Making Creative Writing Accessible for Young Poets: A Conversation With Ivi Hua on Co-Founding the Young Poets Workshops
In this interview, Young Poets Workshops co-founder Ivi Hua discusses the role of kinship in creative spaces, breaking barriers, and more.
Breaking into the literary world can be intimidating, especially as a young writer. Whether you are seeking camaraderie, mentorship, or an outlet to share your work, it is often hard to know where to start when it comes to finding the right support. However, several young writers have dedicated themselves to making literary circles more inclusive.
I spoke with poets Ivi Hua and Fiona Jin to gain insight on their experiences leading Young Poets Workshops, an online, international network which connects writers aged 13-22 to free connections, resources, and events. In this interview, Ivi Hua discusses the role of kinship in creative spaces, the importance of reducing hurdles for emerging poets, and the value of centering the arts in the time of AI.
What originally inspired you to start Young Poets Workshops? And what was the process like turning YPW from an idea to a reality?
In the summer of 2022, YPW’s first spark came from the idea for a workshop that built community. After we—Ivi and Fiona alongside Jenna Nesky, our third co-founder—attended the same summer writing program and connected over a love for poetry, we wanted to bring that love to everyone, not just those who made it beyond the barriers of cost and selectivity.
It started with a simple generative workshop hosted on a free Zoom account and a Discord server that mostly contained our friends, and slowly morphed into an organization. It was kind of a day-by-day thing: We kept having ideas for new programs and new workshops, and then we had an Instagram, which led to more people joining the server until we were a full-blown community with regular programming.
The tangible process was mostly consisting of lots of messages and meetings that occurred pretty frequently over the course of roughly six months, and as we learned to collaborate and flesh out ideas, the structure of YPW really began to form. It was really lovely, I think, because we were friends and also co-presidents. I would say that the identity that YPW has now really come to life after those first six months.
How would you describe some of the events YPW has facilitated in the past? Are there any most memorable moments for you?
The events YPW has facilitated in the past have been varied, from our inaugural Literary Magazine Fair to Open Mics, but I do truly believe that they all feel like we’re at home with one another. No matter the event, they always feel very full of passion and community. Especially because being on the Internet can feel very isolating at times, I’m really happy that we’re able to offer a space where young writers can really connect, bond, and discuss what they love freely.
I think my favorite overall thing about events is seeing people learn and grow throughout them. In the past three years, I’ve been delighted to see a lot of young poets in our server flourish and evolve throughout the course of being in the community and going to events.
My personal favorite moments were probably at the Literary Magazine Fair, because a lot of amazing opportunities and connections were made there with the various presses we had in the space. It’s really nice to see writers at the beginning of their journey forming real bonds with established poets, because it really cements our goals at YPW to break down barriers.
There was also this one open mic where the participants started forming their own little theme, and we just went around in a circle reading poems that adhered to the theme and celebrating each others’ work. The little theme was totally organic, and it sparked a lot of good conversation. Really, though, every event is one that I enjoy, because I personally get to connect with people over our love for art that is so deeply human.
YPW is completely free for writers to join and attend, but you’re also committed to paying the writers you collaborate with. What is your approach towards sustaining such a project financially?
We actually run solely off of grants and donations. Because we’re committed to being a community for any writer, with access to all events regardless of financial status, every payment we make originates from a grant we have spent time applying for and won. These grants are deeply important to us, not just because they help us keep things like our website and Zoom subscription running smoothly, but also because they help us validate the work we find critical.
Especially in this era, where the rise of AI and increased value being placed on STEM is so common, we firmly believe that the arts should be supported and respected. The writing that human beings create with our minds and our hearts is one of the greatest forms of human expression and communication in our eyes, and we are committed to valuing and paying writers as such. Because of this, we spend a large chunk of our time, especially during the period where grants are opened for applications, looking at our finances and writing out grant proposals and projects. Every collaborator we have is paid $60 per event—writing is labor, and we are committed to recognizing it as such.
In the writing world, there are a lot of workshops and community spaces that are inaccessible to the majority of young people, due to barriers such as cost or experience. What is your philosophy on the importance of bridging this gap?
As Fiona once wrote of YPW, we are the children of libraries and the Internet. YPW was born from three poets who utilized their computer privileges and library cards to their fullest extent, and the values of accessibility, free sharing of resources, and lack of barriers really spoke to us.
We’ve all been writers at the start of our journeys, and we’ve benefited immensely from having access to passionate communities. We bring the mindset that every young writer should have the resources of community, connections, and advice to the table, and making creative writing accessible is really the core part of who we are—yes, the writing workshops and the fun events are also critical to our mission, but at the heart of it all is the urge to make a historically inaccessible community increasingly accessible.
One of my favorite things we’ve done to try and close these gaps was this past summer—the YPW Mentorship program was very small, but I think it made a huge impact. I loved working with my mentee for those eight weeks and sharing all the little details I’d learned about poetry throughout the years, passing down knowledge that is oftentimes gatekept behind costs and selectivity for free. Nobody has ever learned and grown solely on their own—everyone owes their success to some form of kindness or sharing from others, whether it be from the author of a book giving their voice to the world or from a friend who helps critique your work. I think in the context of the individualism that feels more prevalent in a lot of cultures lately, it’s so important to emphasize community.
Would you say you’re able to achieve balance, in terms of juggling the responsibilities of this organization with being students and writers? Are there any tools or tips that have helped you with this?
While I’d love to answer that we did find some form of perfect balance, I think the real truth of it is that we made it so that YPW wasn’t really a balancing act. It was more of something that existed with us at all times because we cared about it so much, and therefore coming up with initiatives and doing work for the organization became more manageable because of it. Many of our best ideas were dropped in the team group chat late at night, our meetings would also be full of chit-chat at times, and we really put our full hearts into running YPW. A community space is like a living, breathing ecosystem that is always showing some form of activity, and so I would say that in simply existing within the YPW community while also running it, there’s a sense of balance that comes along with it.
In terms of more tangibles, we set up a Notion and organized our Google Drive, which both helped with tracking and completing projects. (Shoutout to both of those organizations—if you’d like to sponsor us, please let us know.) We also made sure to take time off of actively doing work for YPW, especially during times when our academic/social lives were very busy. Notably, we took April off every year when we were in high school to study for AP tests, and typically will take some form of break when school starts at the beginning of the year as well. We also really emphasize the division of tasks—with so many things on the table and the team’s busy schedules, we try really hard to make sure work is spread out and covered in a way that nobody is overstretching themselves too far.
Do you have any advice for other students or young writers who are interested in starting their own initiatives?
I think my advice would be to find a partner or a group that you can truly trust and also connect with to work on the project. Fiona, Jenna, and I worked really well because we were all good friends and were equally dedicated to the work that we were doing, and I think having strong collaborators and a desire to make the organization work takes a project a very long ways.
I would also say that logistically, being able to really market an organization or initiative helps in the long term for getting yourself out to the audience you want to connect with. Moreover, being able to paint the initiative in the best light possible can also be really helpful for getting grant money, which oftentimes goes a long way in growing a project and making it feel more official.
As a whole, Fiona and I (and the rest of YPW’s team as well) urges any young writer creating a new initiative to keep themselves open access. With a strong community and with access to all, growing as a whole and flourishing becomes so much easier. The idea that exclusivity equals progress is a myth. We hope that we’re changing that perception with the work we do, and we hope young writers launching new projects bring accessibility of creative writing into an even larger spotlight. We hope you do it with love, and we hope even more that the work you do brings you joy.
