Aug 2023
Entering the literary world
Before we were a mentorship, we were a literary magazine. SUNHOUSE Literary was the product of our own summer two years ago. Born from months of discussion and careful deliberation, SUNHOUSE Literary was inspired by our past experiences working for other literary journals and seeing the online sphere of the creative world laid out before us. Among them, we found our vision: something sharp, defiant, sweet. A sunburst, or even an olive.
Jan 2024
SUNHOUSE was born
At the start of the new year, SUNHOUSE Literary was finally, officially launched. Focused on the experimental and nonlinear, we sought out poems and flash prose that couldn’t be contained in one shape or narrative. From the beginning, an integral part of our mission was celebrating the writers whose work had taught and continues to teach us how to write: poets like Hua Xi, Sara Elkamel, and Marlin M. Jenkins, or prose writers like Tucker Leighty-Phillips and Catherine Wong. As submissions began appearing in our inbox, we eagerly planned for our blog and soon-to-be monthly issues.
Feb-Mar 2024
Early stages
By the spring, we had curated our first two issues featuring eight different writers total and each of our respective interviews with them. Supported by an expanded literary team composed of poetry and prose editors, as well as directors for our social media and blog, we published poems such as Maya Stahler’s “ANNA’S ARIA,” which enamored us with its liminal setting and thrumming tension, while Aiden Heung’s “Phenomenon of the Everyday” illuminated how much of a force metaphor and persona can be.
Apr 2024
Extending our roots
Now, with our feet solidly planted in the ground, we wanted to extend outwards, back into the literary community we had first found a home in. Thanks to the work of our Blog Director and General Editor Saturn Browne and author K-Ming Chang, we we published “Liminality and Obsession: a Conversation with K-Ming Chang on CECILIA”: an in-depth interview discussing the novella, seasons of death, and the cunning inspirations Chang drew from pop media.
With our interviews, we had always hoped to emulate the feeling and insight of a short writing seminar, but without the barrier of cost.
And then, we took it one step further.
June-Aug 2024
The Mentorship
The 2024 SUNHOUSE Summer Writing Mentorship officially began on June 22th and ran for six weeks until August 3rd—although we had begun preparation for it as early as February of that year. In those months of spring, between the idea’s inception and the program’s first virtual mentee meeting, we spent hours organizing spreadsheets, researching potential mentors, and brainstorming the best ways to make our mentorship work. We had questions, and we wanted to provide answers: How can mentees improve their ability to write feedback and expand their literary horizons? How can a program without grant funding provide financial aid while compensating their mentors? And most importantly, why do so few young writers see themselves in their teachers?
3 genres, 26 brilliant mentors, and 26 extraordinary mentees later, we eventually emerged with a summer program we were proud to call our own.
Now in its third consecutive year, SUNHOUSE has truly become the mentorship we wished we had as young writers.
At SUNHOUSE, the way financial aid works is rather unique.
Our mentorship tuition is set at $180 USD per mentee, however, this money goes entirely to compensating our mentors and covering website costs. The SUNHOUSE staff and organization make zero profit.
SUNHOUSE is built upon the principles of focusing on the writer, their passion, and their craft above all else—regardless of their socioeconomic status, location, or living situation. All applications are read as need-blind and upon mentees’ acceptance to the program, we are happy to provide both full and partial financial aid where needed.
When we grant financial “aid” to a mentee, we essentially waive the amount of money they are unable to pay and lower their tuition fee to what they can afford. In the past, we have met all requested need in efforts to move beyond the often insufficient measurements of demonstrated need. Occasionally, we have even waived the entire $180 USD to make the program as affordable as possible.
Although mentees and mentors are matched 1-to-1, we divide the total amount of tuition we collect across all mentors so that we can ensure each mentor is compensated equally, regardless of who requires aid. This tuition fee exists purely as a way for us to be able to offer thanks to our incredibly talented team of mentors who graciously dedicate a summer to working with us.
If you are accepted and would like to request aid, we do not require formal legal documentation to prove that you’d benefit from cheaper tuition. We know that conventional measures of financial need such as household income often result in many families slipping through the cracks. As long as you can verify that you would have difficulty paying our full tuition, we are happy to meet your requested financial need.
Founding Director
Ruoyu Wang (they/them) is a writer from Seattle. Their work appears in Sine Theta Magazine, COUNTERCLOCK, and The Shore, and has been recognized by YoungArts, Scholastic Arts & Writing, The Adroit Prizes, Interlochen Arts Academy, Rattle, and Narrative Magazine, among others. Currently, they are studying at Mount Holyoke College and working as an intern at Sundress Publications. They love a good postcard and you can find them at rxwang.carrd.co.
Program Co-Director
Ivi Hua is an Asian-American writer, dreamer, & poet. A Pushcart Prize nominee & YoungArts Award recipient, she is the author of Body, Dissected (kith books, 2024) & cofounder of Young Poets Workshops. Ivi believes in the initiation of change through language, & attends Harvard College.
Director of Design
Abigail Chang is a product and brand designer currently leading design at Efficore. In past lives, she was a Pushcart-nominated writer with work in 20+ literary journals. She can be found at Northwestern University and abigailchang.space.
2026 Outreach Intern
Kan Pitichaichan is a Thai-Japanese artist currently studying Fine Art at Parsons School of Design. Born and raised in Thailand, he spent nine years living in London before moving to New York. He is currently the Studio Ambassador at the Center for Book Arts and a curatorial intern at Gintana Rosa.
2026 Outreach Intern
Michelle Li has been nationally recognized by Scholastic Art and Writing, Bennington Young Writers Awards, and Apprentice Writer. An alumna of the Kenyon Review Young Writers Workshop and the Adroit Summer Mentorship, her work is forthcoming or published in Up the Staircase Quarterly, The Penn Review, and Frontier Poetry. She is editor in chief of Hominum Journal, plays violin and piano, loves Rachmaninoff, blackberries, and the rain.
2026 Outreach Intern
Yaeji Kim is a Korean-American writer from San Diego, California. Alumna of the Iowa Young Writers Studio and recognized by the Alliance for Young Artists and Writers. She works across mediums of film photography, writing, and cinema, and is preparing her forthcoming poetry chapbook.