Summer Programs
Summer 2018 programming is gearing up! Registration for all programs will open on May 1, 2018.
Elementary Programs
Do you love Harry Potter or wish you could be a wizard? Then sign up for our magic-filled summer camp, Word Wizardry! We’ll make our own wands, write spells, create potion recipes, and even have a Horcrux scavenger hunt. Find out if you belong in Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, or Slytherin through our Sorting Ceremony, and then work hard to earn the House Cup for your house! Prepare your witch hats and brooms because we are going to turn words into magic!
It’s summer! Let’s go outside and… write poetry?!! That’s right--this week, we will go on a writing expedition to the natural world! Activities will include: rhyming freeze tag, writing an ode to a frog, writing poems on leaves, the metaphor olympics, and cloudbursting.
No poetry writing experience necessary. Come ready to play outside and write some cool poems!
Coming soon!
This is a placeholder for the morning program the week of June 25-29. More soon!
This is a placeholder for the morning program July 2-6, 2018. More info coming soon!
Do you love Harry Potter or wish you could be a wizard? Then sign up for our magic-filled summer camp, Word Wizardry! We’ll make our own wands, write spells, create potion recipes, and even have a Horcrux scavenger hunt. Find out if you belong in Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, or Slytherin through our Sorting Ceremony, and then work hard to earn the House Cup for your house! Prepare your witch hats and brooms
because we are going to turn words into magic!
More info coming soon
Do you love stories about strange monsters and brave heroes? About dangerous quests and magical treasure? Then join this fun week-long camp where we’ll read myths from all over the world, create our own heroes, and discover legends in our own backyards. Campers will be introduced to traditional stories from every continent and learn a little bit about the different cultures they belong to. Activities will include following the classic “Hero’s Journey,” making our own monsters, heroes, and treasure, and then writing adventures that combine them all. This would be a great camp for anyone who loves Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson Series.
Erin McInerney is a senior English major at the University of Iowa. She has studied creative writing and literary analysis, as well as book design and the fundamentals of editing and publishing. She has been a volunteer with the IYWP since the summer of 2017, is an IYWP administrative Intern for the 2017-2018 academic year, and has a lot of experience working with kids.
Have you always wanted to write a play or a short sketch? Would you like to teach a robot how to be your actor? In this camp you'll create a short sketch or scene and work with others to make it come to life. Our "actors" will be Sphero robots, which can move, light up, and even talk. You will learn how to program your actors to put on a show for you and your friends!
More info coming soon!
This is a placeholder for the morning program July 30-August 3. More info coming soon!
Teen Programs
Do you love asking questions? What about listening to stories? Join us for this camp on the art of oral history and you can do both! Together we will learn about how to prepare for an interview – what questions to ask, how to ask them, and why. Once you have a series of questions developed and a person to interview– we’ll send you out with a recorder to conduct your own oral history interview! After the interview is done you will learn how to transcribe the interview and craft it into a story of your experience. Afterward you will decide whether it should be published or archived. What story will you uncover?
If you love stories of fantasy, folklore, and mythology, come join a week of worldbuilding and creativity! We’ll make maps of new lands, write spells, discuss the finer points of magical creatures, dream up characters emerging into wild and mysterious predicaments, and turn the everyday scenes of Iowa City into enchanting and unfamiliar settings. Register now and get ready for writing, drawing, and plenty of magic!
Calling all fantasy enthusiasts, sci fi buffs, and those who simply want to play God! In World Building 101, you’ll get the chance to build your own world from scratch, delving into all the inner bones of what makes a world tick. We’ll explore politics, religion, magic, geography and more throughout the week as we write stories, draw maps and magical creatures, and go wherever else our imagination takes us.
More info coming soon on this afternoon program June 25-29!
Do you wish you could draw a poem using cartoon characters? What about writing a haiku using emojis? What kind of poem could you write in sharpie on a leaf or a frisbee? This week we will explore the strange and wonderful world of poetry comics--poems that incorporate visual elements. In the process, we will think about what an image can do to text, and what text can do to an image. At the end of the week, each participant will make their very own poetry comic zine!
No experience is necessary in poetry or comic-making. Come ready to write, draw, and think outside the box.
Nora Claire Miller is an MFA candidate at the Iowa Writers' Workshop. Her poems have appeared in DMQ Review, DecomP, Sidekick Lit, H.O.W. Journal, and elsewhere. Nora is originally from New York City.
Create a life mission statement. We’ll write about what brings us alive as learners on this planet and create a personal statement that can help to guide us through decisions about what classes to take, where and how we want to learn, what to do after high school, and how to organize a college experience. Once we have honed our statements, we’ll print them on posters, tshirts, and maybe even some public walls!
Author Jennifer New leads the written inquiry + local artist and teacher Dan Peterson leads the print making. This class is a combined effort of Iowa Youth Writing Project and PS1.
This is a placeholder for the afternoon program July 16-20. More info coming soon!
This is a placeholder for the afternoon program July 23-27. More info coming soon!
This is a placeholder for the afternoon program July 30-August 3. More info coming soon!