Writopia Westchester/Greenwich, Quick Facts


Westchester workshops (ages 8-12) are divided into small, age-based groups that meet weekly, 5 or 10 times per semester or for five-day workshops throughout the summer in Armonk at Hillside Church throughout the school year. Since our workshops are so small, we are able to tailor the schedule to meet the needs of our families and set up customized workshops at private homes.

• Please call Rebecca at 212-706-1239 or email her at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it (no spaces).

• $525

Who We Are


Pei-Ling Lue
Writing Instructor
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Pei-Ling Lue began teaching creative writing workshops for Writopia Westchester in the spring of 2009. She is also an editor at One Story magazine, an award-winning literary magazine. As part of her quest to save the short story, Pei-Ling also writes for the blog www.savetheshortstory.com. She holds an MFA in Fiction Writing from New York University, where she was awarded a Starworks Fellowship to teach creative writing at a program for at-risk children. Pei-Ling has taught fiction and English composition classes at NYU and Iona College, where her students have won awards for their personal essays. Pei-Ling also teaches creative writing and college essay writing classes at the Larchmont & Mamaroneck Center for Continuing Education.

Kat Albert
Writing Instructor
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Kat Albert has been teaching Writopia Lab fiction workshops in Westchester since summer, 2008. She completed her Master of Arts in Writing at Manhattanville College in Purchase, New York. Her children’s fiction and creative nonfiction were presented at the Summer Writer’s Week at Manhattanville. Her short story, “Reference Point” was published in Inkwell Literary Journal. She has presented writing workshops in the Byram Hills school district in Armonk, New York. She is currently working on a young adult novel.

Rachel Ephraim
Fiction and Memoir Writing Instructor and Writopia Brooklyn Outreach Coordinator
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Rachel Ephraim teaches fiction and memoir at Writopia Lab year-round and spearheaded the establishment of Writopia Brooklyn. Rachel's fiction, "Please Send a Published Copy to 101 Harris Road," has been published in the Fall 2008 edition of the Apple Valley Review and is being taught at UCLA by Professor Harry Youtt. Rachel manages the Brooklyn branch of Writopia which has just completed its first successful year: Rachel's students were honored this year at the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards with both regional and national awards! She is both the Founder and Director of FreeBird Workshops, a grassroots writing workshop for adults in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn. Here Rachel has led 13 writers to publication in just under 6 months. Rachel's journalism has appeared this year in the New York Spirit and the Park Slope Reader where she reviews restaurants, films, books, and community projects. Rachel is also the editor of the Park Slope Reader and Shop Local! She has earned an undergraduate degree in creative writing, screenwriting, and film production at Boston University and is currently writing a young adult novel. She has worked on the PBS children's show, "Zoom," and regularly contributes articles to online publications on food, music, and nightlife. We are especially thrilled by the plethora of fun, inspiring, and useful writing exercises Rachel brings to Writopia Lab's writing workshops.

What They're Saying

"I really enjoyed the June 9th-13th Writopia workshop with Rachel. I loved how we got to write a story and work hard to make it come to life. My favorite part was the little fun exercises which we did like the poem and the supermarket story. I liked the room which we were in because it was extremely cozy and the chairs were very comfortable; they made it seem more special. I also liked how it was not all writing... we also were able to read and comment of each other's stories. Finally, I liked how the group was so small." --Isobel Hepsworth, 14

"At first I was nervous about people reading my writing but at the end of the week I didn't mind. I liked the fun exercises, too, and how we would write for a bit then send the story to each other, and then discuss the things we liked and the things we were confused about." --Immy Hepsworth, 12



"My favorite part of Writopia was that Kat taught me how to think and write in a different way about stories, poems, and short brainstorming. I learned that my most comfortable style is humor, action and dialogue."--Julia Song, 10

"My favorite thing about Writopia was that I got to learn a lot about how I write and just find my own style! Kat taught me that everybody can write because writing comes from somewhere deep inside you that everyone has. But no one has your special unique way of observation."--Anika Narai, 9

The Highlights
At the culmination of each workshop, there will be a public reading at a bookstore near Armonk, NY or in Greenwich, CT. During this exciting event, Writopia Lab's writers share their work with friends, relatives, and with others who come in response to listings in various media.

