Idyllwild Arts has long been a gathering place for some of the world’s finest poets and writers, among them Natalie Diaz, Ben Lerner, Victoria Chang, Ed Skoog, Terrance Hayes, Dana Levin, Willie Perdomo, Angela Morales, Allison Hedge Coke, and many others. This beloved annual celebration of the written word brings writers from a wide range of backgrounds and experiences to work with talented and award-winning faculty in Poetry, Fiction, Creative Nonfiction, Environmental Writing, and Screenwriting. Participants will refine their work, learn new craft techniques, generate new ideas, and continue to grow their practice as they participate in workshops, attend craft talks, readings, and build community with other writers. The experience culminates in a final reading. Learn more about Writers Week 2026 here!
Instructor: Brendan Constantine
Howard Nemerov described poetry as ‘a means of seeing invisible things and saying unspeakable things about them.’ In this workshop participants will re-examine metaphor as a source of strength, liberation, and a gateway to compassion. No experience necessary. Sufferers of ‘Writer’s Block,’ strongly encouraged!
Instructor: Ben Loory
How do you balance the elements of fiction writing—setting, character, plot, conflict, style, theme, and point-of-view—in a short story? This workshop’s writing prompts, directed readings, and lectures on various techniques will help you create unforgettable stories. The course will include workshop and critique of your work to help improve mastery of your craft.
Instructor: Julia Ingalls
Learn how to elevate your memoir, essay, or other creative non-fiction piece into an irresistible read.
Instructors: Tom Laichas & Lynne Thompson
In this week-long workshop, Tom Laichas will teach the first half and Lynne Thompson will teach the second half! Laichas’s ‘Poetry and the Prince‘ will explore how poetry responds to corruption and power by examining diverse political forms from satire to lament, drawing on global poetic traditions. Thompson’s ‘Wordplay and Other Roads to Verse-City‘ will then focus on craft and play, using a variety of forms including prose poems, glosas, centos, and forms of her own creation to discover new approaches to writing.
