers’ Studio. We did a lot of writing and learned a lot, but we never felt like we were being suffocated by work. The hardest part was sometimes having to choose staying at home to read a workshop piece instead of taking part in one of the many things going on that night. But that’s a good problem to have. :)</p>
<p>ThisCircusWheel when did you attend, if I might ask?</p>
<p>Circus is really spot on.</p>
<p>For me as well, it was the only writing program I’ve done, so I can’t compare it to anything else. But I do have friends from Iowa who also did UVA and Kenyon, and while they enjoyed those programs they said Iowa was far and away their favorite.</p>
<p>We were housed in University of Iowa dorms. Pretty typical college dorms–two beds, each bunked over a desk. Everyone had a roommate. Our room had a sink and a mirror; others did not. Girls were on one floor with communal bathrooms, boys on a separate floor.</p>
<p>You have a lot of freedom. As long as you sign in and out (and are back by curfew, around 10 if I recall correctly), you are allowed to roam anywhere within Iowa City (which is not that big, but whatever). As a city girl, by the end of the 2 wks I def. knew my way around Iowa City and was kinda bored by it. But it does have a lot of charm, a great great ice cream place we went to nearly every day, and some great used book stores.</p>
<p>During free time you can read, write, nap in your room, go for a run, get ice cream, hang out with friends, or participate in planned activities–whatever floats your boat. Activities included poetry readings at a local bookstore, a GREAT performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, bowling, and seeing… Harry Potter!!! : D They even had a “prom” for us the last night.</p>
<p>We all got v. sick of the dining hall food. It wasn’t bad, per se, just monotonous. But then we started going out to dinner in the second week, and it worked out great. </p>
<p>As far as the writing instruction…
We started the day with a writing warm-up or exercise–like describing one of the counselors as he sat on a chair, or trying to make English words that sounded like a piece of Serbian poetry, etc. The instructors (all graduates of the workshop) took turns doing these warm-ups. Tuesdays and Thursdays after this we’d have a more involved writing activity, such as trying to listen in on peoples’ conversations/stalk them, or riding the bus and observing, etc. The other days we’d move to seminar, in which we read (published/well-known/famous) writing and discussed how to craft a good poem/story/whatever. Then was a TWO HOUR!!! : ) lunch break and then workshop. Workshopping was kind of brutal for me the first time, because you just have to sit there and take it. Stuff like–“what makes this a poem?” “I don’t understand your line breaks?” and such. But you realize later that much of the advice you’ve gotten was really really great. Of course, most of the time you’re critiquing your peers’ writing in workshop, but you learn a lot from them too. Workshop and seminar groups stay the same; writing activity groups change every day and this is actually how I met my friends on the program.</p>
<p>Socially, there are a lot of different ways to meet people–roommate, RA group, seminar/workshop group, writing activity group, etc.–but you still have to be fairly proactive and willing to give it a shot. It took me about five days into the program to become friends with the people who would be my friends, and until that point I was sort of stressed from being constantly “on” all the time. But then everything clicked, and I am so so happy I did it. I still keep in touch with two friends from the program (I did it two summers ago) and have stayed at their houses when in the area, invited them to my house, etc.</p>
<p>A lot of people were really dedicated writers and sure they wanted to do that for a living (or, you know, not much of a living, as the case may be…) I, on the other hand, had (and have) no idea what I want to do. It may very well not involve creative writing, as I feel you have to be 100% committed to that to pursue it as a career. However, it was okay that people had different levels of commitment to writing. Of course, you have to love it, but you don’t have to want to do it intensely for the rest of your life. They paint a realistic, not overly-rosy picture of what it takes to be a professional writer while still encouraging you.</p>
<p>Stephen Lovely, the director of the program, is also really great. All your teachers/counselors really care about you and your writing. It’s fantastic and inspiring to be in such a community of writers.</p>
<p>In essence, I absolutely LOVED the program. The first week was ok-ish; the second week was one of the best weeks of my life. My writing AND social skills/confidence developed a huge amount. I recommend that anyone who has any interest apply, and good luck!</p>
<p>Ask me if you’ve got any other Qs.</p>
<p>Are there any good creative writing summer programs for a HS graduate the summer after graduation? Looks like most of these have an age limit.</p>
<p>^Iowa!!!</p>
<p>I don’t know if anyone’s mentioned it already, but if not, the Teen Ink NYC Summer Writing Program is absolutely fantastic- two weeks of intense writing, with the added bonus of seeing five or six Broadway shows, three museums, and other cool stuff (we got to visit the New York Times building, meet with the editor and eat in their cafeteria!)</p>