Writopia Lab Offering 14 New Winter Workshops for Bay Area Students
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New: 25 Scholarships for 2026 Workshops for Teens and Young Writers
San Francisco, CA - Writopia Lab is launching fourteen new in-person creative writing workshops for Bay Area kids and teens at its Dogpatch and Sunset neighborhood hubs in San Francisco. This unique youth writing nonprofit is running ongoing trimester-long workshops in San Francisco, giving young writers a consistent place to gather, draft, and share their work. The winter program will begin January 3, 2026. These new workshops build on Writopia’s successful post-pandemic return to local, location-based programs.
Writopia also announced its first Bay Area Young Writer Scholarship (ages 9–13) and Teen Fellowship (ages 14–18) programs! Thanks to a generous Writopia board member, up to 25 writers will receive full scholarships for a semester-long workshop, a summer workshop with published authors, and one private coaching session to get their work ready for contests, publications, and festivals. To apply, writers must:
Live in the Bay Area and be able to attend in-person workshops in San Francisco
Submit writing samples and a short essay
Include a recommendation from a teacher or community member
Apply at: https://forms.gle/pHCuZYSskC1GLByo6
Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis from December 5–27, and the 2026 Bay Area Next Generation Writer winners will be announced shortly thereafter.
Writopia Lab cultivates new voices and a supportive community by providing accessible, high-quality creative writing workshops for children and teens from all backgrounds and communities across the Bay Area. Each is led by experienced instructors and grouped by age. Participants develop original stories, essays, plays, poems, and more while building a supportive community that helps them grow confidence, creativity, and critical thinking skills they carry into school and beyond.
Bay Area families can enroll in weekly trimester-long workshops at Dogpatch Hub (1278 Minnesota St) and Sunset Commons (1600 Irving St) for kids and teens. Offerings typically include creative writing, essay and college-essay writing, and specialty options such as playwriting, debate, role‑playing, and game-based storytelling, with small class sizes that keep workshops intimate and student-centered.
As a nonprofit, Writopia Lab funds its workshops primarily through tuition. Still, it maintains a robust sliding-scale model so that families can pay what they can while preserving additional scholarship support for those with greater financial need. This approach helps to ensure that cost is not a barrier for interested young writers and will be augmented through the Bay Area Next Generation Scholarships.
Alexia Nader and Shanille Martin will lead Bay Area classes. Shanille Martin said, “Our workshops and classes are super fun and encourage students to take risks, think critically, and transform their ideas into powerful stories, plays, essays, and even debates.”
Parents, teachers, tutors, and students are encouraged to explore the Writopia Lab website for resources, Bay Area classes, and additional online learning opportunities: https://www.writopialab.org/
Enrollment can be completed here. Further courses are offered nationally through an online option.
About Writopia Lab
Since 2007, Writopia Lab has been running small, student-centered, super fun, and productive creative writing workshops for kids and teens. Our mission is to foster joy, literacy, and critical thinking in children and teens from all backgrounds through creative writing. Workshops led by published writers are now available in the Dogpatch and the Sunset in San Francisco. https://www.writopialab.org/
About Alexia Nader
She earned her MA in journalism from NYU and an MFA in fiction from the University of San Francisco. Her fiction has been published in Your Impossible Voice, her poetry in Obsidian: Literature & Arts in the African Diaspora, and her criticism and journalism in Los Angeles Review of Books, The Nation, and The New Yorker, among other outlets. She was an editor at The Brooklyn Quarterly literary journal for several years. Alexia is passionate about helping new writers find their voices.
About Shanille Martin
She has been published in various magazines and platforms, such as Gandy Dancer, Newsweek, Italics Mine, and Submissions Magazine. She is a co-founder of Brown Sugar Literary Magazine, which publishes the marginalized voices of women of color. Shanille was the captain of her high school debate team and is thrilled to now teach creative writing and debate at Writopia. She is currently working on her first novel.