Advanced Writing Seminar Residency

An application-only pre-college program in the heart of NYC! We review applications starting February 1st as they come in and offer spots on a rolling basis. The final deadline for applications is May 1st. Please email teenprograms@writopialab.org for more information.

Writopia Lab’s Advanced Writing Seminar at Pratt Art Institute

Sunday, July 13th to Saturday, July 26th, 2025

Join Writopia Lab for an immersive two weeks of writing in the heart of New York City! In its fourth year, we have designed our pre-college program to be small, warm, and intensive, working with young writers to deepen and expand their craft, while also developing into curious, passionate observers of the world around them. To that end, we run our program not only out of the physical classroom at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, but also make a classroom out of New York City itself.

Writers will spend their mornings in intimate multi-genre writing workshops led by published authors and produced playwrights. Most afternoons will be spent in niche college-level genre intensives taught by experts in their field (last year’s intensives included spoken word poetry, villain psychology, detective stories, the site-specific ten-minute play, zinemaking, and micro/macro fiction). Afternoons and evenings will be spent expanding their writing horizons and exploring everything a global publishing capital like New York City offers. We’ll visit locations around the five boroughs both beloved and under the radar, with an eye on observational writing. (Past excursions have included walking the Brooklyn Bridge, reading Walt Whitman at Fort Greene Park, taking in the skyline on the Staten Island Ferry, poetry writing at the Brooklyn Promenade, people-watching on the Coney Island boardwalk, and sharing writing with the public at a teen open mic at the legendary Nuyorican poets cafe on the Lower East Side).

Writers stay on campus at the Pratt Art Institute (at 135 Emerson Place) in the historic Clinton Hill neighborhood of Brooklyn, where they forge a caring community of young writers and artists.

Developed for dedicated teen writers, the Advanced Writing Seminar Residency in NYC and is open to rising high school sophomores, juniors, and seniors, and to rising college freshmen.

Tuition: $4200. Limited financial aid is available. To apply for aid, please email financialaid@writopialab.org with a copy of your tax returns and a brief statement of need.

Please email us at TeenPrograms@writopialab.org for any further questions.

Application Includes: