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Description of Program
Course Descriptions
Registration Information
Basic Requirement for Participation

Description of Program

In-person, remote, academic, screenplays, 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 2024 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 10th

• Remote: Introduction to Creative Writing (3 Weeks)
• In-Person: Scenes by Teens (1 Week)

Starting the week of June 17th

• In-Person: Writing Wild (2 Weeks)

Starting the week of June 24th

• Remote: Introduction to Journalism (1 Week)
• FULL! In-Person: College Essay Writing (1 Week)

Starting the week of July 8th

• FULL! Remote: College Essay Writing (1 Week)
• Remote: Poetry as (People) Power: Explore Your Voice, Your Relationships and Your Life in Verse! (1 Week)
• Remote: Jump Scare: Writing Stories that Jolt Us (3 Weeks)
• In-Person: Star One: Charting Your Science Fiction Writing (2 Weeks)
• In-Person: Creative Writing Lab: Taking Our Writing to the Next Level (2 Weeks)

Starting the week of July 22nd 

• In-Person: Dream Inspired Creative Writing (2 Weeks)

Starting the week of July 29th

• FULL! In-Person: The Art of the Argument: A process of paying attention (1 Week)

2024 Course Descriptions

Introduction to Creative Writing
June 10 – 28, 2024 (3 Weeks – No Class 6/19)
1:00 pm – 4:00 pm PST
9th – 12th Grades
Remote Course
$675.00
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 (she/they) is an educator and author from Northern California who celebrates sher 7th summer with BayWP as a writing instructor. Since 2015, Emily has worked with various Writing Project sites nationwide, collaborating with teachers and students in physical and digital classrooms. In addition to teaching a wide variety of course subjects and levels—ranging from 6th grade English to AP World History and English teaching methods—Emily spends sher time researching and writing about LGBTQIA+ identities in the classroom and the emotional aspects of teaching and learning. Sher first book, based on sher experiences as an urban teacher in a rural Northern Californian classroom, will be published by Routledge later this year. In sher personal time, Emily can often be found on a granite slope or sand dune, trying not to fall as shey highlights a golden line in a work of literature or creative non-fiction.

Scenes by Teens: Intro to Dramatic Writing
June 10 – 14, 2024 (1 Week)
9:00 am – 12:00 pm
9th – 12th Graders
In person at UC Berkeley (Berkeley Way West Building)
$375.00
Instructor: John Levine

Have an idea for a movie or a play? Don’t have an idea, but want a chance to find one? This course focuses on the building blocks of dramatic writing — character, plot, dialogue, and conflict. Through writing exercises and feedback sessions, you’ll craft and develop a series of scenes and get started on your own scripts. At the end of the week-long workshop, we’ll have an informal reading of your work. No previous dramatic writing experience necessary.

John Levine teaches writing and public speaking at UC Berkeley. He has also taught writing workshops for high school students in California and China. An award-winning playwright, John has had plays produced throughout the U.S., as well as in Canada, Mexico, India, Australia, the Philippines, the United Arab Emirates, and the U.K.

Writing Wild
June 17 – 28, 2024 (2 Weeks – No Class 6/19)
10:00 am – 1:00 pm
9th – 12th Graders
In person at UC Berkeley (Berkeley Way West Building)
$575.00
Instructor: Karla Brundage

Nature speaks to us in the cycles of seasons and life: the wax and wane of the moon, the rise and set of the sun, the archetypes we embody. In this class we will read and respond creatively to nature writers from Wordsworth to Camille Dungy. Students will be invited to connect with elements of sun, wind, wood, light and color, and invite these elements into our own writing. We will also explore deep cultural and social histories as they relate to nature and delve into the conflagration of myth and sensory memory to evoke content for their non-fiction writing. Each class will consist of a reading and discussion, generative writing prompts followed by focused writing time and/or revision and peer editing. Please bring a notebook, writing utensil (or laptop), comfortable clothes and walking shoes, as we will go out of the building, as well as a snack/drink each day.

Karla Brundage, a passionate educator and poet, intertwines her love for teaching with a dedication to poetry and cross-cultural exchange. Born in Berkeley during the Summer of Love amidst the free speech movement, she embraces this historical backdrop as a challenge to preserve through the transformative power of verse. As a high school English teacher at Life Learning Academy, Karla nurtures a love for language and written expression. Her teaching journey includes a Fulbright Teacher Exchange in Zimbabwe and three years in Cote d’Ivoire. In West Africa, she founded the West Oakland to West Africa Poetry Exchange (WO2WA). In her spare time, Karla enjoys writing, hiking, and beach clean ups, as well as engaging youth with their creative development.

