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Description of Program
Course Descriptions
Registration Information
Basic Requirement for Participation

Description of Program

In-person, remote, academic, scary stories, science fiction, creative writing – we’ve got courses for everyone! You will be able to explore your interests, discover your strengths and take writing risks that you are not usually able to in a traditional classroom setting. While our goal is to have fun with writing all these course are designed to get you writing because the only way to become a better writer is to write!

Check out our 2023 offerings below! Please email bawp@berkeley.edu if you would like to be placed on a waitlist for any of our full courses.

Starting the week of June 12th

• In-Person: Creative Writing Lab: Taking Our Writing to the Next Level
• In-Person: InkSwarm! (2 Weeks)

Starting the week of June 19th (Classes will begin June 20th to observe Juneteenth)

• Remote: Introduction to Journalism (1 Week)
• Remote: Writing for Chills: How to Craft a Scary Story (3 Weeks)

Starting the week of June 26th

• Remote: College Essay Writing (1 Week)

Starting the week of July 10th

• Remote: Mimicking and Copycatting: Improve Your Writing Through Emulation (2 Weeks)
• Remote: Star One: Charting Your Science Fiction Writing (2 Weeks)
• Remote: Introduction to Creative Writing (3 Weeks)

Starting the week of July 17th 

• In-Person: The Art of Argument: A Process of Paying Attention (1 Week)
• Remote: Playing With Language: Finding Your Voice and Sharing It (1 Week)

Starting the week of July 24th 

• In-Person: College Essay Writing (1 Week)

2023 Course Descriptions

In-Person: Creative Writing Lab: Taking Our Writing to the Next Level (2 Weeks)
June 12 – 23, 2023 (2 Weeks – No 6/19)
10:00 am – 12:00 pm
9th – 12th Grades
In person at UC Berkeley (Berkeley Way West Building)
$500.00
Instructor: Pirette McKamey

This is an intermediate level course and we recommend that participants come with some experience in creative writing.

In this 2-week creative writing class, you will write to a variety of prompts, learn techniques that can enliven your writing, share your work in small groups and receive specific, helpful feedback. At the end of the course, you will have at least one polished piece, and the opportunity to participate in a reading of your work. Additionally, you will learn about publishing and workshop opportunities for high school students. This past August at the Bread Loaf Writers Conference, the writer Maurice Carlos Ruffin told us that writing should be enjoyable. If it is not, he said, change something. Here is to building an enjoyable and sustainable writing practice!

Pirette McKamey was an English and history teacher in the SFUSD for 27 years and retired from her position as the principal of Mission High School in July 2022. She has published short stories and an article about anti-racist teaching in The Atlantic, “What Anti-racist Teachers Do Differently.” She is excited about this next phase of life, one that is spent writing, hiking with her dog and teaching, which she missed very much while being an administrator.

In-Person: InkSwarm
June 12 – 23, 2023 (2 Weeks – No 6/19)
10:00 am – 1:00 pm
9th – 12th Grades
In person at UC Berkeley (Berkeley Way West Building)
$600.00
Instructor: Aryn Faur

Inkswarm is a hive for creative writers of all stripes! Do you find it impossible to choose between poetry, flash fiction, creative nonfiction or art? Don’t choose! Join us! During the first week, students will play with many writing exercises to explore dialogue, setting, point of view, poetics, and other craft elements, along with lots of opportunities to develop writing friendships that can continue outside of camp. During the second week, they will workshop and revise a single piece they are most committed to. By the end of camp, each participant will have a scrapbook filled with their own work as well excerpts from the campers. We end with a camp celebration and reading. Bring a laptop, and your favorite writing utensils! We’ll try to get outside on the beautiful UC campus as much as possible.

Aryn Faur is an English teacher at Berkeley High who has taught creative writing for over a decade. She teaches a literary magazine elective and has also taught courses on short story and flash fiction. In her spare time, she dances on roller blades, gardens, reads page turners, and plants trees.

Remote Course: Introduction to Journalism
June 20 – 23, 2023 (1 Week – Course begins 6/20)
9:00 am – 12:00 pm PST
9th – 12th Grades
Remote Course
$275.00
Instructor: Brian Barr

Journalism is changing. No longer confined to a newsroom, journalists report from cafes, street corners, and sports venues and all over the world. Hone your skills in this class so that you are ready to report on the go. In this course we will explore the fundamentals of writing a strong article for the public eye. This includes developing reporting skills by learning to write breaking and hard news stories, personality profiles, and opinion pieces, such as columns, editorials and reviews.

Brian Barr has taught at California High School in San Ramon for the past 24 years. He teaches senior English and Sci-Fi/Fantasy and runs the school’s newspaper and mock trial programs. He also coaches the men’s and women’s golf teams at California High School and San Ramon Valley High. Before becoming a teacher, Brian was a professional journalist for nine years, working as a reporter and sports editor for several daily newspapers in the East Bay and San Joaquin Valley. Brian earned an undergraduate degree in political science from UC San Diego in 1992. He is a 1998 graduate of Central Catholic High School in Modesto.

