Creative Writing

Whether you consider yourself to be an experienced writer or more of a dabbler, our creative writing workshops are expansive enough for everyone. YPI writing workshops involve a combination of independent creative writing and sharing/collaborating with fellow teachers and classmates. Writers will write, revise, and edit their pieces throughout the week before sharing them with the rest of the camp at We Jazz on Friday afternoon.

Our writing workshops are segmented into two different tracts: poetry and short story. While both workshops are similar, our Master Teachers understand and appreciate the critical differences between these two artforms. 

While poets explore not just poetic elements, but also their own understanding of composition and the written word, short story writers work to implement deeper understandings of what makes the concept of story tick (plot, character, structure, pace, and style).

At the end of the week, our wordsmiths tackle a writer’s greatest hopes and fears: publication. By publishing your story online and reading your work in front of the camp, you will get a taste of what it feels like to be a working writer in the public eye and walk away with professional pieces to add to your writing portfolio that have been informed by:

• Dedicated, one-on-one feedback with and from our Master Teachers
• Attentive, constructive, and ego-free critique to and from your fellow writers during writer’s circle
• Enhancement of your own understanding of your writing work and skills
• Analysis of literary elements from the work of published authors
• Collaboration with fellow writers or artists from other disciplines (your choice!) on a group project