Co-Lab Summer Camp 2026

Summer Camp Detailed Schedule (all times are Eastern)

Week 1

Saturday, July 11, 1pm

Opening Day Welcome Event

Monday July 13 to Friday July 17, 8-10am

Summertime Ungodly Writing Club, Silent Accountability Group with Brian Gresko

Log on, mic off, camera optional, and write in silent community.

Monday, July 13, 8-9pm

Feedback Sessions

Share and discuss works-in-progress in a supportive, small group environment, moderated by Brian Gresko, Sara Lippmann, and Amy Shearn.

Wednesday, July 15, 8-9pm

Panel, From Zero to… Something: Getting Started as a Writer

So you wanna write, do you? But how do you begin? Are there things you've learned in your current career that you can apply to the creative life? And once you've begun, how (and why) do you become a "literary citizen" (and what does that even mean?)?

Moderator: Brian Gresko

Panelists: Edgar Gomez, Mia Arias Tsang, Katie Yee

Week 2

Saturday, July 18, 1-2pm

Power Hour Generative Session with Jiordan Castle

A guided generative class with readings and prompts.

Monday July 20 to Friday July 24, 8-10am

Summertime Ungodly Writing Club, Silent Accountability Group with Brian Gresko

Log on, mic off, camera optional, and write in silent community.

Monday, July 20, 8-9pm

Feedback Sessions

Share and discuss works-in-progress in a supportive, small group environment, moderated by Brian Gresko, Sara Lippmann, and Amy Shearn.

Wednesday, July 22, 8-9pm

Panel: Maintaining a Lifelong Writing Practice

Publishing is only a small part of a writer's journey. How do you maintain a relationship with your creative self over the long haul? How do you find and create opportunities for yourself when you're feeling stymied? Where do you find creative ideas? How do you stay positive when facing publishing obstacles?

Moderator: Sara Lippmann

Panelists: Ilana Masad, Soraya Palmer, Alejandro Varela

Week 3

Saturday, July 25, 1-2pm

The Creative Accomplice, with Brian Gresko

A Q&A session about writing and publishing intended to demystify and inspire!

Monday July 27 to Friday July 31, 8-10am

Summertime Ungodly Writing Club, Silent Accountability Group with Brian Gresko

Log on, mic off, camera optional, and write in silent community.

Monday, July 27, 8-9pm

Feedback Sessions

Share and discuss works-in-progress in a supportive, small group environment, moderated by Brian Gresko, Sara Lippmann, and Amy Shearn.

Wednesday, July 29, 8-9pm

Panel, How to Cultivate Creativity Amidst Your Busy Life

Great summer camp, but how does a person keep up this level of energy when there's so much else going on? How do you balance producing work with looking for opportunities? What does success look like for a writer?

Moderator: Amy Shearn 

Panelists: Jiordan Castle, Chin-Sun Lee, and TBD

Saturday, August 1, 1-2pm

Closing Open Mic

Enroll Now!

About the Summer Camp Faculty

Jiordan Castle is the author of Disappearing Act, a memoir in verse, and the chapbook All His Breakable Things. Her work has appeared in HuffPost, The New Yorker, The Rumpus, Taco Bell Quarterly, and elsewhere. She is a contributor to the LA-based food and culture magazine Compound Butter. Originally from New York, she currently lives in Philadelphia with her husband and their dog.

Edgar Gomez is a queer NicaRican writer born and raised in Florida. He is the author of the memoir High-Risk Homosexual, winner of the American Book Award and a Lambda Literary Award. Their sophomore book, Alligator Tears, was released February 2025 and called "triumphant, dazzling, and unfailingly stylish" by Publisher's Weekly. Gomez lives between New York and Puerto Rico. 

Brian Gresko (they/he) is a writer based in Brooklyn, where they co-run Pete’s Reading Series, the borough's longest running literary venue. Their work has appeared in Poets & Writers Magazine, Slate, The Atlantic, Longreads, The Rumpus, and many other publications. They are the curator of 100 Days of Creative Resistance, and recently published the book You Must Go On: 30 Inspirations on Writing & Creativity, which spun out of a Writing Co-Lab class.

