Three weeks online with the faculty behind the famed Iowa Writers' Workshop, for student writers in grades 9–12.
Imagine having The Writing University visit you in the comfort of your home each day for three weeks this summer. Learn from world-class faculty and graduates of the famed Iowa Writers' Workshop, in the first UNESCO City of Literature in the US. Envision spending your time participating in workshops, lectures, and events that excite and stretch you as a writer. Picture investing three full weeks in your passion, learning with other high school students from all over the world who are as consumed with writing as you. This dream is reality with Summer Writing Online (SWO), an immersive 3–week online residency for students in grades 9 to 11 presented by the University of Iowa’s Belin-Blank Center. This course is 100% synchronous, featuring 3.5 hours of interactive class time each day for students to create community with other talented, young writers as they read, write, laugh, and learn together. It’s not just an online class; it’s an online experience!
July 5–23, 2027
Summer Writing Online is a unique opportunity to work with world-class faculty at The Writing University. Class time will be a combination of seminar discussions and critiques of class members' work. You will explore multiple genres including fiction, poetry, and screenwriting. To round out your experience, we will have author talks, industry experts, special events, and more.
Instructors include University of Iowa faculty, graduates, and graduate students from the English Department, the Iowa Writers Workshop, and special visiting authors.
Nina Morrison is a playwright, director and teaching artist. She is the Provost's Postgraduate Visiting Writer in Playwriting 2019-2020 at the University of Iowa. Select recent credits: Nina’s play Féminaal was presented in Minneapolis by The Grumble Theater; her play Ibsanity was presented in the mainstage season at Fordham University, NYC; she directed Young Jean Lee’s Straight White Men at Riverside Theatre. She was a finalist for New Dramatists in 2018 and 2019, and a 2019 finalist for the Jerome. Nina is currently based in Iowa City. Before Iowa, she was based in New York City for 17 years where her work as a playwright and director was presented at Dixon Place, HERE Arts Center, The HOT! Festival, the Little Theatre series, the NYC International Fringe Festival, Upright Citizens Brigade, The Peoples’ Improv Theater, and the Yardmeter series among others. Nina was a Dixon Place Artist-in-Residence, and she was an LMCC WORKSPACE Writer-in-Residence, a residency program of the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. She holds an MFA in Directing and an MFA in Playwriting both from the University of Iowa.
Andrew David King is a Provost's Postgraduate Visiting Writer and Visiting Assistant Professor in the University of Iowa's English Department. His work spans across genres, but focuses on the intersections of poetry, the essay, and visual art. He holds an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where he was a Teaching-Writing Fellow, and a Graduate Certificate from the University of Iowa Center for the Book. His writing has appeared with ZYZZYVA, Crab Orchard Review, Poetry, The Kenyon Review, and other publications, and was included in the University of Virginia Press’s Best New Poets 2018 anthology. He is currently a Research Assistant at the Walt Whitman Archive and the author of the chapbook Fire Sonnets (Clepsydra Press, 2018).
Being surrounded by professional writers like our teachers, and such skilled classmates, has inspired me to write and read more, and be so much more excited about my own writing.
Students in grades 9–11 will connect online and attend class with their writing peers. This course is 100% synchronous, featuring 3.5 hours of interactive class time each day for students to create community with other talented, young writers as they read, write, laugh, and learn together.
Registration begins December 15, 2026!
Students currently in grades 9–11 may apply. Students will be admitted on a rolling basis.
When you apply online, you will need to submit the following:
Completed applications will be reviewed by a selection committee that will evaluate applications based on the following:
While some priority will be given to students who have participated in the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, we invite all interested writers to apply.
Selected students will be notified on a rolling basis within two weeks of submitting a completed application. Inactive applications may be cancelled to make room for students on the waitlist.
The cost of the program is $295 to cover instruction and materials, thanks, in part, to generous funding from the Bucksbaum family. Financial aid and payment plans are available to families who qualify.
You must either pay in full or have arranged a payment plan by June 1 in order to participate. All fees are payable to the Belin-Blank Center.
Financial aid is awarded on a first-come-first-served basis, while funds are available. Eligibility is typically determined by qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch. After your information is reviewed, you will receive an email regarding the amount of your award. Awards will be applied directly to your program fees.
During the three weeks of SWO, you will spend 3.5 hours each day in an intensive writing atmosphere. Class time is 100% synchronous to allow for interactivity, discussion, and community building. Along with classmates from across the country, you will have the unique opportunity to work with world-class faculty and make lasting connections - all from the comfort of your own home. Check out the schedule below and remember that the times listed are in the Central Time Zone:
Students will examine readings and engage in interactive discussion with the goal of learning to apply lessons to their own writing.
Students will explore different genres (fiction, poetry, screenwriting) with the goal of expanding their writing horizons and finding what helps them thrive.
With instructors and peers, students will read and discuss one another’s writing with a focus on what is being done well and what can continue to improve.
Instructors will periodically make time during the program for special events: author talks*, industry experts, projects, and more.
*Past Author Talks have been given by fiction writer Kevin Clouther, poet and comic artist Lauren Haldeman, writer and video game director Bennett Smith, poet Robyn Schiff, fiction writer Larry Baker, creative nonfiction author Inara Verzemnieks, and more!
You will be using Zoom for in-person discussions. Please make sure the device you plan to use during the Summer Writing Online is capable and that you are comfortable with these platforms.
You may also use the University of Iowa's digital learning platform, ICON, to manage course discussions, materials and assignments.
If you must cancel, email summer@belinblank.org as soon as possible to decline your acceptance so a student on the waitlist may attend.
Questions? For the fastest response, please email summer@belinblank.org.
