Thank you for your interest in participating in the 2025 Adroit Journal Summer Mentorship Program.  

About the Program

Now in its thirteenth year, The Adroit Journal’s Summer Mentorship Program is an online program that pairs established writers with high school students (including graduating seniors) and gap year students (Classes of ’24 or ’25) interested in learning more about the creative writing processes of drafting, redrafting and editing.

The 2025 program will cater to poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction/memoir. The aim of the mentorship program is not formalized instruction, but rather an individualized, flexible, and often informal correspondence. Poetry students will share weekly work with mentors and peers, while fiction and creative nonfiction/memoir students will share biweekly work with mentors and peers.

The 2025 program will last from June 26 until July 28.

The Application

STUDENT WRITER APPLICATION PROCESS

The application for this year’s mentorship program consists of four parts: three Application Essays, a Writing Sample, an Optional Academic Transcript, and an Optional Additional Information Section.

We encourage you to double space your responses and include a page break between them, making sure to also include the full question to which you are responding above each answer. (P.S. We find that conventional fonts like Times New Roman or Garamond often work best!)

CLICK HERE TO ACCESS THE ADROIT MENTORSHIP 2025 APPLICATION ESSAY TEMPLATE.

Essay #1: In approx. 450-600 words, explore your impulse to write—give us the who, what, where, when, and/or why behind your passion for the genre (or genres) of creative writing to which you are applying. Perhaps you’ll shed light on why you started writing. Or take us on a backstage tour behind your current writing process(es). Or dissect the way(s) writing fits into your life—academically, extracurricularly, philosophically, socially, and/or artistically. Or tell us about how your favorite writers inspire you. Please feel encouraged to reference work(s) from your sample(s) in your response. You might also reference any writing project(s) you have undertaken and/or how you hope your writing might develop in craft and/or theme as a mentorship student this summer.

Essay #2: In approx. 350-500 words, introduce us to a work of writing or art that moves you. Why does it move you? What’s kept it stuck in your head? Examples of selected work may include a poem, series of linked poems, or poetry collection; a short story, short story collection, or novella, or even an excerpt/chapter of a novel; an essay, essay collection, or memoir; a song, EP, or album (of any genre); a literary magazine issue; a piece or series of visual art; a movie; or that idea of yours that immediately sprang to mind! If it’s even arguably art but moving and meaningful to you, go for it. Note: Given length constraints, if you select a collection of work (e.g. a collection of poems, stories, or essays; a lit mag issue; etc.), please center your discussion around 3-4 specific pieces of the work. 

Essay #3: In approx. 150-200 words, what draws you to the Adroit Journal Summer Mentorship Program? Why mentorship? What excites you about our program specifically? How might working with an Adroit mentor support you as a writer? 

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The Writing Sample should consist of between four and five poems (max of ten pages, single-spaced, with each poem starting on a new page) or between eight and twelve double-spaced pages of fiction or creative nonfiction (excerpts are acceptable).

Students who wish to apply to multiple genres may do so by utilizing both the First Choice and Second Choice options in the mentorship application form linked below. Important: If you wish to apply to more than one genre, please include two complete writing samples in one file, one for each genre, with your second-choice genre following the first. Please abide by writing sample guidelines for each genre and note that we consider all genres independent of their ranking on your app.  

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The Academic Transcript is an optional component that is primarily used as a verification of student status. Transcripts may be official or unofficial and should ideally be in PDF form. There is no need to upload multiple transcripts if you’ve changed schools during your high school career—your latest transcript will suffice. If not sent with your application, a transcript, or other proof of student-status, is required when accepting a cohort spot.

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The Additional Information Section is an optional component included in the application as an opportunity to share any information that you feel is pertinent to your background and/or mentorship candidacy. Please upload no more than two pages as a .DOC or .PDF file in this section. You may treat this section as an opportunity to upload a resume/activity sheet if you would like, or you can instead share more about situational factors that you have not shared elsewhere. In offering this section, we hope that you will not feel pressure to fit, squish, or force any content into other areas of your application. Thanks very much for your interest in the mentorship program; we look forward to seeing what you've got!

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You may read our summer mentorship FAQ in full here. Please direct additional questions to mentorship@theadroitjournal.org.

Tuition for participation in the full program is $575/student. Please note that there is no application fee. Furthermore, we want to assure applicants for whom tuition will be a barrier that fee remission and financial aid is available. Financial need will be addressed entirely separately, and will not be an influencing factor on the mentorship’s admission decisions. Program administrators and application screeners will not have access to financial need information until after admission decisions have been made.

Questions?

Visit us online: www.theadroitjournal.org/mentorship 

Contact: John Allen Taylor and Kate Gaskin, Program Directors | mentorship@theadroitjournal.org

OPEN POSITIONS:

Senior Editor, Translations

The Adroit Journal seeks an experienced and ambitious editor to lead the expansion of our publication of translations of poetry and prose.s. The right candidate will have previous literary journal or press experience, and be comfortable building and leading a team of volunteer readers. With the support of our editor-in-chief, executive editor, managing editor and senior editor of prose, you will be responsible for evaluating and selecting translations for publication, soliciting submissions, and setting the direction for potential translation prizes and relevant special projects. The position is currently estimated to require four to five hours per week and is on a volunteer basis. 

Associate Web Editor

The Adroit Journal is expanding our Web Editing team. The Associate Web Editor will be responsible for keeping The Adroit Journal’s website up-to-date at all times. 

• Add/delete website pages
• Keep Issue, Masthead, Submissions and other pages current
• Edit and update website as required in a timely fashion

Make requested updates from contributors following issue release. 

Most relevant experience: 

• Navigating Wordpress
  • Creating and formatting content (especially because poetry’s structure and spacing can require extra work in Text Mode to get correct)
  • Adding, updating, and scheduling new Pages, Posts, Users
• Basic Photo-Editing with Gimp, Canva, or Seashore (or any other editing software)
  • Crop and scale images
  • Combine and edit pictures to be featured images on the blog
• Communicating through Slack and email
  • With issue contributors, blog content contributors, and teammates

Specs: 

• Start-date: immediate
• Volunteer role
• 3-4 hours/week

Reporting to the Web Editor and Managing Editor

Before applying please familiarize yourself with the journal by visiting our About page, and perhaps also an issue or two.
 

APPLICATION DETAILS:

I. STATEMENT

Please briefly (no more than a page double-spaced) explain what qualifies you for this position, and what you would add to the journal’s literary and/or artistic community. You are encouraged to include things such as experience in the specific field(s), writing publication, and other commendations and accolades, but this Adroit Statement should NOT read like a résumé.

At the end of the day, the statement should highlight your history, passion, and experience with the areas of the position and creative writing. Feel free to discuss other topics you feel are appropriate, as well as any specific connections, measures, or initiatives you might have (or aspire to have) with The Adroit Journal’s staff community.

3. PLEASE UPLOAD A RESUME.

As we seek to fill open positions sooner rather than later, we consider applications on a rolling basis.

***Unless otherwise specified, all positions are volunteer and remote in nature & have a start-date of ASAP.***

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