Hello everyone!
Today I’m going to be talking about the amazing experience I had attending the virtual Sewanee Young Writers’ Conference. Although I’m disappointed I did not get to experience the conference and meet all the lovely faculty and writers in person, I am so thankful to have been a part of it virtually and I still grew a ton as a result. If you can’t already tell, this is going to be somewhat of a gushing post. Keep on reading if you want to find out more about the conference!
For reference, I was in a poetry workshop. Each workshop group had seven young writers and a faculty member, and we were in those individual groups for a few hours a day (the bulk of the workshop). We had joint classes with the other poetry workshops a couple times, and there were activities with all workshop groups such as optional evening classes on more niche topics (love poems, found forms, etc).
I had never workshopped a piece before, so going through the workshop process with my group was really helpful and interesting. We each workshopped a poem that we read in front of the whole conference on the last day, and I felt so empowered throughout the whole process.
Daily workshops consisted of reading poems and essays and discussing them in our groups, with a writing prompt to complete during our lunch break. Similarly, we’d have short homework assignments that were usually just revising our work and/or reading a couple short pieces and annotating them. The selection of authors and works that we read were diverse and really, really amazing in my opinion. I definitely fell in love with a few new writers.
At first I was intimidated by the talent of the other people in the workshop and my group, but as I got more comfortable I realized we were all there to learn and grow. Everyone had their strengths and the things they wanted to work on in the workshop, and it was awesome to see my work grow as well as everyone else’s in such a short period of time.
Even though it’s tough to get to know strangers across the country over Zoom, I feel like we did a pretty good job in connecting. I guess sharing pieces of writing about the most vulnerable parts of yourself and your life will do the trick for that. 🙂 I loved my group. And after listening to everyone at the end-of-conference reading, I knew for sure that these were some of the most talented people I’ve ever met. They’re definitely on track to do big things!
I’m so thankful to have had the opportunity to attend a workshop like this and work on my writing on a more serious level. It opened me up to different types of writing and exploring different themes in my work, digging deep within myself. I had so much fun meeting new people and listening to their work, and discovering and reading works by writers I hadn’t been exposed to before.
I hope you enjoyed this little anecdote about my experience! Feel free to ask me any questions you may have– I know I didn’t go superrrr into detail about everything. I encourage you to apply next year, whether it ends up being virtual again or in person! Stay safe and healthy out there.
Brooke
adventures of a typical high school student 