The Kenyon Review Young Writers Workshop is a two-week residential program run by the literary journal The Kenyon Review at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, where students live in college dorms. Workshop groups of 12 to 14 students meet five hours a day and cover short stories, poems and essays, spending their time on freewriting, assigned readings and responding to each other’s work, without grades. In 2026 the workshop ran two sessions, June 21 to July 4 and July 12 to 25.
The program describes itself as highly selective, admitting only a small percentage of applicants, but it does not publish a current admission rate. A 2015 Kenyon College news story reported about 1,000 applicants and 200 admitted that summer, and no newer figures have been published. The cost is $2,575 including room, board and activities, with no application fee, and the program says need-based aid usually covers the amount admitted students request. Applicants must be 16 to 18 at the time of the program and be rising juniors, rising seniors or recent graduates; international students may apply.
The application is light: there is no separate writing sample, and the committee focuses on the 300-word statement and the recommendation. Under the 2026 rules the deadline was March 1; check the official site for 2027 dates. EDUBUS suggests treating the 300-word statement as a finished piece of writing, because it also serves as the writing sample.
