YAWP Saturdays

Free Saturday Sessions for Teens

Join GrubStreet’s Young Adult Writers Program (YAWP), a FREE creative writing workshop for Boston-area teens (ages 13-18). Our students come from a wide variety of high schools in the Boston area to geek out on writing/reading while mingling with fellow teen writers over snacks. There's an open mic at the end when reading is optional, and snaps and claps are always welcome.

All YAWP Saturdays are free and will be held either in-person at our Center for Creative Writing in Seaport, or remotely via Zoom from 12:00 to 3:00pm (ET).

All students must register in advance. All classes take place at the same time, so please only register for one class per month.

March 9th

• (Seaport) Creative Rebirth for Writer's Block with Dzidzor
• (Seaport) Writing About Your Neighborhood with Elizabeth Santiago
• (Zoom) What's in a Name? with Black Pruitt

April 13th

• (Seaport) Food for Thought & Character Development with Angie Chatman
• (Seaport) Writing Poetry Through Records and Artifacts with Owen Duffy
• (Zoom) Writing Fiction for a Better World with Kayla Degala-Paraíso

May 11th

• (Seaport) Revise Your Story or Novel with Elizabeth Santiago
• (Seaport) Words, Words, Words with Walter Smelt
• (Zoom) Speak Up! Intro to Spoken Word with Black Pruitt

Frequently Asked Questions

Who are YAWPers?

• Our students come from schools all over the Greater Boston area, and we all have one thing in common: we love to read and write creatively. Our program gets teens writing and the results speak for themselves. Our alumni have gone onto enroll college-level creative writing programs at such schools as Sarah Lawrence College and Brandeis University. YAWPers have also earned publication in various literary magazines and blogs like The Marble Collection. YAWPers have also gone on to establish writing clubs at their schools and neighborhoods to help strengthen arts programs locally.

What’s expected of me?

• We ask that you come to YAWP ready to participate, think creatively, and work hard. We ask that you also respect your peers’ and instructors’ ideas. If you’re shy, that’s okay — we don’t make students read work they don’t want to. But we do encourage all YAWPers to stretch outside their comfort zone and make room for discovery! You may attend all of our events or just one of them, though we have plenty of students who come every month for an entire school year.

What do I need to bring? (Pencils? Paper?)

• We’ll give you notebooks and pens. No homework. No need to bring a writing sample. Parents and guardians are always welcome to visit, though we ask them not to be in the classroom during writing.

I’m in the 8th grade, but I really want to be a part of YAWP. Am I definitely excluded?

• Generally, YAWP is intended for high school students. If you are just about to enter high school and would like to be a part of YAWP, please contact us directly by emailing [email protected], and we will see if an accommodation can be made. No guarantees, but let's chat about it.

Do I need to choose one genre to write for the entire year?

• Absolutely not! We actually encourage our writers to try all the different genres offered throughout the year; we promise that it will make you a more well-rounded artist. Novelists interested in their narrator’s prose and characters’ dialogue have everything to gain from workshops in poetry or screenwriting or narrative nonfiction. We only ask that students remain in a single genre for their afternoon at Grub—in other words, please don't switch genres mid-workshop.

Is YAWP any fun?

• Don't ask us...ask our young writers.
  
  “I learned that a whole story can be written in one sentence … and that there are teens like me who love writing as much as I do, which is cool.” — Jacqui G.
  
  “Poetry can be anything.” — Anonymous
  
  “Hearing other people’s works = inspiring” — Theresa K.
  
  “I enjoy the whole experience – camaraderie, comedy, etc.” — Carter H.
  
  “I wanted to write a memoir before I came here, and I found a great way to start it!” — Mia O.

YAWP Saturday Sessions are made possible, in part, thanks to The Calderwood Charitable Foundation, The Vertex Foundation, The Linde Family Foundation, The Boston Public Library Foundation, The Mabel Louise Riley Foundation, Liberty Mutual Foundation, MassHousing, The 'Quin Impact Fund, The RBC Foundation, and donors like you.