At the Cherry Tree Young Writers’ Conference, our motto is “Write Your Truth.”

Conference creative writing workshops are designed to help you discover the stories that matter to you. What is your truth? What is the voice you will use to tell it? 

Rising high school sophomores, juniors, and seniors will experience the thriving literary community at Washington College while they participate in intensive creative writing workshops in their choice of genre (poetry, fiction, or journalism), discuss literature at the college level with current English department faculty, attend professional readings, craft talks, and writing panels hosted by the Rose O’Neill Literary House, and take a workshop on how to write effective college admissions statements. 

Faculty & Workshops:

Poetry: 

MARCI CALABRETTA CANCIO-BELLO: Poetry Is Like Being Alive Twice: A Generative Workshop 

Fiction:

CARA BLUE ADAMS: Let’s Talk! (or, if you prefer, The Craft of Dialogue)

TONI JENSEN: Pushing into Strangeness: A Fiction Writing Workshop

Journalism:

JASON FAGONE: The Art of the Profile

Scholarships Available!

We offer a number of scholarships that cover the full cost of tuition. The scholarship deadline is June 15, 2023.

• General Merit Scholarships: open to all interested students.
• Dixon Scholarships, funded by Dixon Valve: open to all students from, or attending school in, Kent and Queen Anne's Counties, MD.
• The Unbound Scholarship, funded by The Needle's Eye Academy: open to all scholars of color attending high school and living in any county on the Eastern Shore of Maryland.
• Lower Shore Scholarships, funded by Salt Water Media and Stephanie L. Fowler: open to all students from, or attending school on the Lower Shore (Worcester, Somerset, Wicomico, and Dorchester Counties, MD; Sussex County, DE).
• Talbot Summer Arts Scholarships: available for every student who lives in Talbot County, MD, regardless of where they study. 

An average day in the life of an attendee:

8:00-8:40 a.m. Breakfast

8:50-9:00 a.m. Announcements

9:00-9:50 a.m. Individual Writing Time

10:00-10:50 a.m. Literature Discussion

11:00-11:50 a.m. Letterpress Printing Demo

Noon-1:15 p.m. Lunch

1:30-3:15 p.m. Creative Writing Workshop

3:30-4:20 p.m. Intern & Staff Open Mic

4:30-5:00 p.m. Craft Talk

5:00-6:45 p.m. Dinner

7:00-8:15 p.m. Faculty Reading and Q&A

8:30-10:00 p.m. Literary Trivia Contest!