Creative Writing Workshop

Program Dates

July 11-22, 2022

With so few writing programs that cater exclusively to high school girls, Smith's Young Women's Writing Workshop allows you to explore your writing in a creative and supportive environment that fosters your love of writing in a variety of mediums.

All of your classes will be in a workshop style, which means each class will begin with a short segment that focuses on a single lesson. Then the instructors will check in with you to see what you are working on. Open writing time follows. The class session ends with each writer sharing her progress with the group.

Your professors are all published writers and poets. They will pay special attention to teaching you how to read your work to an audience and how to get published. At the end of the workshop, you will have the start of an online writing portfolio and some professional contacts in the literary world.

Courses & Workshops

Students will take part in one morning and one afternoon workshop during the program.

Students who have paid their deposit will receive a link to the course selection form in late April. In this form, students will rank their preferences for courses. These forms, along with the application essay, help place students in their classes. Although not everyone will get their first choice, all students will receive at least one first-choice placement. Students will be notified of their course placement in June.

Morning Session

Select a creative fiction course

• Fearless Writing: A Fiction Writing Workshop
• Finding Your Voice: A Fiction Workshop Grounded in Women’s History
• iFiction: Write, Revise and Create a Writing Identity
• Ready, Set, Write! - A Fiction Workshop
• The Writer’s Eye
• Word Coven
• Writing the Unseen: Weaving Magic into Story
• Writing Young Adult Fiction

Afternoon Session

Select from a variety of special interest classes

• Food Writing
• Intro to Screenwriting
• Making Poems
• Memoir Workshop: Who Are You?
• Playwriting
• Poetry
• STAND UP! A Comedy Writing Workshop
• Writing for Magazines

Our Faculty

Summer Precollege Programs at Smith College offers intellectually stimulating and unique opportunities for high school young women who wish to pursue their academic interests in the classroom and beyond. Every year these programs offer more than 200 young women the freedom to explore challenging and intriguing subjects, to strengthen their college applications and to sample the Smith undergraduate experience while living and studying with other motivated and ambitious students from around the world. Smith welcomes to these programs young women from many nationalities and diverse racial and socioeconomic backgrounds who together form an extraordinary intellectual community. The learning environment is hands-on, collaborative, exploratory, challenging and rich in role models. Smith faculty members offer personal attention in the classroom while encouraging students’ interests and passions and helping them develop new academic skills. Students take courses and workshops throughout each day and can choose from a variety of organized cultural, social, athletic and artistic activities at night and on the weekends. Here young women are taken seriously and inspired to excel—as scholars, scientists, writers, researchers, and leaders.

For International Students

Smith College Precollege Programs welcomes international students each year from around the world into our programs. You'll find that our small classes, similar to the undergraduate experience at Smith, offer exceptional learning in an environment where women are taken seriously and inspired to excel as leaders. Smith is located in the northeastern region of the United States, an area with some of the highest concentrations of international students anywhere in the country.

Life at Smith

A big part of your experience will be getting a real feel for college life and independent living. Immerse yourself in a campus setting that will inspire you, with the added benefit of caring supervision and guidance from a residential director and interns.

Live & Eat on Campus

Enjoy a room in one of Smith's beautiful houses, each with a living room that serves as a great home base. Students stay in Talbot, Lamont, Gillett and Northrop houses. Smith houses have single and double rooms, and most participants will have a roommate.

Each house has its own dining hall, and Smith's food is delicious and nutritious. Three meals a day are provided. The Dining Services staff accommodate gluten-free, vegetarian and vegan diets. They also work with participants who have other dietary restrictions.

A Typical Day

Classes go from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. After that, you can use all of the campus facilities (Smith has two gymnasiums, an indoor pool, indoor and outdoor track and tennis facilities, squash courts, dance studio, croquet court, and a fitness center. Smith is also home to a distinguished art museum, an award-winning botanic garden, and greenhouse), and go on field trips that are included as part of your tuition (music, theater) for afternoons, evenings and weekends. There is always an organized activity to join—or you can spend time with your friends from the program. Each program offers some of its own activities outside of the classroom, but we also plan activities that all students will want to participate in. There are also optional getaways, which require a separate fee.

CONTACT

Office of Summer Programs

30 Belmont Avenue Smith College Northampton MA 01063

Phone: 413-585-4455 Fax: 413-585-4344