My STEP Signature Project was extremely beneficial and humbling. I attended the virtual portion of the Yale Writers’ Workshop from June 11-17, 2023. I worked with ten other women.

I went into the Yale Writers’ Workshop nervous. Everyone in the workshop were either distinguished writers already, or they were well established in their careers as educators or had PhDs. To be accepted into a program like this was already humbling, but to be in a space with powerful women was overwhelming. It was very easy for me to question my worth and writing abilities in comparison to my peers.

By the end of the camp, I became a fuller writer with more skills in my toolbox than what I had before. My Professor, Sarah Darer Littman, had a private conversation with me about my work, and with small revisions she wants to publish my free-verse poem, which was amazing. I spoke with talented authors and even literary agents throughout the week, and it is an experience I won’t soon forget. 

At the beginning of the camp I was overwhelmed by the talent that surrounded me. However, by the end of the camp I was more convinced that I had similar skills to my peers. Throughout the week, we had workshops from 9am-12pm. Everyone in the camp was required to upload a manuscript of their work that had a word maximum of 3,000 words. Most people wrote fantasy or contemporary work, which made me terrified; my manuscript was a free-verse poem and I was the last person in the workshop to be critiqued. These women giving each other peer reviews and constructive criticism put my work into a new light and perspective, since I was working and learning more about my passion in a much more professional setting than what I had ever experienced.

Throughout the week, we also met with several panels. I met with a panel of literary agents, and talked to distinguished young adult authors who went into detail about their experiences in the publishing world. Hearing success stories about people who have been through similar situations that I have been through was encouraging and made me a little less nervous about the entire camp in general.

The peer reviews I finally received at the end of the week were very special to me. One girl cried when discussing my writing, and several women in the camp told me that my voice needed to be heard by many young girls. In my one-on-one meeting with my professor, she told me the same thing, and it was just so amazing to me.

I am going to school to become an educator, however my desire to teach and nurture children is not what drives me. My entire life I have wanted to create fiction that can be influential to young adults in the same way that it was for me. I have been to another writing camp in the past, but now that I am attending university and my future seems less distant, this feedback and experience was something I really needed. This encourages me to not give up on my endeavors, even while I’m studying for an adjacent profession.