Hawthornden Brooklyn invites applications from creative high school students who currently attend New York City public schools to participate in our Summer 2025 Young Writers’ Workshop. In three separate ten-day workshops, students will have the opportunity to sharpen their skills in either fiction, poetry, or creative nonfiction at the Hawthornden Brooklyn house in Ditmas Park, a space specially designed for writers. 

Workshops will include guided instruction, assigned reading, field trips, mini lessons, collaboration, as well as the time and space to generate new work. Class size is limited to 10 students per workshop, and lunch will be provided. Each student will receive a stipend of $1000 and have access to quiet writing spaces, and an elaborate library. For students interested in creative writing, this is a great chance to shoot your shot and become part of Hawthornden’s literary community.

Application Opens: March 3rd, 2025. Click here to apply

Deadline to Apply: April 1st, 2025

Creative Nonfiction Workshop July 7 - 18

Participants will learn to craft their own personal narrative through the study of setting, place, detail, description, thematic symbols, and insight. Through the course of reading model texts, craft discussions, guided prompts, conferences, participants will work toward finishing a creative piece to be included in an anthology and public reading.

Teacher: Emily Brandt

Emily Brandt is the author of the poetry collection Falsehood, as well as three chapbooks, with decades of experience writing, teaching, and supporting creative community. She's a co-founding editor of No, Dear, curator of the LINEAGE reading series at Wendy’s Subway, and member of the video art collaborative Temp.Files. She’s of Sicilian, Polish & Ukrainian descent, and lives in Brooklyn.

Poetry Workshop July 21 - August 1

Participants will learn to craft their own poetry through the study of line, meter, image, diction, and figurative language. Through the course of reading model texts, craft discussions, guided prompts, conferences, participants will work toward finishing a creative piece to be included in an anthology and public reading.

Teacher: Dan Kraines

Dan Kraines is a queer poet and teacher of Viennese, Bolivian, and Ukrainian heritage. Strap will be his first full-length book, forthcoming from Iron Oak Editions. Queer Longing, his PhD dissertation, won the Susan B. Anthony prize for gender and sexuality studies from the University of Rochester. He has published two chapbooks: Licht and Jaffa. Dan works at the writers’ residency Hawthornden Brooklyn on weekends and for the poet Sharon Olds during the week. He taught creative writing and creative nonfiction at the Fashion Institute of Technology, and ELA with creative writing at a high school for underserved students, prior to his current work. He lives in an old tenement apartment on the Lower East Side.

Fiction Workshop August 4 - August 15

Participants will learn to craft their own fiction manuscripts through the study of character, conflict, point-of-view, and narrative voice. Through the course of reading model texts and craft discussions, guided prompts, conferences, participants will work toward finishing a creative piece to be included in an anthology and public reading.

Teacher: Mohammad Hakima

Mohammad Hakima is an NYC-based author and educator. He moved to the United States in 1998 from Tehran, Iran, and started writing after learning to speak English. His work has been published in or is forthcoming from Prairie Schooner, Bellevue Literary Review, Black Warrior Review, Boulevard, Passages North, Popula and other publications. He is the winner of Boulevard magazine's 2024 Nonfiction Contest for Emerging Writers, and he is a 2024 Jack Hazard Fellow. His writing has received support from Vermont Studio Center, the Kenyon Writers Workshop, and the Sewanee Writers Conference. His stories have been twice a Finalist and once Shortlisted for the William Wisdom Faulkner prize. He has an MFA in fiction from The New School, and he’s a high school special education teacher.

The curricula for all three summer workshops were designed by the teachers in collaboration with Sidik Fofana and t'ai freedom ford. 

Eligibility guidelines

• Must currently be enrolled in a New York City public high school.

• Must be entering 10th, 11th, or 12th grade. Students entering 9th grade and graduating seniors are not eligible to apply. 

Policies and Requirements

• Students are allowed to miss one class day without penalty. Any additional missed days will result in a reduction of the stipend. 

• Students will not receive the stipend until the last day of their session. 

• All students must adhere to our Code of Conduct, which can be found here.

To apply, please:

Fill out this application form.

• One recommendation letter is required. Please include the contact information for your recommender in the application form. Hawthornden will issue the recommendation form directly to your recommender. 

• The young writer application form must be submitted by 5PM on Tuesday, April 1. 

• The recommender form must be submitted by 5PM on Friday, April 4.

Click here for Hawthornden Brooklyn Summer 2025: Writing Residency for Teachers