The Family Fast Festival
Yearly, around Feb-March
Two morning sessions during the Baha'i Fast season, where youth ages 12-18 and their parents get a chance to explore spiritual concepts in a creative, collaborative environment, separately and together! A great opportunity for youth to get a feel for the YWE community.
The Young Writers' Endeavor
Yearly, 3 weeks around Jun-Jul
Our intensive yearly writing workshop for youth ages 12-18, focused around a Baha'i-inspired theme and three different writing genres. Participants who complete the workshop have three brand new pieces to share and a community of writing peers their age!
Writing Peers Call
Monthly
A loose-format, monthly call for creatives 18 and older across many different fields of the arts to reflect on spiritual concepts, share our work, and support each other on their journey. Fill out a contact form to be notified.
Our Yearly Worskhop:
Do you want to be a writer AND contribute to the betterment of the world?
Do you want to join a community of writers your age?
Do you want to create THREE great new pieces in only three weeks?
The Young Writers’ Endeavor is a Baha’i-inspired online workshop for writers between the ages of 12 and 18, with the goal of familiarizing youth with the structure and style of different genres, and helping young writers approach writing from a Baha’i perspective, through study of the Baha’i Writings. This workshop is entirely organized by volunteers who have both interest and experience in writing, the arts, and Baha’i community building activities, in collaboration with industry professionals. It has been carried out every year since 2019.
For each topic, participants study guidance from the Central Figures of the Faith on arts and writing, get a chance to ask professional writers all their questions, and work on a short piece of their own! Best of all, participants work together with other participants, give each other feedback and encouragement each week, and continue to become better writers together.
Our yearly workshop normally takes place around July. However, we may hold other events at other times.
A glimpse at our 2023 program:
This Year's Topic: Friendship
WEEK 1
Articles
What are articles and how does their structure help us describe our reality? What do the Baha'i writings say about writing articles? How can we build community through journalism? How do friendship and collaboration help us tell stories?
WEEK 2
Comics
How can we get over our fear of not creating "perfect" art? How do intention and sincerity give power to what we create? How do writing and drawing combine to create engaging, impactful comics? What role can comics play in building community and sharing Baha'i principles?
WEEK 3
Optional events
An art show to gather friends and family, and a workshop to learn to host an in-person YWE workshop in your community.
"It gave me an encouraging writers' group made of people from all over the world. I learned more about different styles of writing. The unique perspective of each person made sharing and collaborating on work super fun."
Sonia V., 13
"This workshop made me understand what it means to be a Baha'í writer and how we can all serve mankind with our art."
Gema S., 16
"I got to explore different creative writing genres, integrate the faith into my writings and get to know an international community of peers who share a love for the art of writing."
Soofia G., 15
Get in Touch
If you want to be added to our mailing list or have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out!