Introduction to Journalism
June 24 – 28, 2024 (1 Week)
9:00 am – 12:00 pm PST
9th – 12th Grades Only
Remote Course
$375.00
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 25 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.

FULL! In-Person College Essay Writing
June 24 – 28, 2024 (1 Week)
9:30 am – 12:30 pm
11th – 12th Grades Only
In person at UC Berkeley (Berkeley Way West Building)
$375.00
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.

FULL! Remote College Essay Writing
July 8 – 12, 2024 (1 Week)
9:30 am – 12:30 pm PST
11th – 12th Grades Only
Remote Course
$375.00
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.

Poetry as (People) Power: Explore Your Voice, Your Relationships and Your Life in Verse!
July 8 – 12, 2024 (1 Week)
1:00 pm – 4:00 pm PST
9th – 12th Graders
Remote Course
$375.00
Instructor: Mahru Elahi

Using the poet Chen Chen’s focus on writing about friends and relationships as a starting point, this week-long course will offer multiple ways to generate poetry, perform poetry and publish poetry that reflects your emerging voice, your identities and the power of verse to build community and change the world as we know it.

A former poet in the schools, funded by the San Francisco Arts Commission, Mahru Elahi has been supporting youth poets to strengthen their voices, publish, and perform, for decades. Mahru is an alumna of the Voices of Our Nations Writing Workshop, and a recipient of a Hedgebrook Residency. Mahru Elahi’s writing has appeared in magazines, journals, and the anthology Let Me Tell You Where I’ve Been: New Writing by Women of the Iranian Diaspora.

Jump Scare: Writing Stories that Jolt Us
July 8 – 26, 2024 (3 Weeks)
1:00 pm (13 o’clock) – 4:00 pm PST
9th – 12th Grades
Remote Course
$700.00
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 (she/they), a life-long fan of the weird, ghastly, and horrific, is an educator and author from Northern California who celebrates sher 7th summer with BAWP as a writing instructor. Since 2015, Emily has worked with various Writing Project sites nationwide, collaborating with teachers and students in physical and digital classrooms. In addition to teaching a wide variety of course subjects and levels—ranging from 6th grade English to AP World History and English teaching methods—Emily spends sher time researching and writing about LGBTQIA+ identities in the classroom and the emotional aspects of teaching and learning. Sher first book, based on sher experiences as an urban teacher in a rural Northern Californian classroom, will be published by Routledge later this year. In sher personal time, Emily can often be found on a granite slope or sand dune, trying not to fall as shey highlights a golden line in a work of literature or creative non-fiction.

Star One: Charting Your Science Fiction Writing
July 8 – 19, 2024 (2 Weeks)
9:30 am – 12:30 pm
9th – 12th Graders
In person at UC Berkeley (Berkeley Way West Building)
$600.00
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.

Full! Creative Writing Lab: Taking Our Writing to the Next Level (2 Weeks)
July 8 – 18, 2024 (2 Weeks – No classes on Friday)
9:30 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. Recently, 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.

Dream-Inspired Creative Writing
July 22 – August 2, 2024 (2 Weeks)
10:00 am – 1:00 pm
9th – 12th Graders
In person at UC Berkeley (Berkeley Way West Building)
$600.00
Instructor: Meres-Sia Gabriel

What do Twilight, Stuart Little and Frankenstein have in common? They were all inspired by dreams! If you enjoy dreaming and recounting your dreams in vivid detail, this may be the course for you. In this course we will explore dream journaling, creative dreaming, and writing inspired by dreams. We will gain inspiration from poems, short stories, essays, art, conversation, and films. You don’t have to share any confidential dreams to benefit from this class. There will be guidelines to keep the space safe and fun. Just come with a joy for dreaming and writing.

Meres-Sia Gabriel is the bestselling author of I Twirl in the Smoke and a dream enthusiast. When she is not writing , performing, or teaching, she is dreaming.

FULL! The Art of Argument: A process of paying attention
July 29 – August 2, 2024
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. 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.

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 Courses

If you encounter any issues with the registration process please try using a different browser (Chrome is preferred). If that doesn’t help, email us at bawp@berkeley.edu.