Begins Sunday, July 6th, 2025

Any questions about this class? Use the Chat Button (lower left) to talk with us.

Sarah McColl is the author of the memoir JOY ENOUGH. Since January 2021, she has published LOST ART, a monthly newsletter about the creative work of (mostly) dead women and a 2023 finalist for the Andy Warhol Arts Writers Grant. Her essays have appeared in the Paris Review, McSweeney’s, and StoryQuarterly, and her work has been supported with fellowship awards from Millay Arts, Ucross, Vermont Studio Center, and MacDowell. She lives in small town Northern California.

SUMMER CAMP for Writers is an 8-week practice-based session in which we will continue to nurture our writing lives during the loosey-goosey summer months through creative experiments, generative writing, and community.

Part of summer’s beauty is its undoneness. Our schedules fall apart (ideally replaced by shady hammocks and sandy sandwiches). In this lovely looseness, our artistic practice can suffer.

Don’t lose your art this summer! Come to Summer Camp for Writers!

SUMMER CAMP is:

• A creative seasonal bridge and a flexible artistic container.
• A shared space to hold your sunscreen-smeared creative work sacred.
• An intention spoken into the campfire and held for 8-weeks by an intimate cohort with a shared desire to attend their creative spirits this summer.
  
• A thoughtfully selected series of artistic inputs and invitations delivered to your email inbox to keep your summer brain lively and snappy.

Summer Camp is not a productivity sprint or banging out a novel draft.

Summer Camp is flashlight tag, splashing in the lake, walks in the woods, ghost stories by the fire, lightning storms, intense friendship. Remember fun? Less grinding it out, more delighting in the creative act.

Through weekly invitations to creative experiments, generative writing, and togetherness, we will collaboratively invent and imagine ways to nurture our creative lives that don’t require logging hours at a laptop. Because the sun’s out, the mountains call, the ice cream is melting.

Our goals are two-fold: to bring lightness and liveliness to our creative lives during a season when they might otherwise get short shrift and to gather with a writing community who shares that desire.

At its root, Summer Camp grows from my steadfast belief that creating the conditions for pleasure — for awe and play, connection and feeling good — positively impacts our writing life. If you feel good about your writing life, you will want to return there.

We do this work in an effort to recondition our feelings about writing, from something difficult that we want to avoid because it makes us feel bad about ourselves, into a rich, welcoming relationship that feels nourishing and sustaining.

READING:

Readings include excerpts, essays, stories, and poems by Kate Chopin, Chris Dennis, Elaine Dundy, Betty Smith, Emily Dickinson, Kim Addonizio, Gretel Ehrlich, Heather Chrystle, Sybille Bedford, Eula Biss, Susan Sontag, Rebecca Solnit, E.B. White and others.

COURSE OUTLINE:

• Week 1: Welcome to Summer Camp
• Week 2: Time
• Week 3: Sand, splinters, and other irritants
• Week 4: The seriousness of frivolity
• Week 5: Ripe to bursting
• Week 6: Salt
• Week 7: Field trip
• Week 8: The big dance

SUMMER CAMP TAKEAWAYS:

After Writers in Summer Camp will:

• Connect with a community of like-minded writers through ongoing discussions and shared learnings.
• Receive 8 Summer Camp newsletters full of writing prompts, reframes, readings, and radical ideas to encourage a sustainable (and joyful!) writing practice.
• Reframe their writing practice as a source of play, delight, and fun.
• Discover new ideas and experiment with creative approaches.
• Generate a mass of wild, fresh, urgent writing nourished by sun and salt air.
• Preserve time for their vital, inner relationship with self, art, and creativity.

LIMITED ENROLLMENT:

Summer Camp is limited to 20 adult writers.

TESTIMONIALS:

"Sarah McColl’s workshop was an experience I will neither regret nor forget. Her remote workshop sessions guided us gently through intense and important journeys, and her genuine interest in each and every one of us was clear in both her approach and style. In addition to remote workshop classes, thought-provoking newsletters which included themed writing prompts encouraged me to push past my comfort zone into a territory I’d not explored in many years, and the Group Diary we all shared helped me realize that both my successes and my shortcomings were not unfounded nor uncommon. It was the perfect mix of cherishable challenges. I would recommend Sarah McColl’s workshops to anyone and everyone who wants to not only improve their writing and/or write more often, but to learn more about themselves and their part in the process of furthering their art. This experience was the indisputable highlight of my summer. Highly recommended." —Marnie M.

"I wanted a space where I could experiment without too much pressure. I liked that we didn't analyze the experience of the writing exercise too much, we just kept moving along. It made it all feel less important somehow, which made it less stressful, which made it more fun, which made for better writing. At least, for me. I also commend you, Sarah, for setting the tone of the workshop as a collaborative and supportive and curious space."

“From the readings to the generative prompts and lively discussions, I came away feeling refreshed and invigorated not only to write and read, but to make writing an important part of my daily routine. I'm grateful to you for helping me to feel alive and curious again."

"I felt like I was in really compassionate orchestrating hands. The experience, wisdom and energy provided at such a high level makes it really easy to just let go and go for the ride and see what you can mine from yourself. Okay....I don't want to get weird and whip out a pan flute but it's a really special blend of pragmatism, craft, inspiration, and magic. There's a feeling of it being spiritual if you want it to be without it having to be group therapy. I felt lucky to be there and definitely don't really know how to explain it's more than a writing workshop to people."

ONLINE COURSE STRUCTURE:

This is an 8-week online class and Sarah has designed a weekly email newsletter that includes prompts, readings, and ideas. Wet Ink will be used for online discussion.

This class is entirely asynchronous which means you complete the weekly assignments on your own schedule. There are no set meeting times in order to allow for greater participation; your cohort will consist of writers from across different time zones, which allows for a wonderful diversity of voices.

Along with your weekly deadlines there is plenty of interaction with Sarah and your peers within Wet Ink, our dedicated online classroom. Craft materials, lectures, reading assignments, and writing prompts are all available through the online classroom. 

You can get the work done as you see fit week-to-week, so it is perfect for any schedule. There are discussion questions each week inspired by the assigned readings and topics in the lecture notes. Students are encouraged to take these wherever is most compelling and/or useful for them. Sarah engages with these discussions throughout the week and you will receive feedback from all assigned writing activities.

HOW DOES WET INK WORK?

Wet Ink was built and designed specifically for online writing classes. Wet Ink is private, easy to use, and very interactive. You can learn more about the Wet Ink platform by Watching a Class Demo.

PAYMENT OPTIONS:

Tuition is $495 USD. You can pay for the course in full or use Shop Pay or Affirm to pay over time with equal Monthly Payments. Both options are available at checkout.

• Instructor: Sarah McColl
• Class starts Sunday, July 6th, 2025
• Course is fully ONLINE; students can work according to their own schedule within weekly deadlines. Once you have enrolled the instructor will send you a link to our online classroom, provided via Wet Ink.
  
• Tuition is $495 USD

Contact us HERE if you have any questions about this class.