The Writer’s Perspective is a writing program for advanced high-school students, started out of a desire to bridge high-school English curriculums with the most groundbreaking and innovative literature being published today. Taught by faculty from Stanford University and Cornell University, with work published in The Paris Review and The New Yorker, these courses push students to step outside the classroom and think about literature the way working writers do.
Unlike a high-school English class, courses from The Writer’s Perspective will introduce a wide range of cutting-edge, contemporary literature, including experimental works, translated texts, and global voices not included on standard high-school syllabi. Authors taught will include recent Nobel Prize winners and literary pioneers such as Han Kang, Ben Lerner, Annie Ernaux, George Saunders, László Krasznahorkai, Jon Fosse, Louise Glück, Kim Hyesoon, Yoko Tawada, Samanta Schweblin, Solvej Balle, Kiese Laymon, Bhanu Kapil, and others. The purpose of these courses is to push students to step outside the classroom and think about literature the way contemporary writers do, and make the ideal supplement to existing high school curriculums, which tend to focus on classic works and the standard analytical essay. Our goal is to expand a high-school student’s idea of what literature is and what reading/writing are for through advanced texts, interpretive discussions, and writing assignments that surprise students and challenge their existing ideas of “how to read” and what constitutes meaningful stories or poems.
For Summer 2026, we are offering a single course — the Advanced Writing Workshop. The Advanced Writing Workshop is a small-group, six-week intensive summer program for advanced high-school writers designed to introduce texts and perspectives in contemporary literature typically taught only at the university or graduate level. The class consists of a shared weekly 90-minute seminar and a weekly 2-hour creative writing workshop in which students will submit, critique, and discuss one another’s work in a traditional workshop setting. The seminar will introduce students to a wide range of cutting-edge, contemporary literature through close readings and college-level discussions designed to push students to practice close-reading from a writer’s perspective. The workshop will build on these skills through individualized feedback, tailored writing exercises, and small-group discussion designed to foster a close-knit cohort of dedicated young writers. Both weekly sessions will engage students fast-paced coursework designed to distill college-level instruction into six intensive weeks. The Advanced Writing Workshop is application-only and will accept 12 students.