June 24-29, 2012

The Sarah Lawrence College Summer Seminar provides published and unpublished adult writers the opportunity to explore their chosen subject matter and deepen their craft. Our faculty of acclaimed poets and fiction and nonfiction writers meet with seminar participants daily in small, intensive workshops and individual conferences. Faculty members offer lectures, readings, and panel discussions so students and teachers can engage one another across topics and genres. Workshops embrace a noncompetitive, supportive model designed to help participants discover their strengths as well as areas for further development and exploration. The seminar creates a community of writers, which enables participants to find new directions, produce new work, and foster new ideas in the company of people devoted to the calling and craft of writing.

The Weeklong Workshops

Workshops are noncompetitive environments in which students are encouraged to take risks, generate new work, and reflect on work completed before the program. The emphasis is on each writer’s effort to discover a unique voice, explore subject matter, and engage craft elements necessary to bring vision to fruition. Workshops are limited to 12 participants. Each writer is given ample opportunity to present work for discussion.

The Faculty

The Summer Seminar for Writers is led by an acclaimed faculty of poets and writers. They are:

Nelly Reifler (Fiction)
Joan Silber (Fiction)
John D’Agata (Nonfiction)
Michael Greenberg (Nonfiction)
Scott Snyder (Graphic Novel)
Olivia Birdsall (YA Novel)
Stephen Dobyns (Poetry)
Dorianne Laux and Joseph Millar (Poetry)
Tom Lux (Poetry)

Read full biographies of the seminar faculty»

The Conference

Conferences are a unique aspect of the seminar. Once during the week, each workshop member will meet individually with his or her teacher for in-depth discussion of the student’s work.

Supplemental Conferences

In addition to the workshop conference, students may also sign up for conferences with guest faculty members who are available exclusively for this purpose. Students will be asked to send in work ahead of time.

Readings, Lectures, and Social Events

Though we’ve designed the seminar schedule to create significant stretches of time for students to read and write, we have also scheduled a number of readings, lectures, and panel discussions. These events enable participants to take advantage of our faculty’s wide range of experience. There will also be a number of social events and several opportunities for participants to read from their work.