SUMMER 2025!

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We’ve got LOTS of cool writing opportunities on the calendar this summer, from one-day fun days to week-long vision quests.

Locations for our summer programming include Quarry, the Poe Museum, Studio Two Three, the Main Branch of the public library, and the VMFA! Be sure to note where your selections are taking place.

AGES 9-12

Knocking out a short story from start to finish takes serious effort, as every writer knows. It's a BIG accomplishment. Sometimes you get a great beginning but rewrite the middle five times, sometimes you get all the way to the end but can't find the perfect way to wrap it all up... sometimes you can't even get a good first line down without doubting yourself. But you know what really, really helps? Having a group of writers around you cheering you on and offering constructive criticism along the way! Be ready to dream up a great story, commit to the delicious but tough work of writing and editing, and complete a piece by the end of camp.

Join us for an engaging and immersive creative writing workshop where we explore the mystery, superstition, and symbolism of black cats – both in Edgar Allan Poe’s The Black Cat and in the real-life feline residents of the Poe Museum. Come meet the Museum’s black cats, Edgar and Tibs, and pay respect to the namesake of Poe’s own feline fable, dearly departed Pluto. Writers will explore the significance – and superstition – of black cats in literature, folklore, and society. This workshop encourages young learners to embrace creativity while exploring the power of mystery, symbolism, and the art of suspenseful storytelling.

Participants will tour the Poe Museum, immersing themselves in the mysterious world of the man and the myth. The tuition fee covers museum admission, materials, and dedicated instructional time. Unleash your creativity, be inspired by Poe's enduring literary legacy, and join us for a macabre, melancholic, memorable writing journey!

June 13 Special Feature: Black Cat Adoption Event at the Poe Museum! Please see PoeMuseum.org closer to the date for further details. This event will take place in the afternoon of June 13, interested families are encouraged to stay or return to adopt a black cat of their own!

So you're a writer, and you love it ALL: fiction, poetry, journaling, whatever interesting, weird stuff you can do with words! Or you're not SURE if you love it all, but you're really into the idea of giving it a shot. Either way, this camp is for YOU, because we're going to make sampling lots of styles fun. We'll write, read, chat, play games, and share in the excitement of fresh creative work!

AGES 12-15

Dungeons & Dragons is a collective storytelling game played amongst friends with dice telling you what you can and can't do. You are cordially invited to come play D&D over the course of six weeks in this online campaign -- to build a character and go on an adventure with us. What makes this particular D&D game unique is that we will be taking breaks to allow writers space to write the story of their character, with the hope that -- at the end of the workshop -- the story will continue.

Join us for an engaging and immersive creative writing workshop where we explore the mystery, superstition, and symbolism of black cats – both in Edgar Allan Poe’s The Black Cat and in the real-life feline residents of the Poe Museum. Come meet the Museum’s black cats, Edgar and Tibs, and pay respect to the namesake of Poe’s own feline fable, dearly departed Pluto. Writers will explore the significance – and superstition – of black cats in literature, folklore, and society. This workshop encourages young learners to embrace creativity while exploring the power of mystery, symbolism, and the art of suspenseful storytelling.

Participants will tour the Poe Museum, immersing themselves in the mysterious world of the man and the myth. The tuition fee covers museum admission, materials, and dedicated instructional time. Unleash your creativity, be inspired by Poe's enduring literary legacy, and join us for a macabre, melancholic, memorable writing journey!

Over the course of a three hour workshop, students will be taught the technical form and rules of screenwriting, as well as the story elements of a feature film. Students will demonstrate this knowledge by writing a one scene screenplay, encompassing the elements of a full screenplay including three act structure, conflict and resolution, and character growth. Screenplays will come from a variety of prompts that encourage students to write about conflicts and challenges they have overcome in their own lives.

Ekphrastic writing is simply a fancy way of saying “writing about art.” In this class, we’ll look at famous art from different eras and use them as inspiration for our own creativity.

If you’re ever in a writing rut or want to start writing but don’t know how, ekphrastic writing is a great place to start! Take inspiration from other artists around you and try your hand at your own creations.

Outline:

Day One: studying and writing about early forms of art—African and Asian

Day Two: studying and writing about The Renaissance

Day Three: studying and writing about Japanese Woodblock prints

Day Four: studying and writing about European Impressionism

Day Five: studying and writing about modern art in America

Materials needed: notebook and writing utensils

Learn about the amazing women who’ve shaped literature! In this class, we’ll study the lives and work of Sylvia Plath, Emily Dickinson, Anne Sexton, Audre Lorde, and Gwendolyn Brooks. We will garner inspiration from these famous women writers and create our own poems based off of their work!

Outline:

Day One: Sylvia Plath

Day Two: Emily Dickinson

Day Three: Anne Sexton

Day Four: Audre Lorde

Day Five: Gwendolyn Brooks

Materials needed: notebook and writing utensil

AGES 15-18

In this workshop, students will learn the basics of film criticism. Students will learn about and have the opportunity to apply film theory to their writing, with a focus on how to translate cinematic elements and their effects into words, and how those elements interact with story components like plot, character, and theme. Upon completion of the workshop, students will have written a piece of film criticism or essay about one of their favorite films, genres, or filmmakers, and leave with a stronger understanding of cinematic technique and how to verbalize what is unique about the art form of film. 

Writing with Oracle Cards (Ages 16 to 18): Like tarot decks, oracle cards are amazing tools for crafting a story or a poem. Together, we'll draw cards as inspiration for a new story, poem, or essay. Cards will be provided, but if you have your own deck, feel free to bring it! Our lovely backdrop at Studio Two Three will provide tons of artistic inspiration for the week.

What is confessional poetry?

For most contemporary critics, confessional poetry marked a revolution in poetic style as well as specific subject matter and the relationship between a poem’s speaker and self. Confessional poets wrote in direct, colloquial speech rhythms and used images that reflected intense psychological experiences, often culled from childhood or battles with mental illness or breakdown. They tended to utilize sequences, emphasizing connections between poems. They grounded their work in actual events, referred to real persons, and refused any metaphorical transformation of intimate details into universal symbols. -from The Poetry Foundation

Poems we will study:

Day One: Sylvia Plath, Morning Song

Day Two: Robert Lowell, Skunk Hour

Day Three: W.D. Snodgrass Heart’s Needle

Day Four: Adrienne Rich, Diving into the Wreck

Day Five: Anne Sexton, Her Kind

Materials needed: notebook and writing utensil, reading materials provided