The Writers Studio has grown into one of the best creative writing programs I know, at once serving excellence and inspiring the individual. The ambiance is warm and invigorating, making it joyful to be there.
GRACE SCHULMAN
author of 10 books of poetry and a memoir, winner of the Frost Medal for for Distinguished Lifetime Achievement in American Poetry, member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters
Every week, I presented a new story. Finally something did click, the very thing that’s their specialty at The Writers Studio, emotional content. Before, my work was dead. When I brought in my breakthrough story, I felt I was carrying a weird animal in my bag. It was the first story I sold.
JENNIFER EGAN
winner of the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction for A Visit From the Goon Squad, recent President of PEN America, former Writers Studio student
The Writers Studio is a wonderful and necessary place: it offers both aspiring and accomplished writers a community and a place to try out new material, to explore and push the limits and their abilities to the fullest.
A.M. HOMES
author of The Safety of Objects, the best selling memoir, The Mistress’s Daughter, and several other novels; winner of the 2013 Orange/Women’s Prize for Fiction for This Book Will Save Your Life
The generous responses of The Writers Studio audience to nuances of tone and their enthusiasms for language and the authentic make writers of vastly different aesthetics think, Finally, I’ve found MY audience. A writing program based on those values is second to none.
CAROL FROST
author of 12 book of poetry, winner of The National Endowment for the Arts Poets’
 Prize, the Gold Medal in Poetry of from the Florida Book Awards, and several Pushcart Prizes
If The Writers Studio strikes a balance between the isolation of self-discipline and the community of kindred spirits, between the listening part of oneself and an audience of peers, it also encourages writers to be ambitious — for the work, always for the work, not for themselves.
MICHAEL WATERs
author of 12 books of poetry and editor of four; recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Fulbright Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts
My visit at Writers Studio was one of the highlights of my spring. I was so impressed by the level of discussion, by how engaged the students (and teachers!) were with both my novel and with how my experience writing it might connect to their own work. Clearly, this is a unique and inestimably valuable resource for writers. I’m grateful to have spent an evening there.”
ROBIN BLACK
author of If I Loved You I Would Tell You This and Life Drawing, as well as essays in The New York Times, Rumpus, and Psychology Today
The Kenyon Review joined The Writers Studio for an evening reading. It was a joy! The writers and teachers of The Writers Studio distinguished themselves with their skill, passion and vision. It’s the most remarkable community writing program I have ever known.
DAVID H. LYNN
editor emeritus of The Kenyon Review, professor of English Kenyon College
The vibe of the real world was everywhere present. The joyous presence of reality was palpable in the room. Here were people living life interested in hearing about life. And this is why we write: to connect.
MARK RUDMAN
winner of The National Book Critics Circle Award in Poetry, Academy of American Poets Prize, and recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts
I do not know of any other creative writing school where so many outstanding students and teachers are so committed to achieving excellence in the world of literature.
YEHUDA AMICHAI
winner of numerous international poetry prizes, numerous books of poetry, including Open Closed Open
My visit to The Writers Studio was a revelation. Here, poets and writers draw lessons in craft and art from a spirited and rigorous exploration of writing that has moved them in some way. This is a decidedly inspired and inspiring way to help acquire and hone the skills needed to step into the abiding mysteries of the imaginations given to each of us. I highly recommend The Writers Studio!
Andre Dubus III
New York Times best-selling author of 
Townie and House of Sand and Fog, and Dirty Love
The students in the craft class I taught with Philip Schultz were not simply trying to get at the meanings of the poems discussed. They were interested in defining techniques in the poems for handling particular kinds of material, techniques they planned to experiment with in an effort to make more of their own experience available in their poems. This practical focus made the discussion particularly lively and engaging.
CARL DENNIS
winner of the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for Practical Gods, the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, and recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship
People often ask me where they should go to study writing; hearing the diverse and remarkable readings from The Writers Studio faculty members, I know just what my answer will be.
JULIA GLASS
National Book Award winner for Three Junes and author of nine other novels including Virgil Harbor
An informed and attentive audience; that’s what a writer wants in a reading and that’s what I found at The Writers Studio. A large audience? I found that too. And a sympathetic staff. Plus wine and intelligent discussion. I was, however briefly, in heaven.
JOHN HASKELL
author of the story collection I am Not Jackson Pollack and three novels, Guggenheim Fellowship recipient
Dynamic, Inspiring, invigorating, supportive. The Writers Studio seemed to me to have all the qualities one could possibly wish for in a writing school.
JAMES LASDUN
poetry and fiction professor at Princeton University, New York University and Columbia University, author of The Horned Man, Give Me Everything You Have: On Being Stalked, recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship
My sense of The Writers Studio is of a warm and intimate yet also challenging and stimulating environment, where lively dialogue and earnest practice proceed side by side. A safe and yet also intense space for writers, where beginners and more advanced practitioners can all flourish.
RACHEL HADAS
award-winning author of Indelible, The Golden Road, and several other poetry collections; recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship
I knew, as soon as the evening started, that I was in a safe community where writers might attempt to try stuff without looking over their shoulder. That’s a great feeling…. [That] tone is set by the faculty and trickles down; people are stumbling along, writing, making it up as they go and the school supports it. Which is good because it’s the most important thing about an environment that artsy people share. It must come from the teachers.
MATTHEW KLAM
author of Sam The Cat and Other Stories, winner of a Whiting Award, PEN/Robert Bingham Prize, and a Guggenheim Fellowship
Lisa Bellamy is a terrific presence at The Writers Studio. I appreciate the work she did to make my book of poems, Dear Editor, useful and intriguing for the students’ own writing searches. Their ideas and responses contributed to a very interesting and enjoyable Craft Class. I loved hearing their processes — it looks like that class is a great experience for writers, very fruitful for thinking and community, and they are lucky to have her.
AMY NEWMAN
distinguished research professor at Northern Illinois University, author of On This Day in Poetry History and several other collections and translations, winner of the Alice James Award
I always imagine a possessive apostrophe in the name of The Writer’s Studio: it is possessed by writers, as they are possessed by the art. And the word “Studio” is right, too, suggesting the workplace of visual art, of recording music, even of the movies. Study, not school. As a visitor learns, the vital emphasis is on the art.
ROBERT PINSKY
United States Poet Laureate 1997-2000, author of 19 books, most of which are poetry, winner of the PEN/Voelker Award for Poetry, the Stegner Fellowship, and a Guggenheim Fellowship