Young Writers Workshop

Join a coeducational writing community of intellectually curious and motivated high school students to develop your talents in poetry, fiction, playwriting and creative nonfiction. Participants will:

• Receive personal instruction and critique from professional writers in several genres of writing: poetry, fiction, playwriting and creative nonfiction
• Learn techniques that help writers recognize strengths, potential and avenues for successful writing, editing and publishing
• Discover new ways to write about and empower their own lives

Converse College has a unique and vibrant history of developing writers. Converse graduates have attained national critical acclaim for their work as professional writers of poetry and fiction. These graduates include Poet Laureate of Vermont Ellen Bryant Voigt, a finalist for the National Book Award, and Julia Mood Peterkin, the only South Carolinian to win the Pulitzer Prize. With the support of our faculty, recent Converse students have been honored with distinguished national awards such as The Bucknell Fellowship for Younger Poets, The Stony Brook Short Fiction Prize, and The Hub City Writing Awards. Recent graduates have continued their writing studies at some of our nation’s finest graduate writing programs including Brown University, Emerson College, the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Massachusetts. Converse graduates and other aspiring writers across the country are also enrolling in Converse's new low-residency MFA program.

The Program

The faculty, staff and guest writers of the Young Writers Workshop will conduct seminars and panels geared to a range of interests. Participants will sharpen their writing skills through daily critique sessions led by professional writers, and through writing workshops, craft discussions, panels and readings. A limited, selective enrollment will ensure that participants receive personalized instruction.

Writers Workshop Faculty

	Brent Glenn is a member of the Theatre and Dance Department at Converse College. In addition to being an active member of Actor’s Equity, Brent was a founding member of the Echota Performing Arts Festival and artistic director of the Center Theatre in Georgia. Many of his plays have been produced or presented as staged readings in Georgia and New York City. In addition, he has received two Georgia Folklife Grants in playwriting, written plays on commission for the Arts Councils of Hall, Banks and Towns Counties in Georgia, and has had a collection of his poetry entitled The Dracula Poems published by Circle Myth Press.
	Linda Holden received her MEd from Converse College. She is a poet and has taught poetry for the Honors and Academy summer programs at the SC Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities for the past three years. She is also a teacher and consultant to the Spartanburg Writing Project and served as the director of the Teen Writing Program. Her work has appeared in The South Carolina Review, Passenger, Upcountry Review, Prickly Pear, The Conversationalist and Concept. One of Holden’s poems was recently performed in Stepsisters: A Poetic dialogue on Race and Womanhood. She was an assistant poetry editor of the 2004 literary magazine, Emrys Journal.
	Sam Howie’s story collection, Rapture Practice, was released in August 2009 by Main Street Rag Press. His fiction and nonfiction have appeared in numerous periodicals including Shenandoah, Fiction International, The Writer’s Chronicle, Potomac Review, and Southern Humanities Review. His work has been anthologized by the Hub City Writers Project and Main Street Rag. Sam has been a judge in several writing contests, including The Atlantic Monthly Student Writing Contest. He teaches English at Converse, where he also directs The Writing Center and The Young Writers Summer Workshop.
	Mamie Morgan was born and raised in Spartanburg, SC. She graduated with a BA in religion and English from Wofford College. Mamie received her MFA in poetry from UNCW, where she taught seminars in poetry, fiction and creative non-fiction. She is currently teaching at the SC Governor’s School for Arts and Humanities and working on a book of essays.
	Erin Templeton’s research interests include transatlantic modernism, the intersections of authorship and gender in early twentieth century literature, and textual studies. She has attended the Yeats International Summer School in Sligo Ireland, and more recently, she returned to Ireland to participate in a summer seminar sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities dedicated to a study of James Joyce’s Ulysses. Dr. Templeton enjoys teaching American literature as well as twentieth-century literature in its many forms and varieties. She has taught such classes as: Popular American literature, twentieth-century poetry, “Bad Girls and the Boys Who Love Them,” and the “Americans in Paris.” In the works are classes on F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, 20th century American fiction, Irish literature, and eco-literature and criticism.

 

Enrollment

The program is open to motivated rising 10th, 11th and 12th graders. Admission is selective and is based primarily on the student’s application, writing sample and teacher recommendations.

Tuition & Financial Assistance

The Young Writers Summer Workshop is designed as a weeklong residential program. Tuition covers residence hall accommodations, all meals, materials and on-campus activities. Early-bird tuition (applications received by March 31) is $675 and regular tuition is $775. A limited number of need-based scholarships up to $200 are available.

How to Apply

Download and print the application
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Deadlines for 2010

March 31
Early-bird application due for $100 discount on tuition

April 15
Early-bird notification of acceptance

April 30
Regular application deadline

April 30
Early-bird non-refundable deposit of $100 due

May 1
Regular applicants notified of acceptance

May 15
Non-refundable $100 deposit due for regular applicants

June 1
Final tuition balance due for all applicants

The following must be submitted:

• A completed application
• Financial Support Application (if you wish to be considered for assistance)
• Sealed letters of support from two teachers
• A writing sample of poetry or fiction (5 pages maximum)

For more information, contact:

Sam Howie
English Instructor and
Director of the Writing Center
(864) 596-9597
sam.howie@converse.edu