Ada Long Creative Writing Workshop
The Ada Long Creative Writing Workshop is a 3-week workshop for high school students. The Workshop is sponsored by the UAB English Department in collaboration with the UAB Honors Program. The Workshop is named in honor of Dr. Ada Long, founding director of the UAB Honors Program, Professor of English, and lifelong advocate for community outreach, the value of a liberal education, and the enduring significance of literature. Download the brochure (pdf ) or follow these links for more information:
General Information • Application Procedures • Deadlines • Curriculum and Schedule • Faculty • Contact Information
We are still accepting applications!
General Information
- Participants: The workshop is designed for high school students interested in creative writing for personal enrichment, as preparation for university work in creative writing, and as an introduction to creative writing as a career field. Up to 30 students—rising high school sophomores, juniors, and seniors—can participate. Students are accepted by application.
- Dates: June 3-21, 2013
Location: the Spencer Honors House, UAB campus; the workshop is a non-residential daycamp.- Cost: $800 without college credit, $1262 with one hour elective college credit. Financial aid is available for 25 students with documented financial need.
- Faculty: The faculty of six instructors have extensive teaching and nationally renowned publication experience (low student-to-faculty ratio). Get more information about the faculty.
- Financial Support: Seed money was personally contributed by the members of the English Advisory Committee. Supplementary support has been generously provided by the Office of Student Affairs, the UAB Honors Program, and the College of Arts and Sciences. This year, additional scholarships are available from the Jimmie Hess Creative Writing Scholarship Fund.
Application Procedures
- Students can apply by downloading the Application Packet or by requesting a packet from the program director.
- The application requires a 3-5 page sample of student creative writing (in any form or genre).
- Download the Application Packet
for the student application and elective credit application. - Students applying for financial aid must include a letter on school letterhead from an English teacher or high school counselor attesting to the student’s financial need.
Deadlines
- April 15—Student Application Due (we are still accepting applications)
- May 1—Students Notified of Selection (after May 1st students will be notified of selection once application is received)
- May 7—Student confirms enrollment (with payment of half of workshop costs) (after May 7th, student confirms enrollment once notified of selection)
Curriculum and Schedule
Instructional activities include directed writing exercises, small group/workshop discussion of students' work, individual conferences with instructors, and related enrichment activities.
Students will take three week-long workshops: one in poetry, one in fiction, and one in the students' choice of other genres (e.g., playwriting, writing for children, magazine production, memoir, etc.). In each workshop, they will draft, critique, and revise complete, original works.
Program is in session 9:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., with lunch provided.
| 9:00–10:00 | Directed writing exercises |
| 10:15–12:00 | Small group writing workshops |
| 12:00–12:30 | Lunch (provided each day) |
| 12:30–1:30 | Free writing time and individual conferences with instructors |
| 1:30–3:30 | Enrichment activities |
Enrichment activities will include
- field trips and programs at such sites as the Civil Rights Institute, the Birmingham Art Museum, Birmingham Botanical Gardens, and Sloss Furnace;
- readings and presentations by the workshop faculty, UAB student writers, and visiting authors and performers;
- exploration of publication opportunities in Sanctuary, the journal of the UAB Honors Program, an anthology of work exclusively by program students, and other publications; and
- opportunity to read publicly from their work in program's closing sessions.
Faculty
James Braziel is the author of two novels, Birmingham, 35 Miles (Bantam 2008) and Snakeskin Road (Bantam 2009). His work has appeared in journals and newspapers, including the New York Times and Hayden's Ferry Review. He teaches and co-directs the creative writing program at UAB.
Daryl Brown is a graduate of UAB. His short fiction has appeared in literary journals and anthologies such as New Stories from the South: The Year's Best. His novel manuscript was a finalist for the 2002 Bakeless Literary Prize. He has also published nonfiction in Creative Nonfiction, UTNE Reader, and The Best American Nonrequired Reading, 2007.
Shelly Stewart Cato is currently finishing her Masters in Creative Writing at UAB. She is managing editor of Birmingham Poetry Review and was poetry editor of PMS poemmemoirstory 2012. She attended the Sewanee Writers' Conference in 2010 and 2011 and has volunteered with Desert Island Supply Company, Birmingham's non-profit creative writing venture for kids. She worked with the Ada Long Creative Writing Workshop in 2012 and is already looking forward to seeing faces from last year and greeting new ones.
Callie Mauldin is finishing her Master of Arts degree in English with a concentration in Creative Writing at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She is an alumna of the 43rd Annual Squaw Valley Community of Writers Fiction Workshop. As part of Samford University’s Continuing Education Program, she currently teaches Beginner and Intermediate Level Improvisational Theatre classes, and will also teach an Introduction to Fiction Writing class this summer. She is currently at work on her first novel, tentatively titled Whiskey in a Teacup. She is excited to return to the Ada Long Creative Writing Workshop for her second summer.
Rusty Rushton has published poetry in more than 30 literary journals from the Paris Review in New York to the Berkeley Poetry Review in California. At UAB he is Associate Director of the University Honors Program, where he teaches courses in literature and interdisciplinary humanities.
Adam Vines is an assistant professor of English at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where he is editor of Birmingham Poetry Review. He has published work in Poetry, Southwest Review, Barrow Street, 32 Poems, North American Review, Cincinnati Review, among others. His collection of poetry is The Coal Life (University of Arkansas Press, 2012). He was a Tennessee Williams Scholar at the Sewanee Writers' Conference, and during the summers, he is on staff at SWC. He has won awards for his teaching from the University of Florida and UAB. The Alabama State Council on the Arts awarded him a 2013 Individual Artist Fellowship.
Brandy Yates is a graduate of the UAB Honors Program. Her short fiction has been published in PMS poemmemoirstory, The Mayo Review, Aura, and Sanctuary and is forthcoming in Gertrude Journal. Two of her fictional chapbooks were recently recognized in press competitions, "Everyday Magic" by Gertrude Press and "The Choking Vine" by RopeWalk Press.
Contact Information
For more information:
James Braziel, Director
Ada Long Creative Writing Workshop
Department of English
Humanities Building 205
900 13th Street South
University of Alabama at Birmingham
Birmingham, AL 35294
205/934-8573
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