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Highlights Foundation Campus

392 Boyds Mills Road
Milanville, PA 18443 United States Get Directions
570-253-1192

When we began offering Foundation workshops, we knew we had a unique situation: a campus tucked away in the picturesque northeastern Pennsylvania Pocono Mountains, with the solitude writers and artists need to produce their best work. See some photos and videos here, and you can also see what some of our attendees have to say about the Highlights Foundation workshop experience.

Today

Photo of the Lodge on the Highlights Foundation Campus

An Intersectional Lens: Awareness + Action for Representation in Kids’ Books, Libraries & Classrooms

Highlights Foundation Campus 392 Boyds Mills Road, Milanville, PA

Overview In-person 4-Day/3-Night Retreat Professional & Personal Development for Educators, Librarians, Storytellers, & Publishing Professionals. Build the skills you need to analyze children’s books for meaningful representation, reader engagement, visual literacy, and more. This is an in-person workshop at our Retreat Center with presentations, implementation plans, book talks, and time to meet informally with fellow literary advocates and […]

$1199
The Barn on the Highlights Foundation Campus

In-Company: A Retreat for Experienced Authors and Illustrators

Highlights Foundation Campus 392 Boyds Mills Road, Milanville, PA

Overview In-person 5-Day/4-Night Workshop and Retreat Join us in company to share, grow, and cultivate creativity when you’ve been working in the industry for a long time. Talk with your peers about your career, challenges, deadlines, and upcoming projects. Offer your wishes for pushing boundaries of your work, and the industry! This is an in-person workshop at our […]

$1399
Blackboard with question mark

Writing for the Educational Market

Highlights Foundation Campus 392 Boyds Mills Road, Milanville, PA

Overview In-person 5-Day/4-Night Workshop and Retreat If the words “educational market” make you think only of workbooks and textbooks, it’s time to think again!  Today’s educational publishers are eager to see lively nonfiction, fast-paced fiction, poetry, video scripts, and more. This is an in-person workshop at our Retreat Center with lectures, writing exercises, and small group discussions. […]

$1399

Summer Camp: Fiction

Summer Camp in Fiction: Explore, Play, and Inspire

Highlights Foundation Campus 392 Boyds Mills Road, Milanville, PA

Overview In-person 5-Day/4-Night Workshop and Retreat Get away for five days at our Summer Camp in Fiction for inspiration, guidance, mentorship, community, fun, creativity, and growth. At the Highlights Foundation, “summer camp” is different than s’mores by the fire and hiking in the woods. (Though we do that, too.) Our summer camp is a time […]

$1499
Summer Camp Illustration

Summer Camp in Illustration: Intensive Artistic Inspiration

Highlights Foundation Campus 392 Boyds Mills Road, Milanville, PA

Overview In-person 4-Day/3-Night Workshop and Retreat Get away for four days at our Summer Camp in Illustration for inspiration, guidance, support, community, fun, creativity, and growth. At the Highlights Foundation, “summer camp” is different than s’mores by the fire and hiking in the woods. (Though we do that, too.) Our summer camp is a time […]

$1399
Summer Camp Nonfiction

Summer Camp in Nonfiction: Explore, Engage, and Inspire

Highlights Foundation Campus 392 Boyds Mills Road, Milanville, PA

Overview In-person 5-Day/4-Night Workshop and Retreat Get away for five days at our Summer Camp in Nonfiction for inspiration, guidance, mentorship, community, fun, creativity, and growth. At the Highlights Foundation, “summer camp” is different than s’mores by the fire and hiking in the woods. (Though we do that, too.) Our summer camp is a time […]

$1499

Writing & Illustrating Science & Nature for Kids & Teens

Writing and Illustrating Science & Nature for Kids and Teens

Highlights Foundation Campus 392 Boyds Mills Road, Milanville, PA

Overview In-person 5-Day/4-Night Workshop and Retreat Mentorship, hands-on activities, presentations, and ample time for retreating will help you on your path to energizing readers through science and nature-themed fiction or nonfiction. This is an in-person workshop at our Retreat Center with ample time to relax, retreat, and work on your own writing. Lodging and meals are included. There […]

$1399
Whole Novel Workshop Featured Graphic

Whole Novel Workshop: An In-Person Retreat for Novelists (August)

Highlights Foundation Campus 392 Boyds Mills Road, Milanville, PA

The Highlights Foundation Whole Novel Workshop offers writers the rare opportunity to have the entire draft (up to 80,000 words) of a novel read by faculty, with detailed written feedback and a private consultation provided.

