Young Emerging Writers Summer Internship Program 2025 — Applications Open 2/1/25!
For young people in the Quad Cities who are passionate about writing and creative expression, the Midwest Writing Center offers the innovative Young Emerging Writers (YEW) Summer Internship Program. This selective seven-week program will be held Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays from June 10 through July 24, 2024. Applications are due Monday, May 12, 2025.
Download the 2025 Young Emerging Writers Application:
If you will be at least 20 years of age on June 10, and you are interested as working
as a Workshop Leader for the YEW Internship and/or the YEW Camp,
please follow the link below and complete the Google Form:
YEW Internship and YEW Camp Staff Application Portal
Please email us if you have any trouble downloading the file: mwc@mwcqc.org
**If you are between the ages of 19-22 and are a resident of Illinois, and you are interested in applying to a YEW staff member, please contact Ryan Collins directly: ryan.collins@mwcqc.org 309-732-7330**
About Young Emerging Writers: The YEW Program is composed of students ages 15-19 who applied and interviewed for this selective paid internship program. This summer, 15 interns from around the Quad Cities and Iowa City participated in YEW at a distance, meeting in a hybrid format to compose, edit, and release the 17th volume of THE ATLAS Literary Magazine on Thursday, August 18 at Rozz-Tox.
YEW provides writing instruction in a variety of writing styles and processes, and develops professional skills in areas such as editing, collaborative project management, and magazine production/design. In 50 hours of meetings over seven weeks, the interns went from meet-and-greet to producing a high-quality literary magazine published by MWC Press.
**Information on YEW 2025 Meeting Format**
We are planning to meet in-person at MWC. We will be meeting in the Community Room upstairs from our offices in the Rock Island Public Library. We will be set up for people to meet virtually as needed, and we will have a couple meetings on Zoom or at alternate locations that will be determined at a later date. We are planning the public events to be in-person and livestreamed on our various social media platforms.
If you are interested in applying, but have concerns about in-person meetings, internet or computer access, or anything else, please contact us—we will work with all of our interns to make sure they have what they need to participate, and a lack of computer or consistent internet access are not required to apply.
* * * * * *
YEW is for talented graduating and continuing high school students, ages 15-19, interested in creating and publishing works of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, drama, and other forms.
Students who work on the school newspaper, school literary magazine or yearbook, or who just love writing and/or page layout and graphic design, are ideal candidates for YEW. The ultimate goal of the program is development of intern writing abilities and the production and distribution of a literary journal representing the best work of the participants.
Young Emerging Writer internships feature intensive seminars in poetry, narrative prose (fiction & nonfiction), and collaborative writing, among other forms of creative writing, in a professional learning atmosphere. Interns will learn about magazine design and layout as well as gain editorial and copy-editing experience. The program culminates with the production of The Atlas, a high-quality literary journal featuring the best work produced by the interns over the course of the program. The journal will be released at The Atlas 18 Release Party, an open house where interns read from their selected works and the journal is made available to the public. The 2024 Launch Party will take place in-person and via livestream on Thursday, August 15, and will be available free to the public (in-person location TBA).
YEW 2025 – Meeting Dates
(all regular meetings are Mon.-Wed., 5:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.)
Week 1: June 9-11
Week 2: June 16-18
Week 3: June 23-25 (DRC Conference June 26-28)
Week 4: June 30 – July 2
Week 5: July 7-9
Week 6: July 14-16
Week 7: July 21-23
Public Reading
Thursday, July 24 (more info TBA)
THE ATLAS 20 Release Party
Thursday, August 14 (more info TBA)
16-20 interns will be selected for the program on the basis of their application forms, writing or design samples, and interviews. The writing and editing of stories, essays, poems, and/or plays at home is required, as is reading and responding to work by other interns. Each intern will also receive a small stipend, a free full-conference registration the David R. Collins Writers’ Conference, a one-year membership to the Midwest Writing Center, and three copies of The Atlas.
Please contact Ryan Collins for more information about the YEW Summer Internship Program, THE ATLAS, or other youth programs: mwc@mwcqc.org, (309) 732-7330.
To purchase a copy of The Atlas 19, please use the PayPal button below (please note: you can pay via credit card and do not need to have a PayPal account to purchase this way):
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| You can support the Young Emerging Writers Summer Internship Program by becoming a YEW/The Atlas Sponsor. You can use the PDF form linked below, or scan the QR code, to send in a sponsorship contribution to MWC, or use the PayPal button below to make a donation online today. All donations over $10 will receive a complimentary copy of the most recent issue of The Atlas. Thanks for supporting YEW! |
Click here to download a Young Emerging Writers/The Atlas Sponsorship Form
Funding and material support for the 2024 Young Emerging Writers Summer Internship Program generously provided by the Illinois Arts Council Agency, the Scott County Regional Authority, Modern Woodmen of America, the Hubbell-Waterman Foundation, the CD Wiman Memorial Trust, the Melvin McKay Charitable Trust, the Moline Foundation, the Rock Island Public Library, and Rozz-Tox.
