Champlain College Young Writers' Conference

May 25-27, 2012

Jim Ellefson and young writers at CCYWC The Champlain College Young Writers’ Conference (CCYWC), a residential writers’ weekend specifically for high school students, takes place this May 25 - 27 on the hillside campus of Burlington's Champlain College. For dedicated young writers, it is a chance to meet others who share their passion for telling the stories of their lives. It is also an opportunity to study the craft of writing with some of New England's most celebrated authors and teachers.

Playing sweet music at CCYWC Participate in over ten hours of intensive workshops in fiction, poetry, songwriting, creative nonfiction, script writing, and performance theatre; exchange and critique manuscripts; listen to faculty readings; attend craft sessions; and share work with the CCYW community. On Friday, go to the good place with our keynote speaker. Award-winning poet and educator, Sharon Olds, is the author of eight volumes of poetry. Her numerous honors include a National Endowment for the Arts grant; a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship; the San Francisco Poetry Center Award for her first collection, Satan Says (1980); and the Lamont Poetry Selection and the National Book Critics' Circle Award for The Dead and the Living (1983). Her other books of poetry are Strike Sparks: Selected Poems 1980-2002 (2004), Blood, Tin, Straw (1999), The Wellspring (1995), The Father (1992), and The Gold Cell (1987). Her poetry has appeared in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, Poetry, The Atlantic Monthly, and The New York Times. Named New York State Poet Laureate (1998 - 2000), Olds teaches graduate poetry workshops at New York University as well as the writing workshop she helped found at a 900-bed state hospital for the severely disabled. She is a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Science. Sharon Olds' latest poetry collection is One Secret Thing (Fall 2008), which was a finalist for the T. S. Eliot Prize & the Forward Prize.

A young bard penning a masterpiece And there's more: Friday evening, read to jazz with Michael Chorney’s celebrated jazz ensemble, or read poems and prose to open mike. On Saturday, slam the night away with our own in-house oracle, the renowned Vermont Slam Champion, Geof Hewitt. Later, become part of the Young Writers' Improvisational Theatre, and kick up your heels at The Spectacular Young Writers' Contra Dance.

Special note: high school teachers and writerly parents are encouraged to attend as chaperones. Chaperones participate in all events, and attend their own writing workshop with veteran workshop leader, Daniel Lusk.