Poetry Scribes for 9-12th grade
Experiment with structure, play with punctuation, and explore language while crafting poetry pieces that stretch beyond the boundaries of prose! In this camp, students will read a diverse array of poetry and poets, honing their skills in close reading and thoughtful conversation about a piece of writing, and will learn tricks to work through writer's block to refine a first inspiration into a polished final piece. Whether a student is new to poetry or a seasoned wordsmith, this camp will have plenty to offer! The week will culminate with a reading and/or presentation of student work.
This camp is for students entering 9th-12th grade in Fall 2023 and will take place in-person at our facility in Capitol Hill. All camps break for lunch from 12-1pm each day.
Scribes Summer camps are offered on a scaled registration rate in order to offer financially accessible programming for all youth. Payments above the 100% rate help offset costs that allow for accessible programming to continue. Donations of any amount can also be made upon registration. Scholarships are also available by filling out our scholarship application. Questions? Please email youth@hugohouse.org.
Sara Brickman
Sara Brickman is a queer Jewish writer and performer born in Ann Arbor, MI. The winner of the Split This Rock Poetry Prize, Sara has received grants and scholarships from the Lambda Literary Foundation, the Yiddish Book Center, 4Culture, and Artist Trust, and their performance have appeared at On The Boards and theaters and community spaces nationwide. A BOAAT Writers Fellow and Ken Warfel Fellow for Poetry in Community, their writing appears in Narrative, Adroit, The Indiana Review, Muzzle, and the anthologies Ghosts of Seattle Past, The Dead Animal Handbook, and Courage: Daring Poems for Gutsy Girls. They are currently at work on a book of poems and hybrid essay collection and performance about community resilience, trauma, statuary, and collective organizing in Charlottesville, VA during the white-nationalist rallies of 2017. Sara holds an MFA from the University of Virginia and lives in Seattle, where they work in a library, teach writing to youth and adults, and parent a cat named Latke.
Jay Aquinas Thompson
Jay Aquinas Thompson (he/they) is a poet, essayist, and teacher with recent or forthcoming work in Interim, Pacifica Literary Review, Passages North, COAST | NoCOAST, and Poetry Northwest, where they're a contributing editor. Their poem "Poor and Carefree Strangers," published in FIVES: a Companion to Denver Quarterly, was a 2021–2022 Best of the Net nominee, and they're a 2021 Tin House Workshop alum. They've been awarded grants and fellowships from the Ragdale Foundation, the Community of Writers, the Sustainable Arts Foundation, and King County 4Culture. They live with their child in Washington state, where they teach creative writing to public school students and incarcerated women. Twitter @jayaquinas; Instagram @freshwater_merman
