Mission

Uptown Stories inspires kids to discover and develop their inner voices in a diverse community of writers. Based in upper Manhattan, we offer small-group writing workshops for children ages eight to fifteen, led by master teachers and professional authors. To ensure our workshops are accessible to all children, tuition is pay-what-you-can. Uptown Stories creates an exciting, challenging, and supportive community in which young authors thrive.

Activities

In this workshop, you can write whatever you want: personal memoir, screenplay, TV pilot, political manifesto, rock opera, sports investigation, epic poem, western comedy, horror-romance, spy-sci-fi, or some sort of strange, new thing, you’re not even sure what to call it. Whatever it is, you must write it fiercely and bravely, and that will mean writing at least two pages on your own time every week. We will spend the first few classes freewriting and brainstorming, diving into our memories, fears, beliefs, and desires to mine for material, then each student will choose a single project to focus on until the reading. The group’s job will be to work together to help each writer discover, develop, and complete his or her unique piece of writing.

Eligibility