
Welcome to the Summer Writers Academy
UPDATE: ALL 2021 UNH Summer Youth Programs are CANCELED.
For youth in grades 5-12
The UNH Writers Academy is a place where students are treated as writers. They can put their creative juices to work and improve their skills in a relaxed yet challenging environment. Students will write daily and exchange ideas with other young writers. They will discover various writing styles and meet professional authors who will share their own experiences about becoming successful writers.
Students are grouped according to the grade they will be entering. Look for the instructor’s name when selecting a high school section for enrollment.
All sessions meet 8:30 a.m. – 2:15 p.m., Monday-Friday, in McConnell Hall, 15 Academic Way, Durham, NH. Parking information will be provided after enrollmement.
REGISTER
Note: Before and after camp care is not available. Please plan accordingly.
Offerings:
June 28 - July 2
Grades 7 - 8 Instructor: Alison Ritrosky
Grades 7 - 8 Instructor: Mark Holt-Shannon
High School (Grades 9-12)
Instructor: Sarah Fenerty
Instructor : Lauren DeConstant
Instructor: Sarah Cook
July 5 – 9
Grades 5 - 6 Instructor: David McCormick
Grade 7 - 8 Instructor: Ashley Healey
High School (Grades 9-12)
Instructor: Christian Gompert
Instructor: Dennis Magliozzi
Instructor: Kristina Peterson
Writer's Academy Guest Author: Shelley Girdner

Shelley Girdner teaches at the University of New Hampshire. Her poems have been published in several journals, including most recently Hunger Mountain and Painted Bride Quarterly, as well as The Indiana Review, Mid-American Review, Poet Lore and others. She’s been a featured poet in the Aurorean, a finalist for the Slapering Hol Chapbook Prize, and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize in poetry. More recently, she was featured for PBS News Hour’s Poetry spotlight.
For questions please contact Tomasen M. Carey, Director at Tomasen.Carey@unh.edu



Photography: Mark Holt-Shannon
History
The University of New Hampshire is internationally known for its work in writing. Beginning in the 1960s, Donald Murray urged teachers to treat all students as writers: they need subjects that engage them and helpful responses from other students and the teacher. Murray’s colleague and friend, Donald Graves, extended those ideas by showing how the elementary classroom could become a writer’s workshop. His book Writing Teachers and Children at Work has transformed how writing is taught in schools.