“Our mission has always been to elevate emerging writers and facilitate visibility, mentorship, and community for writers who are not traditionally invited to the table.” – The Adroit Journal founder and editor-in-chief, Peter LaBerge.

Through its internationally-recognized Mentorship Program, The Adroit Journal has offered high school students from around the globe the opportunity to refine their literary potential, graduating students to subsequent recognition through the National YoungArts Foundation, the United States Presidential Scholar in the Arts designation, and many others; this is to say nothing of the 65% of alumni who’ve gone on to matriculate at Ivy League institutions, Stanford, Cambridge, or Oxford.

In partnership with IvyZen, The Adroit Journal is proud to now bring this opportunity for an elevated creative writing and literary education to middle school.

This is The Inkling Lit Academy, and we are thrilled to meet students in this period of formative growth, providing not just a foundational understanding of literature and the craft required to create it, but a hands-on opportunity to generate their own body of work.

Over the course of a year, and through a tailor-made curriculum, students will be guided through the:

Who & What

The modern literary landscape is broad in scope and aim, and together we will explore and grow our capacity for literary analysis.

Through weekly readings and discussion-based exploration, both synchronous- and asynchronously, we will develop a toolkit for breaking down today’s best writing with an emphasis on learning how to read like a writer.

From Toni Morrison and Grace Paley to Anthony Veasna So and Bernardine Evaristo, Adrienne Rich and Claudia Rankine to Tommy Pico and Natalie Diaz (as well as Lydia Davis, Ocean Vuong, Joy Katz, Ada Limon, and many, many more), Inkling Lit Academy will graduate students who know not only where to find the groundbreakers and world-shakers of contemporary fiction, creative non-fiction, and poetry, but how to read them.

This is not your average middle school curriculum; you’ll find the names read at Inkling on college syllabi, too.

Where

Inkling seeks to provide the framework for our students to continue their literary journey even beyond graduation. This means:

First, grounding our students with a roadmap to the stalwarts of literary journals and those bright, new beacons of publishing’s future (such as The Adroit Journal.) They will leave our time together confident in their knowledge of where to read the best contemporary work and where to submit once the time is right.

Secondly, and most importantly, we will be directing every Inkling student to those opportunities that will distinguish them not just from other high school or college applicants, but from other young writers. From Kenyon Young Writers Workshop to the YoungArts Scholarship, every opportunity available to middle- and high school writers will be clarified in our final class. With their polished portfolio in-hand, our students will be able to confidently apply to these renowned opportunities with the guidance of those professional writers and educators who know exactly where to look to find the best of the best experiences.

How

Through a synchronous summer intensive and dedicated asynchronous writing assignments throughout the year, Inkling students will develop a foundational understanding of the craft of writing and, then, be challenged to grow beyond the fundamentals. With our scaffolded course of study, students will put into practice lessons from classical narrative structure and poetic vocabulary to mini-intensives on everything from ekphrasis to the art of creating a great title.

The second half of the year will be dedicated to refining our portfolio. Each student will have the opportunity to choose a genre for their capstone project, be it narrative fiction, poetry, or creative non-fiction, and through peer review and individualized feedback from our teaching staff, they will undertake a professional standard of revision. By the end of our time together, each student will have a polished project (their “best work”) as well as an abundance of first and second draft pieces in each genre that they may refine on their own with their newly-honed skillsets.

Why

In an increasingly automated world, a world wherein learning to code is no more an outstanding skill than is learning to spell, we at Inkling believe there is no greater asset for meeting tomorrow’s challenges than, well, you.

Together, we’ll learn that the art of writing is fundamentally about defining & refining the you: what you want to say, how you want to say it, and to whom you are speaking.

Each Inkling will graduate with greater confidence in their ability to define their voice, knowing that whether they find themselves in a theater, a theater of surgery, a boardroom, or on the ground floor of the next game-changing technology, they will stand out from all the rest in their ability to craft a you unlike any other.

Therein lies the power of writing. And we’re thrilled to get to know you.

Meet The Team