<p>Okay, I didn’t read through all 22 pages of the thread… But I have some insight on a few of the programs listed - and possibly a few that weren’t listed.</p>
<p>The UVA Young Writers’ Workshop is absolutely incredible. It’s three weeks (or two, depending on which session you pick) of really intense and incredible experiences. I will issue a warning, which is that you should not attend this program if you aren’t prepared to work your butt off. We were all out of bed by 6:00 every morning, and we were doing activities, writing, etc. until 10:30 or 11:00 every night. The classes are incredible though. I went for fiction and I learned so much in the three weeks I was there. My teacher (Kenny) was really talented and really knew what he was talking about. He took us through workshops, writing exercises, submitting to literary magazines, etc. He tried to cover every aspect - and we were always invited to ask questions. The way the program works is that in the morning you do your lab, which is run by two of the counselors. You basically work on writing exercises and read some short excerpts of pieces. You do a lot of sharing of very, very rough drafts (as in you write something and then share it). But I got a lot of really, really strong pieces out of some of the exercises we did in lab. Then in the afternoons you do your workshop, which is with your teacher - for the first week you work on writing exercises and learning to share with each other. Our last two weeks we did workshops (two or three people a day) and also continued writing exercises. Our teacher also assigned us a short story and short writing assignment every night - plus the workshop stories we had to read. I will also say that the kids at YWW were really talented. I’ve done several writing programs, and the kids at YWW are the most talented group of kids I have ever had the pleasure of attending a program with. There are cons to YWW, but they have more to do with the fact that you don’t get a lot of free time (so although I was able to START a lot of things, I had to wait until I got home to finish anything), and with the fact that they aren’t really crazy about letting people be independent. We all had to eat breakfast with the girls and counselor from our suites, you could not walk to class without a teacher, etc. Which might be fine for some people, but since I was 17 when I attended last year and used to being able to run around wherever I wanted… It took some adjusting. But YWW is definitely worth it. I would really reccommend going.</p>
<p>On the Iowa Young Writers’ Studio: Although I haven’t attended yet (I leave in a little over a week and I am so excited), I have friends from YWW who attended Iowa and said it was the best program they’ve ever been to. From what they told me, it was even better than YWW. Iowa obviously is a name that has a lot of pull in the cretive writing world. So if you’re looking to go to school for creative writing or looking to impress literary magzines, etc. - from that standpoint, Iowa will be really, really good. I was actually hesitant to apply to Iowa because, from what I’ve heard from several teachers and fellow writers, Iowa may be really well known but it has a bit of a dark cloud over it for creative writers. (Wow, that was an awkward sentence - but I’m too exhausted to try and rephrase…) I’ve heard two major critiques again and again, which is that a.) Iowa focuses more on negative criticism than concrit and b.) that everyone who comes out of an Iowa program writes the same. As I said, I have not yet attended, but I’m willing to let you know what I found later in July (after I’ve attended).</p>
<p>On the Kenyon Review Young Writers Workshop: I was accepted and desperately wanted to attend, but unfortunately had to withdraw because of a family matter. From what I’ve heard though, it’s the best of the best. When it comes to Kenyon, that small little school on a hill is pretty much the Harvard of creative writing. It’s not well-known to the whole wide United States, etc. but in creative writing circles and editing circles and literary magazines - Kenyon is a name that carries some weigh. To that end, I have heard nothing but high praise for and fantastic reviews on the Kenyon Review Young Writers Workshop. I know both kids who have attended the workshop and kids who have gone onto college at Kenyon (one or two actually to major in creative writing) and they all say that to attend the workshop is one of the best decisions they have ever made - both from a “professional” and personal standpoint. So I strongly reccommend that one if you’re looking for a name that carries some weight.</p>
<p>As for programs that are not very prestigious, I’ve attended both the CTD creative writing course at Northwestern and the Education Unlimited Emerging Writers’ Institute at UC Berkeley. Both of them are programs that are fun and better when you’re younger. And although I didn’t learn as much at either of those as I learned at YWW, they helped me to get into all of the other (more prestigious) writing programs to which I was accepted. They show that you’re serious about wanting to study and learn about creative writing. So if you applied to a program and didn’t get in (and if you have a couple of years) I would suggest attending either the one at Northwestern or the one at UC Berkeley as a way to kind of bolster your resume.</p>
<p>CTD: This program was good. I did it as a rising high school freshman, so I was pretty young. My biggest problem with the program is that you can’t specify what genre you wish to work in. So everybody does poetry, everybody does mystery, everybody does short story, etc. You spent your entire day in the same class (from 8:00 to noon, and then from 1:00 to 4:30) with the same people and the same teacher. There were a lot of fun exercises and I made a lot of good friends, but it wasn’t really an outstanding program. Again, if you’re looking to show how dedicated you are to a more competitive summer writing program, then I would definitely go to CTD - but if you have a choice between CTD and another one then I would take the other option.</p>
<p>Emerging Writers Institute: I attened for two years (the first two years the program was running) and it was fun. There is a lot of reading in this program - almost more than there is writing. But you get to workshop things with a group that you meet with everyday, and you get to specify which genre you want to work in. You also pick two electives (I did things such as flash fiction, Young Adult writing, college essay writing, etc.) that you have every other day. Those are kind of a fun way to branch out of your little niche. Unlike CTD and even, to a certain extent, YWW - there are no limits on what you can write about. Emerging Writers really truly embraces free expression. There were people who did pieces that had a slight streak of erotica in them that were beautifully written and which were workshopped as seriously and as dilligently as any other piece. So that’s definitely a better one than CTD if you’re looking to use it as a bridge program.</p>
<p>I hope this helps some. I also suggest, if you can swing it, taking a creative writing class at a local community college. I’ve done this a couple of times, and although I always ended up being the youngest person in the class (the last one I took, the next youngest person was still 23 years older than me), I’ve made some really good contacts and now have two really, really good standing workshop groups. If you’re really serious about creative writing then this is definitely something I’d suggest trying - if nothing else, it’ll give you readers who aren’t your friends and parents and who will actually tell you the full truth. (And who also know how to give concrit instead of just telling you something sucks.)</p>
<p>Good luck to anybody looking for a program like this! I’ve had some of the best experiences of my life at the ones I have attended, and I’m sad that this is going to be the last one I can attend at the high school level. (Although there’s a whole different world of programs open to college students…)</p>