Shared Worlds
July 14 - 27, 2024

 
 

Shared Worlds is an annual summer program designed for teen writers interested in speculative fiction (science fiction, fantasy, steampunk, etc.). The students work in groups with an experienced “world-building coordinator” to design and build a world. 

Supported by an Amazon grant and featured by The Guardian, The Los Angeles Times, and The Washington Post, Shared Worlds is a unique writing camp that brings together rising 8th-12th grade students from all over the world. Students work with critically acclaimed and bestselling fantasy and science fiction writers to imagine, build, and write their own stories.

Shared Worlds takes the ideas and enthusiasm of young writers seriously, and encourages their creativity in a fun, dynamic, and safe learning environment on the beautiful campus of Wofford College in Spartanburg, SC. 

Shared Worlds strives for an outstanding residential camp experience where students can make meaningful connections with other students and grow as collaborators and as writers. This experience is possible only when we can all meet safely together. Shared Worlds is also committed to the health, safety, and well-being of its campers and staff members.

 
 

Announcing our 2024 Guest Authors!

2024 Guest Authors

Introducing our Guest Authors for Shared Worlds 2024!
We are pleased to have H.E. Edgmon, Kayla Cottingham, Lauren Blackwood, Micaiah Johnson, and Tara Sim as our second-week guest authors for 2024!

They bring amazing talent to our program and will be in our classrooms and working with students one-on-one during the program in week two!

H.E. Edgmon is an author of queer speculative fiction across genres. Once a stray dog in the rural south, he now makes his home in the Pacific Northwest with a family of his own design. Haunted and hopeful, his work aims to offer levity without flinching from hard truths. In his writing and his daily life, H.E. will always prioritize the pursuit of an Indigenous future, the safety of our most vulnerable, and making a terrible joke whenever possible. You can keep up with his work on Goodreads. https://heedgmondotcom.files.wordpress.com/2023/04/7ec36-headshot2.png
https://heedgmon.com

Kayla Cottingham (they/she) is a New York Times and Publisher's Weekly bestselling YA author of sapphic horror and fantasy novels. Born and raised in Salt Lake City, Utah, Kayla now lives in Boston where they love to go hiking in the woods, play RPGs, and snuggle on the couch with their ridiculously large black cat, Squid. https://www.kaylacottingham.com

Lauren Blackwood is a Jamaican American living in Virginia who writes Romance-heavy Fantasy for most ages. When not writing, she's a musician and a tiramisu connoisseur. Her debut YA Fantasy Within These Wicked Walls is a New York Times Bestseller and the Reese’s Book club Fall 2021 YA Pick. https://www.laurenblackwood.com

Micaiah Johnson is the Compton Crook Award–winning author of The Space Between Worlds. Her debut novel was an Editors’ Choice of The New York Times and named one of best books of 2020 and one of the best science-fiction books of the last decade by NPR. She was raised in California’s Mojave Desert, surrounded by trees named Joshua and women who told stories. She received a bachelor of arts in creative writing from the University of California, Riverside, and a master of fine arts in fiction from Rutgers University–Camden. She now studies American literature at Vanderbilt University, where she focuses on critical race theory and automatons. https://www.micaiahjohnson.com

Tara Sim Tara Sim is the author of the upcoming City of Dusk (Orbit), as well as the Scavange the Stars duology (Little, Brown) and the Timekeeper trilogy (Sky Pony Press). She can often be found in the wilds of the Bay Area, California. When she’s not writing about magic, murder, and mayhem, Tara spends her time drinking tea, wrangling cats, and lurking in bookstores. https://tarasim.com

Featured
JEREMY L. C. JONES, CAMP CO-DIRECTOR
JEREMY L. C. JONES, CAMP CO-DIRECTOR

Jeremy L. C. Jones is a freelance writer, editor, and lecturer. He contributes regularly to the third-party role-playing game magazine Kobold Quarterly. He also writes for a variety of newspapers, magazines, and websites.

Jones is a board member for The Hub City Writers Project and The South Carolina Academy of Authors. Along with collaborators at the Alzheimer's Association, The Hub City Writers Project, and the Department of Psychology at Wofford College, Jones helped create Living Words, a creative writing program for people diagnosed with dementia and their caregivers.

Jones is a shameless fan of shared world fiction in general and Forgotten Realms in particular, which lead to his creating a pilot of the shared worlds program at a high school in Lexington, KY. His favorite fantasy novelists are R. A. Salvatore, Greg Keyes, and David Gemmell. He prefers Robert E. Howard to J. R. R. Tolkien, The Hobbit to The Lord of the Rings, and is still not convinced that one day he won't find the magic doorway to Narnia. He's pretty fond of Greek drama, southern literature, Vietnam War novels, and American nature writing, too.

Website: www.jeremylcjones.com

Jeff VanderMeer, Camp Co-Director
Jeff VanderMeer, Camp Co-Director

Jeff VanderMeer is an award-winning novelist and editor, and author of the New York Times bestselling Southern Reach Trilogy—the first volume of which, Annihilation, is currently being made into movie to be released by Scott Rubin/Paramount this year. His latest novel, Borne, will be published by MCD/FSG April 25th, 2017 and has been optioned by Paramount. His fiction has been translated into thirty-five languages and has appeared in the Library of America’s American Fantastic Tales, Conjunctions, and multiple year’s-best anthologies as well as on such sites as Slate and Vulture.

VanderMeer grew up in the Fiji Islands and spent time traveling through Asia, Africa, and Europe before returning to the United States. These travels have deeply influenced his fiction. He is the recipient of an NEA-funded Florida Individual Artist Fellowship for excellence in fiction and a Florida Artist Enhancement Grant. A three-time winner of the World Fantasy Award and fifteen-time finalist, VanderMeer has also won the Shirley Jackson Award and Nebula Award as well as been a finalist for the Hugo Award, the Philip K. Dick Award, the British Fantasy Award, the Bram Stoker Award, and the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award. 

In addition to his writing, VanderMeer has edited or co-edited several anthologies, including Best American Fantasy, The Weird, and The Big Book of Science Fiction. His award-winning Wonderbook is the world’s first fully illustrated creative writing book. He also writes for The NY Times Book Review, The Los Angeles Times, The Guardian, the Atlantic online, Electric Literature, LitHub, and many others. He lives in Tallahassee, Florida, with his wife, Ann VanderMeer, and two cats.

Website: www.jeffvandermeer.com

Tim Schmitz, Director of Summer Programs
Tim Schmitz, Director of Summer Programs

Tim is Professor of History and Associate Provost for Administration at Wofford, but for twelve of the past sixteen years, he has spent his summers working for the Johns Hopkins University's Center for Talented Youth (CTY) summer academic program as a history instructor and as a site director. He has worked in Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New York for CTY. In 2008, CTY selected him to direct the inaugural year of the CTY International site in Spain, which was held at the European University of Madrid.

Tim teaches European history at Wofford. His research interest is the intersection of state power and religious reform in sixteenth-century Spain.