Tin House Workshop: Summer Workshop

Our 2023 Summer Workshop Faculty readings are free and open to the public.
July 9th-15th
7:30pm
Cerf Amphitheatre, Reed College
Wheelchair Accessible (Map)/ASL Interpreters Provided

Sunday, July 9th: A.E. Osworth, Meredith Talusan, and Vanessa Angélica Villarreal

Monday, July 10th: Dawnie Walton, Jaquira Díaz, and Dantiel W. Moniz

Tuesday, July 11th: Talia Lakshmi Kolluri, Megan Fernandes, and Kristen Arnett

Wednesday, July 12th: Manuel Gonzales, Kelli Jo Ford, Nadia Owusu, and Matthew Salesses

Friday, July 14th: Janice Lee, Alex Marzano-Lesnevich, and Solmaz Sharif

Saturday, July 15th: Deesha Philyaw, Jake Skeets, and Melissa Febos

The Tin House Summer Workshop is a weeklong intensive that consists of curated workshops with limited participants (eight to ten per class), one-on-one meetings with faculty and agents, craft lectures, author conversations, generative exercises, and readings. There will be plenty of opportunities for mingling, happy hours, and, of course, karaoke. 

Once accepted and registered, Workshop participants who have a completed manuscript may also apply for a mentorship (a full manuscript review) with select faculty for an additional fee.

The Workshop will take place at Reed College, located on 100 acres of rolling lawns, winding lanes, and magnificent old trees in southeast Portland, Oregon, just minutes from downtown and twelve miles from the airport.

Summer Workshop participants are housed in the dormitories of Reed College near the center of campus. All rooms are singles, with shared bathrooms (private stalls) on each floor. Most dorms include gender-neutral floors and facilities. Wheelchair-accessible rooms are available, as are dorms with elevator access. Please note that the dorms at Reed do not have A.C.

All classrooms, readings, panel presentations, dining, and reception areas are within 1/2 mile from the dormitories. Golf carts will be present throughout the week for rides to and from all dorms/events. 

Meals are served in the college dining area and are catered by Bon Appetite. Vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, and non-dairy items will be available, and we work closely with Bon Appetite to ensure other dietary requirements and restrictions are accommodated. Students who choose not to stay on campus can pay for meals individually.

Please note that students may arrive on July 8th or 9th and that July 16th is a travel day with no scheduled events. 

We ask for one unpublished writing sample. For short fiction/novel/nonfiction, 4,000 words or less. For poetry, four poems, totaling no more than ten pages.

If you have previously been accepted/attended, please do not apply with the same sample. A different excerpt from the same project is acceptable. Once admitted, you will have the opportunity to workshop a different manuscript or section from your project.

In addition to the writing sample, the application includes several questions about your project.

Applicants must be 21 years of age to apply.

International writers may apply.

There is no cap on the number of Tin House Workshops you may attend.

Applications are read by a board composed of Tin House Workshop staff and Reading Fellows. At least two readers will read all applications, and acceptance is based on the strength and promise of the writing sample and how much the board feels an applicant might benefit from the Workshop and contribute to the community. All applications are evaluated through the lens of our Core Values.

Fee waivers: Through our Pay It Forward program, Tin House offers a limited number of application fee waivers. We will distribute these waivers on a first-come, first-serve basis. As an applicant, you will have the ability to help cover the cost of another writer’s application fee through this same program. All excess application funds will go towards additional 2023 scholarships. For inquiries, please email workshop@tinhouse.com with the subject line “Summer Fee Waiver.”

All scholarship applicants are considered for general admission (you do not need to submit a separate general application). 

You may only receive a scholarship to attend a Tin House Workshop once. 

Scholarships cover the total cost of the conference (tuition and room/board). 

The application does not require any self-identifying information related to the award, nor do applicants need to apply with projects that speak to the scholarship they are applying for. 

We announce the names of the Scholars after the conclusion of the Workshop.  Our announcement does not delineate by the specific award. 

We will award twenty-one scholarships (across genres) for our 2023 Summer Workshop. Please email workshop@tinhouse.com if you have any eligibility questions for our awards.

General Scholarship (Eight)
Open to all applicants.

BIPOC Scholarship (Six)
This award is intended for any Black, Indigenous, or Person of Color who writes. 

First Conference Scholarship (One)
This award is intended to support a writer attending their first juried literary conference. For our purposes, a juried conference is a multi-day event that requires an evaluation of a writing sample before admission. The following do not count as a juried conference: undergraduate/graduate Workshops, AWP, craft intensives, incubators, or similar one-day in-person/online workshops.

Debut 40 Scholarship (One)
This award is intended for writers over forty years (by July 1st, 2023) who have not yet published a book (chapbooks do not count against this requirement).

Oregon Scholarship (One)
This award is open to any author currently residing in Oregon.

Scholarship for Indigenous Writers (One)
This award is intended for Indigenous writers from North America.

Scholarship for Trans Writers (One)
This award is intended for any writer who is trans. 

Without Borders Scholarship (One)
This award is intended for any writer born outside of the United States.

The Carol Shields Prize Foundation Scholarship for Indigenous Women and Non-Binary Writers (One) 
Tin House is pleased to partner with the Carol Shields Prize for Fiction to award a scholarship to a female/non-binary North American Indigenous fiction writer. This award welcomes and encourages submissions by transgender woman authors and recognizes trans women as women without qualification.

This award includes full tuition, room/board, and a travel stipend (up to $800) to the 2023 Tin House Summer Workshop. In addition, the winner will have the opportunity to attend (with travel and lodging covered) the inaugural Carol Shields Fiction Prize Ceremony in Nashville, Tennessee, held at Parnassus Books On May 4th.

There is no application fee to apply for this award. All applicants for the Carol Shields Scholarship will also be considered for other awards and general admittance.

To apply for the Carol Shields Scholarship, please use this form.

Upon acceptance, everyone attending the 2023 Tin House Summer Workshop will need to email proof of vaccination/boosters and provide documentation during in-person registration. For those participants with approved religious or medical vaccination exemptions,  proof of a negative COVID-19 PCR test must be sent within 72 hours before the workshop. 

Once on campus,  face masks will be required (regardless of vaccination status) for all indoor activities, including workshops and communal dorm room spaces (lounge areas/kitchen/bathrooms). Outdoor activities such as readings and social hours will be mask-optional. 

We will reassess this policy on an ongoing basis. We reserve the right to change, adapt and enforce safety measures as needed.