Chin-Sun Lee is the author of the debut novel Upcountry (Unnamed Press 2023), listed in Publishers Weekly’s Big Indie Books of Fall 2023 and Debutiful’s Most Anticipated Debut Books of 2023. She’s also a contributor to Let Me Say This: A Dolly Parton Poetry Anthology (Madville Publishing 2023) and the New York Times bestselling anthology Women in Clothes (Blue Rider Press/Penguin 2014). Her work has appeared in Electric Literature, Literary Hub, The Georgia Review,The Rumpus, Joyland, and The Believer Logger, among other publications. She has worked as an educator and moderator for Academic Coaching & Writing, and as a developmental editor for The Reading List Editorial.

Sara Lippmann is the author of the novel Lech and the story collections Doll Palace and Jerks. Her fiction has won the Lilith Fiction Prize and has been honored by the New York Foundation for the Arts, and her essays have appeared in The Millions, The Washington Post, Catapult, The Lit Hub and elsewhere. She is co-editor of the anthology Smashing the Tablets: Radical Retellings of the Hebrew Bible and co-founder of the Writing Co-lab. Her new novel, Hidden River, will be published in spring 2026.

Ilana Masad is a writer of fiction, nonfiction, and criticism whose work has been widely published. Masad is the author of the novel All My Mother's Lovers and Beings (forthcoming 9.23.2025) and is co-editing the anthology Here For All the Reasons: #BachelorNation's Franchise Fascination, set to release in May 2026.

Soraya Palmer is the author of The Human Origins of Beatrice Porter and Other Essential Ghosts, which recently won the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award for debut fiction and has been shortlisted for the Pen/Open Book Award. She has been awarded grants, residences, and fellowships for her writing from the Café Royal Cultural Foundation, the New York Foundation of the Arts, Blue Mountain Residency, and the Nawat Fes Residency in Fes, Morocco. She was born and raised in Flatbush and is a licensed clinical social worker who has organized and advocated for criminalized survivors of gender-based violence, tenants facing eviction, and victims of police brutality. She has taught fiction at City College, the Center for Fiction, and at American Language Centers throughout Morocco. She lives in Brooklyn with her cat, Nicholas.

Amy Shearn is the award-winning author of the novels Unseen City, The Mermaid of Brooklyn, and How Far Is the Ocean From Here, plus the forthcoming novels Dear Edna Sloane (Red Hen Press, 2024) and Animal Instinct (Putnam, 2025). She has worked as an editor at Medium, JSTOR, Conde Nast, and other organizations, and has taught creative writing at NYU, Sackett Street Writers Workshop, Gotham Writers Workshops, Catapult, Story Studio Chicago, and the Yale Writers' Workshop. Amy's essays have appeared in many publications including the New York Times Modern Love column, Slate, Real Simple, Martha Stewart Living, O: The Oprah Magazine, Coastal Living, Poets & Writers, and Literary Hub. She has short fiction and poetry publications forthcoming in No Tokens and Pigeon Pages. Amy has an MFA from the University of Minnesota, and lives in Brooklyn with her two children.

Originally from San Francisco and raised in the Hudson Valley, Mia Arias Tsang is a writer, freelance editor, and former biologist based in Queens, NYC. Her first book, Fragments of Wasted Devotion, is out now with Quilted Press. Her writing has been published in WITCH: Anthology edited by Michelle Tea, Autostraddle, HerStry, Copy, Bullshit Lit, and elsewhere. Less formal, more personal musings on media and sexuality can also be found on her blog, Overripe Peach. She currently serves as Interview Correspondent for Half Mystic Press and is the founder of Pocket Publications, a mini zine press she runs from her bedroom.

Alejandro Varela (he/him) is based in New York. His work has appeared in the Boston, Yale, and Georgia Reviews, The Point Magazine, Harper's, and The Offing, among other publications. His debut novel, The Town of Babylon (Astra House, 2022) was a finalist for the National Book Award. His short story collection, The People Who Report More Stress (Astra, 2023), was a finalist for the International Latino Book Awards, and longlisted for the Aspen Literary Prize, the Story Prize, and the Jean Stein Awards. His latest novel, Middle Spoon, was published by Viking on September 9, 2025. Varela is an editor-at-large of Apogee Journal, and holds a masters degree in public health from the University of Washington.

Katie Yee is a writer from Brooklyn and the author of the novel Maggie; or, a Man and a Woman Walk into a Bar. She has received fellowships from the Center for Fiction, the Asian American Writers' Workshop, and Kundiman. Her work has appeared in The New York Times Book Review, Los Angeles Review of Books, Joyland, No Tokens, The Believer, the Washington Square Review, and Literary Hub. By day, she works at the Brooklyn Museum. By night, she writes, usually under the watch of her judgmental rescue dog, Ollie.