Whether this is your first writing class or you’re finishing your next book, The Writing Institute at Sarah Lawrence College helps writers grow and connect with a community of passionate writers. Join us on campus in Bronxville, New York or online. Questions about which class is best for you? Email The Writing Institute at writinginstitute@sarahlawrence.edu. We're here to help.
“On a whim, I took a writing course… within minutes, I knew I had found something I needed to go forth with. Suddenly, my stored experiences and hidden feelings had new meaning, and possibility, which was life-changing.”
Whether you’re a plotter who is just starting a manuscript or a pantser who needs help revising, this class will help you work through all of your plotting points.
Are you uncertain if the book you are writing is on-track? The purpose of this two-session interactive workshop is to focus on your book’s inherent strengths while targeting your book’s potential for final improvements.
Fri, Jun 5 2026, 1:00 pm–3:00 pm EDT
Fri, Jun 12 2026, 1:00 pm–3:00 pm EDT
Starting a piece of writing is one thing, but how do you finish it? In this one-day course, we’ll examine how a variety of world-class writers approach endings in their own work.
In this new workshop series, we’ll do a deep dive into a popular novel that made it big—and look for the “secret sauce” that made it work so well. Then, each week, you’ll get the chance to try your hand at every technique or approach revealed.
Join the Writing Institute for the #1000WordsofSummer challenge!
Write 1,000 words a day for two weeks in community with WI staff and students.
Come every day or when you are able and start the day filling the page.
While we will offer prompts to get you started if you need, this is not a workshop. Say hello, write for 50 minutes, and share your word count in the chat if you like!
Sat, May 30 2026, 8:00 am–9:00 am EDT
Sun, May 31 2026, 8:00 am–9:00 am EDT
Mon, Jun 1 2026, 8:00 am–9:00 am EDT
Tue, Jun 2 2026, 8:00 am–9:00 am EDT
Wed, Jun 3 2026, 8:00 am–9:00 am EDT
Thu, Jun 4 2026, 8:00 am–9:00 am EDT
Fri, Jun 5 2026, 8:00 am–9:00 am EDT
Sat, Jun 6 2026, 8:00 am–9:00 am EDT
Sun, Jun 7 2026, 8:00 am–9:00 am EDT
Mon, Jun 8 2026, 8:00 am–9:00 am EDT
Tue, Jun 9 2026, 8:00 am–9:00 am EDT
Wed, Jun 10 2026, 8:00 am–9:00 am EDT
Thu, Jun 11 2026, 8:00 am–9:00 am EDT
Fri, Jun 12 2026, 8:00 am–9:00 am EDT
Jumpstart your creativity in this 4-week online writing course. Creative Bootcamp offers dynamic prompts, craft insights, and fresh inspiration—perfect for new, stuck, or seasoned writers ready to explore new story ideas.
In this six-week nonfiction class with Terri Linton, students will examine works by writers that center their parents in their work as they explore their own "parent wounds" in the personal essay.
In this six-week workshop, we will learn how to use techniques across the genre-spectrum to inform our conception of what "storytelling" can be in speculative fiction and horror.
We have ALL lived fascinating lives in our own ways. In this class, writers sharing their version of the truth through actual events can take inspiration from fiction.
Writing The Family is designed for writers at all stages of their careers to engage in the intimate, sometimes messy, very often meaningful, act of writing about family through fiction and creative nonfiction.
In your hybrid memoir, you might engage with science writing, literature, pop culture, history, digital media—really any cultural product or phenomenon that you want to explore in the same frame as your personal narrative.
The first page of your novel or short story is absolutely crucial in determining whether your reader commits or quits. This is where you’ll hook them to make them want more. But what does it entail?
Tue, Aug 11 2026, 6:00 pm–8:00 pm EDT
Tue, Aug 18 2026, 6:00 pm–8:00 pm EDT
Learn how to start submitting your writing in this asynchronous class! We’ll cover finding venues, managing rejections, and crafting compelling cover letters.
"Writing by its very nature is solitary, but every writer reaches a point when it becomes critically important to share one’s work. [The Writing Institute] gave me exactly the structure, close reading, and support I needed to see my book through to completion."
—Liane Carter, author of Ketchup is My Favorite Vegetable: A Family Grows Up With Autism