Welcome to the online application for the Juniper Summer Writing Institute, June 15–21, 2025. More information on the Institute can be found on our website. If you find that you need more time once you start your application, there is a save draft button at the end of this application form.

The Juniper Summer Writing Institute is an inclusive literary space that welcomes adult poets and writers at all stages of their careers. Acceptance to the Institute is based upon the strength and promise of the writing sample and the content of the writer's statement. 

The scholarship deadline is January 5, 2025.

The self-pay deadline is February 5, 2025.

Please be sure to hit "Submit" at the bottom of this application before the deadline. You should receive a confirmation notification from Submittable via email.

For more information about our application process, please visit our website.

This application is for both our weeklong workshops and independent writing residency. 

Eligibility

• All Juniper Institute participants must be 21 years of age or older by the start of the program, June 15, 2025.
• International writers are welcome to apply. However, due to the nature of the Institute, we are unable to issue supporting documentation for visas.
• Your application’s writing sample should align with at least one of the Institute’s workshop genres. For 2025, we will offer workshops in poetry, fiction, and creative non-fiction.
   

Application materials include: 

• Writing sample 
• Indication of your top choices for workshop leaders (if applying for weeklong workshop)
• Writer's Statement 
• NO application fee!

Writing Sample
The strength and promise of your writing sample is the most important component of your application. Send your best work; it needn’t be published, though published work is acceptable. Please submit a writing sample that matches the genre for which you are applying. Samples should be saved in one document (doc, docx, pdf, rtf, or txt). Please include your name & email address as a header or footer in each page of the writing sample. 

• 5 pages of poetry (one poem per page) if applying for a poetry workshop or residency
• up to 10 pages of fiction or creative nonfiction (double-spaced) if applying to a fiction or nonfiction workshop or residency

Writer's Statement

Juniper is an opportunity to practice living with your art at the center of your life; it is a week to imagine with wild invention as you mingle, experiment, and take chances; it is a chance to connect with writers, poets and artists from around the country who value what prose, poetry, word, image, fiction, essay, memoir and autobiography can do.

Please provide a statement of around 300-500 words addressing these questions: 

• What do you hope to work on during Juniper; what excites you about that project?
• What does being a valuable member of a writing community look like to you? 
• What (if any) identities or experiences inform your work?
• If you are applying for the independent writing residency, please discuss your goals for the residency and reasons for applying for Juniper’s independent residency.

Workshop Preference

You will have the opportunity in your application form to indicate your preferences for workshop leader. Although we can't guarantee first choice placement, every effort will be made to accommodate your requests. Your spot in your chosen genre is not guaranteed until you have registered at the link provided in the acceptance notification with the enrollment deposit. Please carefully review the week-long workshop descriptions here before making your selections. Since we do our best to offer as many writers as possible their first choice workshops, we do take workshop preferences into consideration when making admission decisions.

Independent Writing Residency

For folks who aren’t looking for a collaborative workshop experience, we are offering an independent writing residency option. The residency includes all the Institute activities except daily workshop meetings, leaving the morning workshop time available for self-directed writing time. In addition, new for 2025, residents will be offered 30 minutes of mentoring by Visiting Poets/Writers on four mornings during the week. These meetings will help to guide residents in their writing projects throughout the week. Meetings on Monday and Tuesday will focus on devising a work plan for the week, while the meetings on Thursday and Friday will help them take stock in what they’ve accomplished towards their goals and where to go next. Visiting Writers won’t be reading student work in advance for these meetings, nor will they give feedback or edits on manuscripts in these meetings. They will offer general guidance and writerly advice to assist the residents in making the most of their independent residency.
 

Scholarships 

We award several full and partial scholarships. For more information about tuition, room, and board, please visit our website.

Scholarship support is intended for those participants who cannot afford the full cost of the program. BIPOC and writers of marginalized groups are especially encouraged to apply for the available funding. Our scholarships are awarded based on the strength and promise of the application. We do not request financial information as part of our scholarship selection process. We ask that applicants self-select, based on their own understanding of their own financial situation, whether they are in need of a full or partial scholarship.

Scholarship funding is not available for the independent residency option* with one exception detailed below.

Our scholarships include:

• Writers of Native Nations Scholarship: (Covers Tuition, Housing, and Meals) While the scholarship aims to lower financial barriers for those who want to participate in a workshop at the Juniper Summer Writing Institute, it will be awarded based on literary merit. All Native American and Indigenous writers are eligible to apply. Preference will be given to Native writers from the Northeast. This scholarship was established in collaboration with the UMass Native American And Indigenous Studies Program, a member of the Five Colleges Consortium and NAIS certificate program. 
• Valley Advocate Scholarship: (Covers Tuition and Meals only). This scholarship is open to writers of poetry, fiction, or creative nonfiction who reside in Western Massachusetts within the distribution area of the Valley Advocate.
• Juniper Scholarships: (A “Full” scholarship covers Tuition, Housing, and Meals; “Partial” offers between $500 and $1,075 off Tuition and covers Housing & Meals). To support a full creative life for all, Juniper offers several full and partial scholarships to individuals who have experienced socioeconomic disadvantages or discrimination, and/or who are citizens of underrepresented or marginalized groups. It is our hope that this helps cultivate a just, inclusive, equitable literary community.
• *Alumni Residency Scholarship: (Offers $500 off tuition for the independent writing residency) One scholarship offers $500 off the cost for a Juniper alum to attend one of the independent writing residencies. You must have previously attended the Juniper Summer Writing Institute to apply for this funding. Any alumni of Juniper from 2004-2024 is eligible.

If you have not attended Juniper in the past, we invite you to apply for a scholarship to our weeklong workshops or apply as a self-pay applicant to our independent writing residency. While we hope to expand our scholarship opportunities in the future, the Juniper Alumni Residency Scholarship is the only scholarship offering available for the Independent Writing Residency. General scholarship funding is available for weeklong workshop participants.
 

Notification

Admissions decisions will begin to be issued in waves after the application deadline, in late February. Your admission decision will come by Submittable message, which should send an email notification to the email address associated with your Submittable account. Please ensure your Submittable notification settings are correctly configured and check your email’s junk/spam; the email notification should come from notifications@email.submittable.com. If you are offered acceptance to the Institute, you must register with the $200 non-refundable enrollment deposit at the provided link or contact us within one week of notification. After one week, we will accept our next wave of applicants, and your preferred workshop and/or genre may fill to capacity after that point in time. We are unable to hold your spot in your given genre without the enrollment deposit. If you are planning to enroll but need time to gather the deposit funds or make other arrangements (e.g. child care) before making the deposit, please be in touch with us as soon as possible so that we can best assist you.

Applicants for the Independent Writing Residency option will receive an admission decision notification in early-to-mid March. 

Scholarship notification comes by phone and email. If you are offered a scholarship, you must contact us (by phone or email) within 3 days with your decision to accept or decline the scholarship.

FAQ

I'm interested in applying for both a weeklong workshop and an independent writing residency, knowing I can attend only one. Please submit two different applications, one for a workshop, and the other for an independent writing residency. It is to your advantage to write two different writer's statements, but the writing sample may be the same between your apps.

I'm interested in applying for workshops in different genres, knowing I can attend only one. Please submit two different applications, one for each genre with accompanying different writing samples. It is to your advantage to write two different writer's statements to discuss your goals for each workshop and writing project.

Any other questions? Please review our website, and then contact us at juninst@umass.edu if you still have questions. Thank you!