$2799
PJ Library Logo with colorful background

PJ Library: Summer Camp for Writers and Illustrators of Jewish Picture Books

Highlights Foundation Campus 392 Boyds Mills Road, Milanville, PA

Overview PJ Library invites writers and writer/illustrators of Jewish-themed picture books to apply for our 2023 Picture Book Summer Camp for five days of inspiration, mentorship, fun, and creativity on the beautiful campus of the Highlights Foundation. A majority of the spaces are reserved for emerging creatives (unpublished, or no more than one published picture […]

Photo of the Lodge on the Highlights Foundation Campus

Native Creatives: An In-Community Retreat

Highlights Foundation Campus 392 Boyds Mills Road, Milanville, PA

Overview In-person 4-Day/3-Night, In-Community Retreat “Time with fellow Native creatives helps sustain me along this author’s journey. I look forward to a weekend together to share our stories, write, create art, and talk practically about how we navigate the publishing industry.” —Traci Sorell (Cherokee Nation) This in-community retreat is for Native writers and illustrators with host Traci Sorell and special guests, author […]

$799

Highlights Foundation Zoom Background: Word Garden

Middle Grade Writers: A Generative Retreat Experience

Highlights Foundation Campus 392 Boyds Mills Road, Milanville, PA

Overview In-person 4-Day/3-Night Workshop and Retreat To write for children, we need to reconnect with the clever, imaginative, and curious core of our childhood selves. Join celebrated middle-grade authors Erin Entrada Kelly and Laurel Snyder for a four-day retreat focused on generative writing inspired by the sleepaway camps of our youths. Write, wander, and connect […]

$1199
The Barn on the Highlights Foundation Campus

Writing for Beginning Readers: First Chapter Books and Early Readers

Highlights Foundation Campus 392 Boyds Mills Road, Milanville, PA

Overview In-person 4-Day/3-Night Workshop and Retreat Do you want to bring joy and confidence to kids who are picking up a book on their own for the very first time?  Whether fiction or nonfiction, learn how to bring your stories to life for these beginning readers. This is an in-person workshop at our Retreat Center with presentations, […]

$1299
Highlights Foundation Zoom Backgrounds: Patio

Making Magic: Writing and Refining Fantastical and Otherworldly Stories

Highlights Foundation Campus 392 Boyds Mills Road, Milanville, PA

Overview In-person 4-Day/3-Night Workshop and Retreat Deepen the magic in your middle grade or young adult novel with novelists Anna-Marie McLemore and Nova Ren Suma.  In this generative writing workshop, you’ll enjoy in-depth craft lectures from experienced faculty authors, small group workshopping, 1:1 faculty consultations, and ample private time to retreat so that you can write, wander, and […]

$1299

Craft & Heart of Writing Poetry for Children

Highlights Foundation Campus 392 Boyds Mills Road, Milanville, PA

Overview In-person 5-Day/4-Night Workshop and Retreat If writing poetry for children is your passion, join celebrated poets Georgia Heard and Rebecca Kai Dotlich for this 5-day/4-night retreat to work on your own poetry through guided writing exercises, peer workshopping and sharing, lectures, and a private consultation. We also include ample private retreat time so that you can write, wander, and connect […]

$1399

Photo of the Lodge on the Highlights Foundation Campus

Latinx Voices: An In-Community Retreat

Highlights Foundation Campus 392 Boyds Mills Road, Milanville, PA

Overview In-person 4-Day/3-Night, In-Community Retreat This in-community retreat is for writers and illustrators from the Latinx Diaspora. It is an informally structured retreat where the focus is on your own projects, plus a celebration of community, sharing ways to amplify and support Latinx voices. This is an in-person retreat for Latinx creatives who currently (or […]

$799
Whole Novel Workshop Featured Graphic

Whole Novel Workshop: An In-Person Retreat for Novelists (November)

Highlights Foundation Campus 392 Boyds Mills Road, Milanville, PA

The Highlights Foundation Whole Novel Workshop offers writers the rare opportunity to have the entire draft (up to 80,000 words) of a novel read by faculty, with detailed written feedback and a private consultation provided. This Whole Novel Workshop is specifically designed for writers of novels for children and teens.

$2799

Workshops for Writers & Illustrators

> Online
> In-Person
> On-Demand (Self-Paced Online)

New to the Highlights Foundation? Try these:

The Crash Course | The Whole Novel Workshop | Summer Camp

Upcoming Workshops

Questions?

Need help deciding on a workshop?  Ask an ambassador!

Visiting Our Campus

Our campus (The Barn at Boyds Mills) is tucked away in the foothills of the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania.  It's a few hours from both New York City and Philadelphia, but worlds away from everyday life.

Learn More About Visiting Our Campus

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Line drawing of the Barn at Boyds Mills

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The Highlights Foundation positively impacts children by amplifying the voices of storytellers who inform, educate, and inspire children to become their best selves.  Learn more about our impact.

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