CTWP to hold in-person, virtual summer writing camps starting June 6

The Central Texas Writers’ Project will offer four two-week writing camps this summer beginning on June 6. These camps — some virtual and some face-to-face — are designed for writers of all levels and experience from ages 10 to 16.

The summer’s first session is titled The Revision Project. In this virtual workshop, writers will compete (against themselves) for a chance to see just what they’re capable of when it comes to revision. With each session, campers will get a daily challenge to incorporate into their writing.

The goal is to maintain the writer’s message and style while meeting the challenge requirements. A panel of judges (bloggers, writing teachers, professors, and journalists) will provide feedback to guide writers along the way. This camp will expose the infinite possibilities writers have for their pieces, so everyone will leave better equipped to take on the writing challenges ahead — assignments and beyond. This camp will be held online June 6- 17, 9 a.m. to 12 p.m.

The second camp is called Primarily Prose. This in-person writing camp runs from June 13 to 23, from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and is intended for writers aged 12 to 16. Primarily Prose will encourage participants to discover the interconnections between poetry and prose, guiding them to reveal their own unique writer’s voices. “Using these tools, we’ll create backstories for characters and scenes and also real-world pieces such as opinions and posts,” said Diane Osborne, program coordinator in the Curriculum and Instruction Department at Texas State University. “Finally, we’ll collect our creations in an online portfolio similar to the one this camp's instructor used to break into professional writing in the 1990s.”

CTWP’s third camp is titled High Five! This two-week program incorporates the five senses to bring a young writer’s work to life. Participants will engage in a variety of writing prompts and exercises designed to stimulate the imagination while exploring how sensory-rich images, metaphors and details can transform poems, short stories, scripts and memoirs. High Five! will meet virtually from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. from July 5 to 15. This workshop is intended for writers aged 10 to 14 years old.

The final young writers camp is a week-long, face-to-face workshop titled Walking and Writing with Nature. This camp begins July 5 and meets every day from 8:30 a.m. to 12 p.m. In this camp, writers will meet at a central location at Texas State University. From there, participants will walk, talk about and study different types of sciences outdoors, finding places and experiences to write about along the way. This living classroom will allow young writers to know more about their own backyards in Central Texas while creating a relationship with the outdoors and the Texas State campus. This camp is intended for writers aged 10 to 14.

For more information about CTWP, contact Diane Osborne at do11@txstate.edu or 512-245-3680. For a complete list of summer writing camps, visit the CTWP website at education.txstate.edu/ci/ ctwp/youth-programs/ summer-camps-menu. html or by calling 512- 245-3680.

CTWP is part of the National Writing Project (nwp.org).

Dr. Liz Stephens is the Director of the Central Texas Writing Project and is a professor in the Curriculum and Instruction department at Texas State University.