Programs For Adults

NYWC currently provides free ongoing long-term weekly creative writing workshops throughout NYC. Through partnerships with various social service organizations we operate a Youth Writers Program and the below Adult Writers Program workshops for diverse groups of unheard New Yorkers. Our writers also participate in our readings and events, including the annual Write Makes Might, and the Writing Aloud Reading Series, and their work is published in our online literary journal, Dig Deep, and in NYWC’s high-quality books.

Formerly Incarcerated/Prison Writers Workshops

Bayview Correctional Facility: Reentry program in a state prison for women in Manhattan.

The Fortune Society: Services for people coming out of and serving in lieu of incarceration, in Queens.

The Osborne Association: Services for formerly incarcerated men and women in downtown Brooklyn.

Rikers Island, EMTC: Men in jail in a RIDE (Rikers Island Discharge Enhancement) program, through the Fortune Society.

Rikers Island-Fresh Start: Men in jail in a RIDE program of the Osborne Association.

Rikers Island, Rose M. Singer Center: Women in the Rikers Island Discharge Enhancement program in  NYC’s jail for women.

Stay N Out/Serendipity:  Residence in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, for formerly incarcerated women seeking substance abuse treatment, operated by NY Therapeutic Communities.

Senior Citizens Writers Workshops

14th Street Y- Educational Center for Retired Adults:  Two workshops for older adults, center operated by The Educational Alliance.

Dorot University Without Walls: a telephone workshop for  home-bound older adults.

Isabella Geriatric Center: Workshop for seniors at a geriatric and rehabilitation facility in Manhattan’s Washington Heights section.

Prime Time:  Workshop for older adults at Emmanuel Baptist Church in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn.

SAGE:  Two workshops at Manhattan community center for GLBT elders.

Queens Center for Gay Seniors: Workshop at Queens community center for GLBT elders.

VISIONS: Workshop for blind seniors in a residence for the blind and visually impaired in Manhattan.

Bilingual Workshops

Mano a Mano:  Center now located in Brooklyn to promote arts, culture, and tradition among Mexican immigrants in New York City.

Adult Basic Education/ESOL Workshops

Aguilar Center for Reading and Writing: Workshop for students in the Adult Basic Education program at the Aguilar branch of the NY Public Library in East Harlem.

Veterans  Workshops

Brooklyn Veterans Resource Center:  Services for male and female veterans of Vietnam, the Gulf, Afghanistan, and Iraq.

Wellness Writers Program Workshops

CIDNY: Center for Independence of the Disabled, Manhattan, services for people with physical and mental disabilities.

Community Access– East Village Access: Services for people with serious mental illness making the transition from shelters and institutions to independent living, in the East Village.

CNR: Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation, day health care for adults, Crown Heights, Brooklyn.

Creative Center:  Workshop at arts center in Manhattan for people living with cancer.

NY Presbyterian Psychiatric Unit: Two workshops for inpatients in acute care in Manhattan hospital.

Port Morris Wellness Center: Workshop in a community clinic for patients undergoing treatment for opiate abuse/dependency on methadone maintenance. Clinic is South Bronx outpost of the Division of Substance Abuse of Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

Open Community Workshop

NY Writers Coalition Creative Writing @ 80 Arts: a drop-in workshop in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. Wednesdays 12:30-2:30, 80 Hanson Place. Suggested donation $10/workshop.



Workshop Methods

NYWC’s workshop method is designed to reduce competition amongst writers and allows writers of all backgrounds, ages, experience levels and genres to work together to grow as writers. Workshop size is limited to ensure that each member receives enough time and attention.

Workshop participants write during the workshop and receive positive, supportive feedback. We do not critique brand new writing, because the writer has not yet had a chance to read or revise it. In addition, it is assumed that all writing done in the workshop is fictional. Workshop leaders also write as part of the group, providing a model for taking risks and showing vulnerability in a group setting. These guidelines ensure that participants feel safe to write and read aloud even the riskiest material.

Writers are given the freedom to find and strengthen their individual and unique voices as well as to experiment with form, style and new genres. In addition, the workshop provides a structure for writers to produce new work on a regular basis. Workshop members become part of a community of writers, easing some of the isolation that writers and those in marginalized groups often encounter.