About

Writing New York City is a creative writing course for rising high school juniors and seniors offered through Syracuse University's Summer College On Location program, held at the university's Fisher Center in Midtown Manhattan. The course uses New York City as both subject and creative catalyst — students study how writers have drawn on place as inspiration, take field trips to observe the city directly, and develop their own work in fiction and related forms. Classes run 3.5 hours daily, combining close reading, discussion, peer feedback, and writing. Students who complete the course receive a certificate of completion and may request a Syracuse University noncredit transcript; no academic credit is awarded.

The course is taught by Zeynop Özakat, a fiction writer whose work has appeared in Glimmer Train Stories (where she won the Fiction Open Contest), Black Warrior Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, and Gulf Coast. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Syracuse University and has been a fellow at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown — a residency that places her in serious literary company.
Eligibility requires rising junior or senior status, a minimum 3.0 GPA, and the ability to commute daily to the Fisher Center at 136 Madison Avenue. There is no residential option. The program is not selective beyond the GPA minimum. Tuition for On Location courses ranges from $995 to $2,175 depending on the course; specific tuition for this course should be confirmed on the primary site. Merit-based scholarships of up to 25% of tuition are available, as is need-based financial assistance for U.S. citizens and permanent residents with household income at or below $100,000.

For a New York City-area student serious about literary fiction who wants structured instruction from a working writer in a university setting, this is a well-designed option.