Write-to-Recognition

Game Leader

Leah Ly is just delighted to be starting a new adventure with Writopia Lab as a Game Leader. After graduating from Rowan University with a BA in Radio/Television/Film with a Creative Writing concentration, she has spent a decade professionally entrenched in nerdy and creative spaces. For the past few years, tabletop roleplaying games (TTRPGs) have been her happy place. She is truly the embodiment of the theatre kid to TTRPG enthusiast pipeline. Her passion for character crafting, worldbuilding, and collaborative storytelling combined with her deep commitment to performance has been the cornerstone of her approach to every game. 

Between campaigns, Leah wrote and performed her first original theatrical piece in spring 2023 and has been appearing in independent theatre in the DC metro area ever since. She is so excited to be engaging young people in the power of tabletop gaming with Writopia Lab, where she can create magical moments (and also play all the bad guys). 

STEM Writing

View STEM Writing on the Schedule!

In the STEM Writing workshop, tweens and teens who love science, math, and technology have the rare opportunity to experience how it feels to be a science writer for the week!  

Writers explore journalistic science writing, Sci-fi, and personal science writing, and commit to completing one fully developed piece by the end of the week. The workshop is led by passionate science readers and writers and will be peppered with visits from full-time science writers and editors.

“My son’s instructor perfectly understands his strengths and weaknesses. Indeed, they work amazingly together: she is helping Markian blend in with the other classmates, build his confidence in expressing his thoughts from a structural standpoint and encouraging him to productively put ideas on paper line after line. Everyone is enjoying this class and the time just flies by… Thank you!”

Lilya

Congratulations 2024 Hudson-to-Housatonic Scholastic Writing Awards recipients!

View the full list of works recognized in the 2024 Hudson-to-Housatonic Writing Region of the Scholastic Writing Awards below!

A panel of professional novelists, editors, teachers, poets, librarians, journalists, and other literary professionals selected these works from 2,708 works submitted this year.

• 584 Honorable Mentions awarded to promising works
• 319 Silver Keys awarded to distinguished works
• 112 Gold Keys awarded to the most accomplished works
• 5 American Voice Nominees selected as the strongest regional works

Gold Keys are automatically forwarded for consideration at the national level of the Scholastic Writing Awards.

H2H Awards Ceremony

To recognize their outstanding work, this year's Gold Key, Silver Key, and Honorable Mention recipients are invited, along with their guests, teachers, and our esteemed jurors, to the 2024 Awards Ceremony for the Hudson-to-Housatonic Region of the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards!

• Date: Sunday, April 7th, 2024
• Time: 2 PM to 4 PM ET
• Where: Manhattanville College's Reid Castle
  2900 Purchase St, Purchase NY, 10577
• Click here to RSVP!

American Voices Nominees

• Valencia Massaro of the School of the New York Times Summer Academy, for The Mall (Short Story)
• Claire Nam of Horace Greeley High School, for Lakȟóta Language Revitalization: We Must Save Our Dying Tongues (Critical Essay)
• Zahra Sadoughi of Edgemont Jr Senior High School, for Dark Space (Poetry)
• Lauren Zhang of Darien High School, for Magnolia Tree (Short Story)
• Emily Zhang of Roy C Ketcham Senior High School, for bloodred white & blue (Poetry)

2024 Hudson-to-Housatonic Scholastic Awards

Congratulations 2024 DC Metro Scholastic Writing Awards recipients!

View the full list of works recognized in the 2024 DC Metro Writing Region of the Scholastic Writing Awards below!

A panel of professional novelists, editors, teachers, poets, librarians, journalists, and other literary professionals selected these works from 2,351 works submitted this year.

• 482 Honorable Mentions awarded to promising works
• 258 Silver Keys awarded to distinguished works
• 110 Gold Keys awarded to the most accomplished works
• 4 American Voice Nominees selected as the strongest regional works

Gold Keys are automatically forwarded for consideration at the national level of the Scholastic Writing Awards.

DC Awards Ceremony

To recognize their outstanding work, this year's Gold Key, Silver Key, and Honorable Mention recipients are invited, along with their guests, teachers, and our esteemed jurors, to the 2024 Awards Ceremony for the DC Metro Writing Region of the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards!

• Date: Sunday, April 21st, 2024
• Time: 2 PM to 4 PM ET
• Where: UDC Theater of the Arts
  4200 Connecticut Ave NW, Washington, DC 20008
• Click here to RSVP!

American Voices Nominees

• Dylan Furbay of Landon School for Man, Monster, Man-Monster: Masculinity (Critical Essay)
• Lily Scheckner for My Backseat Baby: or, My Last Name (Poetry)
• Chelsea Zhu of Richard Montgomery High School, for Song of Survival (Poetry)
• Aileen Zhao of Mclean High School, for Robot Girl (Science Fiction & Fantasy) & Everyone You’ve Ever Kissed Up To Now (Poetry)

2024 DC Metro Scholastic Awards

Sports Writing

Click here to see Sports Writing on the schedule!

