Sydney Davis reports on her experience attending the Kenyon Review Young Writers Workshop in Ohio. During her first week of the course, Sydney spent time reading and annotating passages from the Kenyon Review.
“The pieces we’re reading range from essays and poems to short stories. I have read poetry and creative prose at programs I’ve attended before but have yet to explore what professional non-fictional essay writing looks like,” Sydney explains.
“The program also has a journal called the Kenyon Young Writers Anthology, which will be printed next week. I submitted a poem about growing up that I wrote this week. The anthology will contain two pages of each student’s work. I’m excited to see the student-led anthology published and to hold the work I’ve done this week in my hands,” Sydney adds.
“The days are structured with a morning three-hour workshop and an afternoon two-and-a-half-hour workshop. In these workshops, we only write by hand. This has led me to be more thoughtful in my writing and feel more connected with my peers and the prompts in workshop. We discuss what we read for homework and do different writing exercises that use different skills the author displays. We’ve explored identity through essays, personifying topics like loss, and unusual genres like Magical Realism,” Sydney reports.
After class, Sydney participated in various activities, including attending readings from visiting writers and instructors from the program. Sydney also attended a friendship bracelet-making event, a bonfire and hike.
Sydney loves the environment at Kenyon College and has enjoyed meeting other writers in her age group.
“It is a lot of fun to talk all day, every day, with people my age who share my love and interest in the writing world. I also arrived at my dorm Sunday and realized my roommate was one of the girls I roomed with two years ago at Iowa Young Writers. It has been amazing to reconnect with her and write together again,” Sydney says.
“I look forward to the following week and learning more about what Kenyon Review Young Writers has to offer,” Sydney adds.
Week Two — Readings, Writings, and a Haunted Tour!
Sydney says her second week at Kenyon Review was “just as incredible as the first,” as “Conversations” were held each night with Kenyon Review faculty and visiting writers.
“Along with those author talks, we had student readings every night. Every student was required to read a piece that they wrote while at the Kenyon Review Young Writers program. On Wednesday evening, I read a poem I wrote during the first week of workshops. It was amazing to hear everyone’s different writing styles in the pieces they decided to read,” Sydney reports.
“This week’s homework included different pieces on the Kenyon Review Archive; we could pick our pieces in some situations. One of the pieces I decided to read was about skunks and was written in a nonfiction style. There was also an activity at the end of the workshop where we had to compile excerpts from an author who was influential to us and create a portfolio of that author’s excerpts,” Sydney says.
“In our elective workshops, we read excerpts from novels that expressed vulnerability in different ways. We listened to songs and read different forms and genres of prose. I enjoyed exploring the importance and value of expressing vulnerable topics in writing. Writing is very therapeutic for me, so being able to learn more techniques to utilize writing to explore difficult topics was very beneficial,” Sydney adds.
When not busy writing, Sydney participated in fun activities that included Just Dance, frisbee and a haunted tour of the Kenyon campus.
“At this program, I found a wonderful group of writers my age. It was really nice to have a group with whom I could spend time, and we were all interested in writing. I hope to keep in touch with them,” Sydney says.
“I had a truly wonderful time at Kenyon Young Writers, learning from the faculty, writing in all sorts of genres, and meeting young writers worldwide,” Sydney adds.
We are happy to hear that the program helped you to grow as a writer, plus connect with a diverse group of authors and students. Great work, Sydney!
>> Read Sydney Davis’ Final Report (PDF File, 29 KB).
>> Learn about the other students’ experiences in the GFF Scholarship Program.