Remote Course: Writing for Chills: How to Craft Scary Stories
June 20 – July 7, 2023 (3 Weeks – No Class 6/19 or 7/4)
1:00 pm (13 o’clock) – 4:00 pm PST
9th – 12th Grades
Remote Course
$600.00
Instructor: Emily Wilkinson

Join us as we explore the pages of strange and dark stories, listen to disturbing tales of delight, and watch a few flustering flicks as we craft our own horrific narratives, comics, and poetry. In this three-week course, students will read, discuss and compose their own suspenseful stories and/or screenplays of the strange, the horrific, and the supernatural. No prior experience in writing scary stories will be necessary, as we will explore the structures and oddities of the horror and sci-fi genres.

Emily Wilkinson is a life-long fan of the weird, ghastly, and horrific. When she’s not watching or reading something scary, she’s either writing or teaching writing to students of all ages as she works on her PhD in the Teaching of English at Teachers College, Columbia University. She loves giving students the power to scare with their scintillating tales of woe. She also recognizes horror as giving us the ability to confront and learn from our deepest fears and most terrifying experiences.

Remote Course: College Essay Writing
June 26 – 30, 2023 (1 Week)
9:30 am – 12:30 pm PST
11th – 12th Grades Only
Remote Course
$350.00
Instructor: Eric Gustafson

Good storytelling is a way to make your writing more engaging. In the course, you will first hone this craft by writing a profile article. We will begin by workshopping questions that elicit vivid storytelling and thoughtful reflection from your subject. Beginning with an anecdotal lead, the article you write will be focused on developing your subject as a character. With the second writing piece, the tables will be turned. You will become the subject of the article. Conveying who you are as a person is what college admission officers are looking for in an essay. This course will help you succeed in doing that. (Current UC/Common App prompts will be used.)

Eric Gustafson feels like he has been fortunate enough to have had two dream jobs. When he was hired as the assistant editor of Sports Car International magazine in 2000, his high school fantasy of becoming an automotive journalist had come true. He loved it. About ten years in, however, something began to feel amiss. Right out of college he had worked as a substitute teacher, then taught English in Dresden, Germany. Now, he found himself longing for the classroom and the satisfaction he felt from helping young people. In 2014, he quit his editing job and got a credential. He eventually became a journalism and American Literature teacher at Lowell High School. He loves it. BAWP has given him another outlet to share his passion for writing.

Remote Course: Mimicking and Copycatting: Improve Your Writing Through Emulation
July 10 – 21, 2023 (2 Weeks)
10:00 am – 12:00 pm PST
9th – 12th Grades
Remote Course
$550.00
Instructor: Prof. Lapriore

Ready to emulate the greats? First we have to decide who the “greats” are and what that means to us! We will read a selection of short stories and poems and discuss what makes them good (from both a personal stance and from a genre conventions stance). Then we will write scenes, stories, and poems emulating the style and language of those pieces. Boost your own creativity by writing outside of your own voice!

Professor Marci Lapriore teaches literature, creative writing, and transfer-level composition courses at Los Medanos College. She is a writer and has been teaching English for over 18 years, from 6th grade to college, and has participated and facilitated many writing workshops.

Remote Course: Star One: Charting Your Science Fiction Writing
July 10 – 21, 2023 (2 Weeks)
9:30 am – 12:30 pm PST
9th – 12th Graders
Remote Course
$650.00
Instructor: Terrance “TR” Amsler

OK, science fiction is really cool. You’ve got space ships, computers embedded in your brain, life on meteorites, and maybe even aliens. Climate fiction, with its flooded cities and fallen governments, can be cool in an apocalyptic, ‘let’s try to avoid that’ kind of way. Science Fiction is often the escape hatch a reader and writer are looking for. But what if these genres also reflect our hopes and fears? What if they actually help us better understand race, migration, climate change and politics? From Afro-futurism to zombies, we’ll have a chance to write about what matters to us, and what matters to our future.

T.R. Amsler (he/him) has taught, coached and learned from young people in the Bay Area for 20 years. He’s especially loved teaching narrative, fiction, journalism, debate and poetry ever since receiving his MA in education from UC Berkeley. Besides being a passionate reader, he loves to spend time outdoors on his bike, at a baseball field or with his kids. He currently teaches at June Jordan School for Equity on the ancestral and current land of the Raymatush Ohlone, third planet of the Solar System and currently called San Francisco.

Remote Course: Introduction to Creative Writing
July 10 – 28, 2023 (3 Weeks)
1:00 pm – 4:00 pm PST
9th – 12th Grades
Remote Course
$700.00
Instructor: Emily Wilkinson

Do you have stories to tell? Characters in your head? A notebook full of scenes? This summer, join other creative writers in reading short stories and creative nonfiction that breaks the rules, and discover how to write your own story. In this course you’ll have the opportunity to hack the techniques published writers use to tell their stories, like building unforgettable characters, unexpected scenes, and beautiful detail, and practice using these techniques yourself. We’ll spend time reading, writing, and workshopping together.