In our Sports Writing Workshops, middle school and teen writers have the opportunity to explore every form of sports writing from reviews to features, to op-eds and personal essays. In our Sports Writing Full-Day Program, campers also eat lunch in the park, have an opportunity to play sports and join creative arts electives (like graphic novels and filmmaking). On certain days, we will head out to live games, interview athletes, and meet sports editors and writers.

2023 Youth Essay Writing Conference:

A Celebration of Critical Thinking Across Disciplines

Writopia’s 2023 youth essay writing conference will be held both online and in-person.

Our in-person conferences will be held in New York City and Washington, DC on Sunday, February 12th, 2023 from 2 PM to 5 PM EST.

Our online conference will be held on Saturday, February 11th, 2023, from 1 PM to 4 PM EST/10 AM to 1 PM PST.

The Conference welcomes the next generation to share their ideas, passions, and research with their peers and the community at large.

Submissions for our 2023 conference are closed.

Featured Panels

Autonomy

Democracy, freedom, independence - these are terms that we hear often. They are ideals that have been, and continue to be, sought after. Now more than ever autonomy has come to the forefront of numerous discussions from the personal to the political. There is a point where we allow for governance and to self-govern, but what happens when there is disagreement? When should governing bodies and authority figures, including family and teachers, have agency and when should we have agency over ourselves? What is autonomy to you? How do you maintain autonomy? Are there situations where you should relinquish it?

Pop Culture/Fandom

Pop culture unites society in our joy for entertainment through music, television, film, video games, the internet, and social media. It’s part of our everyday conversations, elicits interpersonal connections, shows us how the world reacts to new ideas, and influences trends. In what ways do you think society has benefited from, or has been hindered by, pop culture influences? How does pop culture influence government, politics, education, and art? Is pop culture art? What can we learn from pop culture influence and the way the world interacts through pop culture?

Other Panels

The themes are formed organically from a pool of critical essays we have received from writers from all over the country. Some of our past panels and panels we hope to host during our 2023 conference are listed below:

• Literature/Film/Media/Music/The Arts
• Science/Technology
• Philosophy/Religion
• Current Events
• History
• Race/Culture/Gender
• Call to Action!
• Traditions and Rituals
• and more!

Connecting Across Cultures:
Jewish and Muslim Teens Write and Share Together

Since 2007, Writopia Lab has been helping young writers from diverse backgrounds come together in a creative community which fosters the refinement of their craft, the development and sharing of their personal voice, and the ability to engage in meaningful conversations around their writings. This approach is rooted in our belief that celebrating and sharing stories contributes to the building of stronger, more literate and empathetic young people and societies.

Donate to Writopia Lab

Rebecca Wallace-Segall - Founder & CEO

Rebecca has been working with youth from diverse backgrounds since 2005, and has been dedicated to bringing youth together across cultural lines ever since. You can read the founding story in The Village Voice. She teaches, writes, presents, and curates panels for schools, events, and conferences on a variety of topics including "The Case for Youth Voice, Creative Writing, and Joy-Based Writing Programs in Schools and After School," "Building Safe Spaces: The Power of Creative Writing for Kids Who Have Experienced Trauma," and more.

Yael Schick - Executive Director

Yael has been developing and running programs and leading Writopia’s workshops for over a decade. She has been recognized as an “Outstanding Educator” by the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards in 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2017, and 2018, and her students have been awarded National Medals, including American Voice Awards, Best in Grade Awards, and Silver Medals with Distinction in their senior portfolios. She graduated from the Harvard Graduate School of Education in 2022 with a Masters in Education Leadership, Organizations, and Entrepreneurship. She holds a BA in English Literature from Stern College for Women of Yeshiva University.

Tasnim Hussain - Program Manager

Tasnim has been developing and running programs at Writopia for over three years and has emerged as one of our most requested and beloved instructors. She ran a popular Religion Salon at WriCampia with Yael where campers reflected on spirituality, religious identity and beliefs in literary form and shared those pieces with each other. Tasnim graduated as salutatorian from Hunter College, where she majored in English Education with a minor in Sociology. She has been published in GRLQUASH, a bi-annual literary magazine, and Hunter College's The OliveTree Review.

Pop Culture Writing

Click here to see Pop Culture Writing workshops on the schedule!

Writopia Lab is launching a new series of writing workshops inspired by our favorite icons and elements of pop culture. Join us as we dive headfirst into the art of storytelling with a contemporary twist! From the unique characters of your favorite films to the heart-pounding beats of chart-topping songs, every facet of pop culture becomes creative writing inspiration in this workshop series.

All young and teen writers are welcome, whether they have attended Writopia Lab for years or are new to our warm writing community, and whether they are passionate novelists or nervous and reluctant writers.

With guidance from our seasoned instructors — all published authors or produced playwrights themselves — writers will learn from our culture’s most successful, pervasive, and timely narratives. Workshops are student-centered and author-led. Sessions are peppered with original and fun writing exercises.

Location: Online
Length: 1 hour
Price: $45.00