Secondary School Program - Literature Courses (Harvard Summer School)
A 4- or 7-week Harvard Summer School program offering college-credit literature courses such as Beginning Fiction, Introduction to Film, and Popular Culture and Social Theory, taught by Harvard faculty for motivated high schoolers on campus, online, or by commuting.
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Writers Week (Sarah Lawrence College)
A one-week residential or virtual summer program at Sarah Lawrence College in which high school students take daily creative writing and performance workshops taught by MFA candidates and faculty, earning one transferable college credit.
Writing and Literature Track - NextGen Leadership Institute (Barnard College)
A three-week New York City summer institute in which students take a faculty-led seminar pairing close reading and literary criticism with craft work in fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, journalism, or drama, alongside weekly leadership workshops.
Pre-College Program - Explorations in Modern Literature (Columbia University)
A Columbia University pre-college summer course for high schoolers surveying modern literature across genres and historical periods to build critical reading, interpretation, and analytical writing skills.
Young Adult Writers Program (YAWP) - GrubStreet
A Boston-area creative writing organization's teen program offering free Saturday writing sessions, seasonal writing classes, and a paid three-week Summer Teen Writing Fellowship in which teens work with published authors and receive an $800 stipend.
Free Expression Essay Competition (PEN America)
An annual essay competition from PEN America in which high school students ages 15-17 write 1,000-word essays on threats to free expression in the U.S. or abroad, with top entries winning cash prizes.
JASNA Essay Contest
An annual international essay contest from the Jane Austen Society of North America in which high school students write a scholarly essay on an assigned aspect of Austen's novels, with a $1,000 scholarship for the top entry in each division.