Get a head start on college and learn about UAB's new BA in Writing and Media during the English Department's Digital Writing Summer Camp. Open to recent high school graduates who plan to attend college, the two-week summer camp is free and includes lunch.
What Will Students Learn?
Students learn the basics of digital writing from professors who teach in UAB’s first year composition program and the new BA in Writing and Media major. Specifically, students will:
- Learn how images argue
- Learn how to edit images with Adobe Photoshop
- Learn how to build a multimodal argument by pairing images with text
- Learn how to build an effective PowerPoint presentation
- Learn how to present visual information to a public audience
- Learn how to build a simple webpage using Adobe Express
- Learn how to capture video
- Learn how to edit video using Adobe Premiere Rush
At the end of the summer camp, students produce their own mini-documentary and participate in a semi-public screening.
Who is Eligible to Attend?
The Digital Writing Summer Camp is designed for students who recently graduated from any Birmingham City School District high school and who plan to attend college.
What is the Cost and What's Included?
The camp is free. Students who attend are also provided free lunches and two pizza parties. However, transportation is not provided.
When and Where Will the Camp Run this Year?
The two-week Digital Writing Summer Camp will run from July 15 to July 26 and will take place on the campus of UAB. Sessions will run from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday.
Application Deadlines
Applications for the 2024 Digital Writing Summer Camp are due by June 8, 2024. However, space is limited. To ensure your spot in the program, make sure to apply by May 25, 2024.
How to Apply
Use the button below to fill out an online application for the 2024 Digital Writing Summer Camp.
Apply Now Opens an external link.
Questions? Contact us!
For more information, contact the program’s director, Dr. Jeffrey A. Bacha, at
The UAB Writers' Series is an annual offering of the Creative Writing program. Nationally recognized authors are invited to UAB to give readings and participate in Q-and-A sessions. Readings are free and open to the public. Authors and event details are released before the start of the Fall semester. Previous authors have included Michael Sowder, Margaret Wrinkle, Robert Collins, Sheri Joseph, Kathryn Davis, and Joan McBreen.
The series is co-sponsored by the Department of English, the Honors Program, BACHE Visiting Writers, the Alys Stephens Center, UAB Student Government Association, the Alabama State Council on the Arts, and Friends of the Writing Program.
Visiting Writers Series Presents Robert Collins and Randy Blythe, Retired Professors, UAB Department of English
WHEN: Wednesday October 16, 2024, 6 p.m.
WHERE: AEIVA, 1121 10th Ave S, Biringham, AL 35294
Robert Collins has published poems in various literary magazines, including Ascent, Cimarron Review, Louisville Review, Connecticut Review, Southern Humanities Review, Prairie Schooner, Shenandoah, Southern Poetry Review, Tar River, and, most recently, The Texas Review and The MacGuffin. He has received two Individual Artists Fellowships from the Alabama State Council on the Arts, been nominated for a Pushcart Prize several times, received the Ascent Award for Poetry, and won the Tennessee Chapbook Prize. He taught American literature and creative writing at the University of Alabama at Birmingham for thirty years where he founded and edited the Birmingham Poetry Review for twenty years and directed the creative writing program for almost a decade. He is the author of eight books of poetry, including Naming the Dead (Future Cycle Press, 2012), Drinking with the Second Shift (World Tech 2017), and, most recently, Dead on Arrival t Dante’s (11thour Press 2023).
Randy Blythe spent many years in Birmingham, his hometown, as a plumber, a drummer, a hippie, a student, an editor, a proofreader, a tutor, and a teacher. He taught at the University of Alabama and at UAB for thirty years, first as an adjunct, then as a graduate teaching assistant, then again as an adjunct, then as an instructor, and finally as an assistant professor in the UAB English department. With Bob Collins, he founded and worked on the Birmingham Poetry Review for 20 years. He now lives, writes, and works on his family’s farm in Etowah county. Published widely for 40 years, he has finally managed to published two full-length collections of poetry, The human Part in 2014 and The Wish Furnace in 2023.
This workshop is sponsored by the UAB English Department. It 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.
Do you write or want to? Do you have stories or poems squirreled away in a journal or in a corner of your mind? If so, apply to the Ada Long Creative Writing Workshop where you will find inspiration, guidance, and support to express your ideas. Each day of this summer camp, you will work with nationally recognized authors and teachers. You will be introduced to the amazing educational experience at UAB and work with graduates and professors who are published authors from the UAB English Department. Best of all, you will learn and make friends with students who are just as interested in expanding their creativity.
The Ada Long Creative Writing Workshop is a summer day camp for rising 9th-12th grade students. It takes place on the UAB campus (University Hall) in Birmingham, Alabama. You will find specific information about the workshop below.
What You Need to Know
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What happens at the workshop?
