Writing Workshops
CWC Writing Workshops are open to people of all abilities and educational backgrounds who want to use writing for practical needs, civic engagement and personal expression. Learn more and register below.
Register for Writing WorkshopsSummer 2025 Workshops
Strange New Worlds: Young Writers Summer Camp
4-part workshop
Daily, beginning Monday, July 7 through Thursday, July 10, 10 am-1 pm
Calling all middle schoolers! Join Salt Lake Young Writers for a week of creative writing and storytelling. We'll be diving into fiction writing, plot, character development, fantasy worldbuilding, and tabletop games. We'll also explore the world we live in through writing memoirs and creative nonfiction. Ages 12-14.
Cost: Free. Registration is required.Location: CWC, 210 East 400 South #8.
From Sensation to Story: Exploring the Meaning of Our Body’s Messages
2-part workshop
Thursdays, July 10 and 31, 6-8 pm
The two-part workshop will involve listening to various signals from the body during different movements and stretches. Participants will then journal about these experiences, engaging in both individual and group brainstorming to create metaphors that represent these bodily messages.
First Session: Visualizing Our Movement Potential In this workshop, participants will explore the anatomy of movement and express it through storytelling using metaphors. It involves stopping to consider the messages conveyed by your body.
Second Session: Exploring Messages & Meaning: Often in society, such messages are ignored or endured. This session encourages viewing discomfort or pain as indicators of something that requires attention and adjustment, potentially transforming the perception of pain into an aid for healing. By learning to pause and reflect on what these sensations signify, participants can better understand their body's needs.
Cost: Free. Registration is required.Location: CWC, 210 East 400 South #8.
Register for From Sensation to Story: Exploring the Meaning of Our Body’s Messages
Cozy Fiction
1-part workshop
Saturday, July 12, 12-2 pm
It can feel like the world is on fire and things are beyond our control. Sometimes when we're already stressed, we need a break from reading about world-ending threats, great battles, or political intrigue. Sometimes we might prefer to read something cozy and comforting. And sometimes we might want to write something cozy and comforting. This is where the emerging subgenre of cozy fiction comes in.
Join the CWC to learn about this new kind of fiction, how to write engaging and cozy stories, share ideas with other writers, and perhaps find comfort in sharing our cozy fiction.
Cost: $15. Registration is required.Location: CWC, 210 East 400 South #8.
Writing is World-Building Summer Camp
4-part workshop
Daily, beginning Monday, July 14 through Thursday, July 17, 10 am-4 pm
Join the Salt Lake Young Writers and the University of Utah for a fun, week-long exploration of writing! This summer camp is a collaboration between the CWC and the U of U’s Department of Writing and Rhetoric Studies.
Throughout the week, students will engage in a range of different activities related to how writing builds worlds: our current world, imaginative worlds, and the world of the future. Workshops will focus on storytelling, memoirs, scholarship essays, and crafting fictional characters. Each afternoon, we will engage in collaborative world-building through an extended role-playing game (RPG).
By the end of the week, each participant will have not only practiced different styles of writing but will have crafted a contribution to the annual Salt Lake Young Writers anthology, which will be published in December 2025. Ages 15-18.
Cost: Free. Registration is required.Location: Mon. - Wed. at the University of Utah Youth Education building, 540 Arapeen Dr #210; Thurs. at the CWC, 210 East 400 South #8.
Climate Fiction
1-part workshop
Wednesday, July 16, 6-7:30 pm
Climate Fiction is writing that allows us to respond to the social and environmental issues surrounding climate change. It often includes science fiction and dystopian/utopian themes as well as speculation about human responses to the unequally distributed challenges we face on our changing planet. In this workshop we will look at some of the basic elements of climate fiction and its role in eco justice movements. Through guided writing prompts we will examine our relationships with the environment and what responsibilities we might have in envisioning and creating a more healthy, sustainable, and equitable future for all on our Earth home.
Cost: $15. Registration is required.Location: CWC, 210 East 400 South #8.
Exploring Surrealist Storytelling
1-part workshop
Tuesday, August 12, 6-7:30 pm
Waking up as a cockroach, existing in a century of solitude, experiencing flying elephants, living in the world of dreams and the unconscious. These are all realities for characters in surrealist fiction. Come learn about writing surrealist fiction and how you, too, can use a bizarre mix of fact and fantasy for storytelling in this workshop!
Cost: $15. Registration is required.Location: CWC, 210 East 400 South #8.