Emily Wilkinson is an educator and writer based in Northern California. She recently completed her PhD at Columbia University where she studied emotions and their impact on teaching and learning. Though she has taught many subjects and students of all ages, she spends a good portion of her school year daydreaming about the summer when she can lead campers into the fields and forests of creative writing. The fact that this will be her fifth year teaching a BAWP summer course makes her feel a bit old, but she swears that each year’s camp has been better than the last and predicts that 2023 will be the finest “vintage” yet. 

In-Person: The Art of Argument: A Process of Paying Attention
July 17 – 21, 2023 (1 Week)
10:00 am – 1:00 pm
9th – 12th Graders
In person at UC Berkeley (Berkeley Way West Building)
$350.00
Instructor: Nichole Vaughan

Being able to create an effective argument is a nuanced practice. It requires knowledge, empathy, and acuity. Join us in this class where we’ll practice and hone our use of these skills to effectively create a claim and address counterclaims, both written and spoken.

Nichole Vaughan is a high school English teacher in Redwood City at Sequoia High School. She has experience teaching IB English Language and Literature and AP Language. Education and language pop the batteries in her back and get her going. She loves participating in the process of learning and is driven by curiosity. She likes to bring literature to life by connecting books to pop culture and art. She was a BAWP fellow in 2021 and is excited to be a part of the summer programs.

Remote Course: Playing With Language: Finding Your Voice and Sharing It
July 17 – 21, 2023 (1 Week)
9:00 am – 12:00 pm PST
9th – 12th Grades
Remote Course
$350.00
Instructor: Sarah Trott

Playing with Language: In this workshop, students will experiment with language and storytelling to create new work and find new ways to express themselves. They will look at different platforms to share their voices, including personal zines, broadsides and digital formats. Participants will engage in daily creative writing exercises, including flash fiction and poetry, learn to make a one page zine and a broadside featuring one of their own pieces of writing.

Sarah Trott teaches high school creative writing and English in Richmond. The author of a book of poetry, Planned (There Press, 2009), Sarah studied poetry and book arts at Mills College and writing at USF. Sarah’s writing has also been published in Digital Paper, Cricket Online Review and Feral Press.

In-Person: College Essay Writing
July 24 – 28, 2023 (1 Week)
9:30 am – 12:30 pm
11th – 12th Grades Only
In person at UC Berkeley (Berkeley Way West Building)
$350.00
Instructor: Eric Gustafson

Good storytelling is a way to make your writing more engaging. In the course, you will first hone this craft by writing a profile article. We will begin by workshopping questions that elicit vivid storytelling and thoughtful reflection from your subject. Beginning with an anecdotal lead, the article you write will be focused on developing your subject as a character. With the second writing piece, the tables will be turned. You will become the subject of the article. Conveying who you are as a person is what college admission officers are looking for in an essay. This course will help you succeed in doing that. (Current UC/Common App prompts will be used.)

Eric Gustafson feels like he has been fortunate enough to have had two dream jobs. When he was hired as the assistant editor of Sports Car International magazine in 2000, his high school fantasy of becoming an automotive journalist had come true. He loved it. About ten years in, however, something began to feel amiss. Right out of college he had worked as a substitute teacher, then taught English in Dresden, Germany. Now, he found himself longing for the classroom and the satisfaction he felt from helping young people. In 2014, he quit his editing job and got a credential. He eventually became a journalism and American Literature teacher at Lowell High School. He loves it. BAWP has given him another outlet to share his passion for writing.

Canceled: Afrofuturism is Now!
Due to a scheduling conflict we will need to postpone offering this course until next summer.
Instructor: Meilani Clay

Over the course of 2 weeks, students will explore themes and tropes of speculative fiction through the lens of Black writers (often referred to as Afrofuturist fiction). Closely related to science fiction, Afrofuturist fiction uses the real world as a launching point to explore social justice and social change through a lens of radical imagination. Afrofuturist fiction can feature magic, scientific innovation, and creatures not of this world as a means of getting the writer’s message across. Students will use the work of visionary authors such as Octavia Butler and adrienne maree brown to guide their own storytelling and understanding of the genre. By the end of the course, students will craft their own short fiction incorporating themes such as climate change, environmental justice, space exploration, and more.

Meilani Clay is a writer, mama, and educator from Oakland, CA. Her debut poetry collection, and the creek don’t rise, was the winner of the 2021 Michael Rubin Book Award from San Francisco State University’s Fourteen Hills Press. A graduate of Howard University, the University of San Francisco’s Urban Education and Social Justice program, and a current MFA Poetry candidate at SFSU, Meilani aspires to be in school forever, to bridge worlds with her words, and to one day build forts out of books written by Black folks.

Registration Information

Using the appropriate link below, submit participant information and then select the course or courses you would like your writer to join. Sibling discounts (-$50 for each additional child after the first registration) will be automatically deducted before checking out.

• Registration for our Remote Courses
• Registration for our In-Person Camps

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