Every day, students work closely with nationally acclaimed fiction writers, essayists, and poets in small groups. Limited to just 35 students, the workshop encourages discussion and the exchange of ideas in small groups and one-on-one.
In addition to small group workshops:
- Students will draw inspiration from creative activities, presentations, and readings by established writers.
- Students will explore flash prose—essays and fiction works that are less than 750 words—and poetry.
- Students will draft, critique, and revise complete original works weekly.
- Students can get a head start on college through the workshop — one hour of elective credit is available.
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Application Deadlines
- May 1st, but we will still take applications until all places are filled.
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Dates, costs, and other basic info
- Dates: The workshop is a two-week day camp, June 8 – 19, 2025. Sessions last from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., Monday through Friday.
On June 19 at 5:00 p.m., we will have a celebration for the students, with students reading their works and professors from the English Department present to field questions about UAB and the intimate and nurturing English Department in general and its major, minor, and concentrations, including the new Writing and Media degree. Family and friends are invited. Drinks and snacks will be provided. - Location: University Hall, 1402 10th Ave. S, Birmingham, AL 352 (on the UAB campus).
- Participants: 30-35 students will be selected to join the workshop. All students will be rising high school freshmen, sophomores, juniors, seniors, and graduated seniors.
- Cost: $800 for the workshop fee; $368 for an optional hour of college credit.
- Financial Aid: Partial aid is available to students who find the fee cost prohibitive. Financial aid does not cover the hour of optional credit.
- Dates: The workshop is a two-week day camp, June 8 – 19, 2025. Sessions last from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., Monday through Friday.
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Sample daily schedule
- 8:30-9:30 a.m. — Directed writing exercises and craft lectures
- 9:30 a.m.-11:00 a.m — Small group writing workshops
- 11:00-11:45 p.m. — Snacks and free writing time
- 11:45-12:30 p.m. — readings by published authors and UAB English Department professors and Q&A with them
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How to apply
Students need to complete and submit an application and writing sample to the director. Download and complete the application and send to Adam Vines (contact info on application) or apply online.
Download and complete the application or apply online.
- The writing sample should be three to five pages of creative writing in any form or genre.
- To apply for financial need, a teacher or high school counselor should attest to the student’s financial need in a letter on school letterhead or in an email and send it to the Director.
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Questions? Contact us!
For more information, contact:
Adam Vines, Director, Ada Long Creative Writing Workshop
Professor of English
Director of Creative Writing, English Department
Editor, Birmingham Poetry ReviewThis email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
UAB Department of English
University Hall, Room 5024
1720 2nd Ave. South
Birmingham, AL 35294-1241
(205) 934-4250 (leave message)
(205) 422-6899 (cell)
Student Highlights
Students in the Ada Long Creative Writing workshop Summer 2024 introduce themselves and share what creativity means to them.
The Department of English Alumni Lecture series brings in nationally prominent writers and scholars twice each year to talk about ideas and issues related to the study of English. These lectures are free and open to the public.
Spring 2021: Saeed Jones
How We Fight for Our Lives Book Chat
When: Tuesday, March 2, 6:00 p.m. (via Zoom)
Alumni Lecture
When: Wednesday, March 10, 5 p.m., (via Zoom)
Saeed Jones is an essential author as well as a powerful voice in the world of literary activism, and his writing often takes on questions of identity. Formerly a major contributor at Buzzfeed, he shaped his platform into a tool for social awareness with his no-holds-barred personality.
His debut collection, Prelude to Bruise, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and was awarded the 2015 PEN/Joyce Osterweil Award for Poetry. The collection also received a starred review in Publishers Weekly, which described the book as, “a fever dream, something akin to magic.” His poems engage themes of intimacy, race, and power, and often incorporate elements of mythology. In a 2014 interview for PEN America, Jones stated, “I’m obsessed with manhood as a brutal and artful performance. My mind always finds its way back to the crossroad where sex, race, and power collide. Journeys, transformation as well as dashed attempts to transform, fascinate me as well.”
In 2019, Jones released his highly anticipated memoir, How We Fight for Our Lives. A review from NPR writes, “Jones’s voice and sensibility are so distinct that he turns one of the oldest of literary genres inside out and upside down.” In this memoir, Saeed has developed a one-of-a-kind style that is as beautiful as it is powerful, and he has cemented himself as an essential writer of our time. Saeed has received a Pushcart Prize and fellowships from Cave Canem and Queer/Art/Mentorship.
This lecture is sponsored by the Jemison Visiting Professorship in the Humanities Endowment.
The Department of English actively participates in several communities: our students, Birmingham residents, and the literary and creative-writing communities at-large. We sponsor ongoing series and workshops as well as participate in student groups and community events. Learn about our ongoing event series below, and check out our event calendar for a comprehensive list of events our faculty and students participate in.
