About the Young Adult Writing Project

YAWP is a summer writing project for students from 8th to 12th grades who want to integrate meaningful and authentic writing into their life work. Our vision is that through our poetry and our stories, we learn the language that brings healing and peace into our own lives and communities. Every summer young writers from all over Arizona come together as a community to write about their lives, where they are from, and what matters. Published writers visit us to share their own stories, ideas and writing styles as well. Throughout our three weeks together, we work closely and carefully, learning the art of critique and discovering the power of our words. At the end we publish a collection of our work to take away with us, as ripples in a huge sea, hungry for stories, the language that heals.

"We want a language of that different yield. A yield rich
as the harvests of earth, a yield that returns us to our own
sacredness, to a self-love and respect that will carry out to others."

-- Linda Hogan

How We Got Here

YAWP was founded in 1995 by two teachers who had just completed their work with the Greater Phoenix Area Writing Project [GPAWP]. They talked about the need for a writing workshop based on the GPAWP program, that would offer authentic writing opportunities for high school students. Through the vision and support of G. Lynn Nelson, former director of GPAWP and author of Writing and Being, YAWP opened its doors in the summer of 1996 with 13 students. Since then our program has expanded, and becomes richer every year with new and returning students and visiting writers and poets.

Interested in Entering the River with Us?

YAWP members come to the summer writing program through teacher or other adult recommendation. We meet for three weeks at the beginning of June, Mondays through Fridays, 8:45 am to 12:30 pm at ASU in Tempe, Arizona. Tuition is $300 per student. You must be able to provide your own transportation to and from ASU. Good attendance is essential. Click here for current Summer Program dates. You can download an application or call (480) 965-7611 to have an application mailed to you. Please don't hesitate to call for further information.