At Sunset Press, we live in the golden hour of writing.  

And this summer, during our Sunset Summer Session, 32 high school students, from all over the country, and 8 Kenyon Sunset Press staff members met twice a week over Zoom to share in the same golden hues of the moment. To learn. To read. To write.

Our 5-week virtual creative writing program for high school students and rising college freshmen was created in alignment with the same principles that kick started Sunset Press: inclusivity, community, and our collective belief in the creative process. There was no tuition cost. Instead, we encouraged those interested in our work to direct their monetary efforts towards our #BLM fund. You can learn more about it here.

Sunset Summer Session was founded in the era of a global pandemic, a time of upheaval, isolation and unrest. This project was born from the urgent understanding that outlets for creative expression and personal connection are needed now more than ever.

Much like our Press, we based our Summer Session in the belief, as Ocean Vuong so aptly said, that “you are the participant in the future of language...that you must first articulate the world you want to live in.” 

And so, we called on our amazing Sunset Staff. Together we created an artistic space that would unite young writers in their shared love of writing and provide them with literary skills and inspiration to develop a language for their experiences, especially in these extraordinary times. 

We designed our Session’s model with an equal commitment to the most fundamental aspects of the creative process: Reading, Writing, Workshopping, and Editing. Through our mixed-age workshops, we explored themes such as the personal and the political, portraits and voice, and intertextuality and the writer-self. These disciplines came to life as we read contemporary texts, and engaged with podcasts, songs, and visual art materials across poetry, nonfiction, fiction, and hybrid genres. 

In all four workshops, high school students and our  Sunset Press teachers forged meaningful connections. As we consumed new materials, we were writing intensively beside each other. Consuming, generating, consuming, discussing, consuming, generating over and over. Students were always putting their own words and voices in conversation with these readings and each other. First, by responding to weekly writing prompts. Then by immersing themselves in the give-and-take of the workshop by bringing in their own writing for peer-review and engaging with other student's work by providing feedback and critique.

Now, at the conclusion of our 5-week program, we are so honored to present one polished piece from each of our talented and inspiring artists. What you will find here is our Sunset Summer Session Archive which showcases and celebrates our  students’ original work. All the pieces you will read in this collection  were generated, workshopped, and edited during our Sunset Summer Session. Their words will live here on our website always.

We hope you will enjoy their poems, prose, and hybrid work. As teachers ourselves, it was a wonder to watch these pieces grow into what they are today. We can’t wait to witness all the beautiful impacts our Sunset students will have in the world. Each and every one of them holds a special place in our Sunset family and, like we’ve always said, that connection lasts forever.

Yours Sincerely,

PROGRAM DIRECTORS OF SUNSET SUMMER SESSION

To read more about our staff, our Session, and the literary enrichment events we offered throughout the summer, please visit our Program Overview page.

If you are interested in supporting the efforts and learning more about our #BLM fund, please visit our donation page.