Welcome to the online application for the Juniper Summer Writing Institute, June 21–27, 2026. 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 deadline to be considered for a scholarship is January 5, 2026. 

The deadline to be considered for self-pay admission is February 5, 2026.

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 our weeklong workshops. There is a separate application portal for the independent writing residency. 

Eligibility

• All Juniper Institute participants must be 21 years of age or older by the start of the program, June 21, 2026.
• 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 2026, 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 
• $20 application fee, which will be used to pay application readers who are not already compensated staff members or Institute Fellows and to create future scholarship opportunities. 

 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?

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 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.     

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.

Scholarship offers come by phone and email. If you are offered a scholarship, you must contact us (by phone or email) within 1 week with your decision to accept or decline the scholarship.