The Workshops
Workshops house a maximum of six participants. Weekly sessions are peppered with original and fun writing exercises, but focus primarily on writing--and completing--stories. Each time we meet, students bring copies of the newest drafts of their work to share with the group. They quietly review each other's work--circling the parts or lines they enjoy most along with the sections that they think can be improved--and then share these ideas with the group. Within a few sessions, students comfortably and easily provide insightful feedback to their peers.

Workshops typically focus on one or two genres, but teen writers often explore two or three genres depending on their interests including:
1) Fiction (realistic fiction, fanstasy, science fiction, or historical fiction)
2) Non-fiction (memoir or journalism)
3) Screenwriting and Playwriting (short or long, comedic or dramatic scripts for film or stage)
4) Poetry

In the fiction and memoir workshops, students brainstorm story ideas, discuss the logic of various structural choices and the virtues of applying key literary tools such as metaphors and similes. Ultimately, students complete polished pieces of writing. These workshops culminate in public readings at local bookstores.

Students who choose to write journalistic pieces learn how to write (and pitch!) feature stories and opinion pieces, and, by the end of the workshop, some may publish their stories in school papers or publications of their choice.

In the playwriting and screenwriting workshops, students learn techniques, gain tools, and master the structure of each form. By the end of the workshop, students will have turned ideas into scripts, moving from the page to the stage. The workshops will culminate in staged readings of the students' work at a theater in New York City. Students may also submit their work to festivals and competitions such as Stephen Sondheim's Young Playwrights, Inc. National Competition.

While we do not offer a specific poetry workshop, each workshop group has the option to schedule a short poetry session at each meeting.

Prestigious writing competitions serve as motivational and inspirational devices for most of the writing workshops. Over the last three years, dozens of Writopia Lab's students have won silver and gold regional and national awards from Scholastic's Art and Writing Awards in almost every genre of writing. Rebecca is a regional and national judge for this competition. Dan is a judge for (and 2002 winner of) The Philadelphia Young Playwrights Festival, and was a 2003 Finalist in Stephen Sondheim's Young Playwrights Inc. National Competition.

Most importantly, though, the workshops have enabled a community of young writers to find each other, connect via their literary passions, and have lots of fun.

IN THEIR OWN WORDS:
"The workshop was amazing! I learned so much about writing short stories, articles and poetry in just two weeks. It was wonderful having this experience and a great time all at once. I'd do it again for sure!"
—Rebecca, 14, A.J. Heschel Middle School, Scholastic Silver Keys Winner in Poetry and Short Story, 2007

"The workshop was an amazing experience! While expressing your creativity and building your skills, you were chilling and laughing the whole time! I am so glad I was a part of it... My work began to transform to art."
—Milana, 14, A.J. Heschel School, Scholastic Regional Gold Keys Winner for two memoirs, 2007

"Rebecca has amazing lingual intuition – she knows how words feel and sound, and this enables her to work with all kinds of writing, from short stories to poems to essays... When she makes a suggestion, she is not offended if you don’t agree. She listens and considers your perspective as the writer. She can give general ideas and overall feedback as well as specific analysis, so that the writer is free to use her ideas but interpret them and write them their own way... Rebecca is an awesome (for lack of a more specific word of praise) editor and writer, and an equally amazing person. The gift of working with her is a double bonus – her amazing skill as a writer and editor, and her warm, smiling, funny, happy, wonderful personality."
—Noa Bendit-Shtull, 15, Bard College High School, Scholastic National Gold Key Winner, 2006. Check out Noa's story on the Scholastic site.