classes at the New York Public Library. This summer, she wanted to try out a new program: a “camp” that would bring writers together for 10 events over the course of the season ranging from “Show Up and Write” meetings in which participants sit together at a cafe and—you guessed it—write, to a literary tour of Greenwich Village. One afternoon, the group gathered over a potluck picnic in Prospect Park and read some of their work aloud; the next week, they huddled over notebooks and laptops in Manhattan’s Housing Works cafe, where one camper finished the first draft of her novel. “One of my favorite parts of camp is getting people to parts of the city they wouldn’t normally go to,” Sayre said. Each week, Sayre sends members an email with plans for that week’s meetup, as well as writing exercises or motivation and suggested events to do in the neighborhood after the event. When campers met at Astoria Bier and Cheese, she pointed them toward Break Bar, the Museum of the Moving Image and Socrates Sculpture Garden so that they could continue to explore western Queens if they chose to after the meeting. The “campers” are around ages 24 to 40, including some people who had been to Writers Work conferences and others who were new to the community. There’s a lawyer, an editor, a bartender, actors, a photographer, a teacher. They all had plenty of ideas for their writing but were lacking “structure, time, motivation and accountability,” Sayre said. At camp, they’re writing screenplays, novels, young adult fiction or memoirs. Sayre, a screenwriter who just produced her first short film “Lily + Mara,” is using her time at Writing Camp for Adults to complete a first draft of a full One of my favorite parts of camp is getting people to parts of the city they wouldn’t normally go to.” Tracy Sayre Founder of Writers Work Photo courtesy of Tracy Sayre Photo: Katrina Medoff/BORO AUGUST 2016 I BOROMAG.COM I 39
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