Gifted Writers Academy

CURRENTLY ENROLLING FOR SUMMER, 2020

In partnership with Saint Louis University, Gifted Arts is moving online to become Gifted Writers Academy beginning this summer. Shifting to an online course attracts a greater diversity of students whose broad array of backgrounds, ideas, and critical observations benefit the entire program. It also means we are no longer restricted by geography. The program is open to middle school (grades 6-8) and high school students (grades 9-12), though graduating seniors are also welcome in the summer session.

In the summer sessions and for first time writing students signing up later in the year, the writing classes delve into fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, and drama. Once writers have completed this first level, they have the opportunity to select the specific genre(s) of their choice: fiction and creative nonfiction, poetry, or drama for the next session. 

The summer writing session now expands from three weeks to six weeks. Assignments will be posted each week along with exercises, video tutorials, and informative writing materials for students to access each day. Live classes will be held on Zoom at least once a week, and writers may also sign up for the option of having direct one-on-one instruction. High school students will also have access to a private Facebook group to continue conversations and share materials with other students and instructors. Middle school writers will be able to remain in a closed community on the Writers Academy website due to Facebook age restrictions.

Former longtime Gifted Writers Academy students, now in college, will also be working as mentor instructors. All of them are exceptional writers and experts at providing feedback for revision. 

Most importantly, Gifted Writers Academy will continue to be fun, instructive, and focus on building a sense of community.

Please note we keep the student/instructor ratio at 1:6, so there is a limit to the number of students per class.

The visual arts classes will continue under the name of Gifted Arts. Saint Louis University associate professor, Terri Shay, will be teaching painting and drawing classes online, as she is doing now for students at SLU. The maximum number of students in the class is 16.

Both the ceramics and printmaking courses are canceled for the summer.