SUNHOUSE is the mentorship we wished we had. ✺

SUNHOUSE is the mentorship we wished we had. ✺

SUNHOUSE is the mentorship we wished we had. ✺

SUNHOUSE is the mentorship we wished we had. ✺

As high school freshmen who had fallen in love with poetry and short stories, it slowly became clear that the pathways to learning creative writing were limited. The corners of the internet we found ourselves scrounging through were cost-free, but they were also the only available, convenient spaces we could find that offered any helpful insight. There were interviews with authors available to read online, such as those by Electric Literature or The Shore, or Twitter threads of various poets answering: “what are your favorite ways for approaching revision?”. 


And so we read, wrote, and revised, revised, revised. 


Still, without much formal experience in the deep end of creative writing, we felt mystified by the expansive world of language we had stepped into. Line breaks, metaphor, and form—if there wasn’t a definitive “good” or “bad” to writing, then how could we learn how to develop our own voices? 

Later, even though we eventually gained the opportunity to attend sought-after writing programs, one thing remained unchanged about the community we orbited around. At a secondary school level, creative writing resources remain far and few between, and for the ones that do exist, the barriers of entry are often too daunting to fully reach young writers—and are even more inaccessible for BIPOC and low income creatives. 


We looked toward our peers, too, and the young writers we remain in community with: those without creative writing resources in their public schools, those who have been accepted to opportunities but could not afford the tuition in order to pursue them, those who were unable to leave home for a summer because of family commitments. We wanted to create creative writing education that was boundless and flexible, true to the core values of SUNHOUSE.


In the founding of the SUNHOUSE Summer Writing Mentorship, we created a space committed to improving accessibility and fostering sincere community relationships. With customized curricula written by our mentors and our completely need-blind, virtual process, SUNHOUSE is a program designed to be just as unique as each of its mentees.

SUNHOUSE is the mentorship we wished we had. ✺

As high school freshmen who had fallen in love with poetry and short stories, it slowly became clear that the pathways to learning creative writing were limited. The corners of the internet we found ourselves scrounging through were cost-free, but they were also the only available, convenient spaces we could find that offered any helpful insight. There were interviews with authors available to read online, such as those by Electric Literature or The Shore, or Twitter threads of various poets answering: “what are your favorite ways for approaching revision?”. 


And so we read, wrote, and revised, revised, revised. 


Still, without much formal experience in the deep end of creative writing, we felt mystified by the expansive world of language we had stepped into. Line breaks, metaphor, and form—if there wasn’t a definitive “good” or “bad” to writing, then how could we learn how to develop our own voices? 

Later, even though we eventually gained the opportunity to attend sought-after writing programs, one thing remained unchanged about the community we orbited around. At a secondary school level, creative writing resources remain far and few between, and for the ones that do exist, the barriers of entry are often too daunting to fully reach young writers—and are even more inaccessible for BIPOC and low income creatives. 


We looked toward our peers, too, and the young writers we remain in community with: those without creative writing resources in their public schools, those who have been accepted to opportunities but could not afford the tuition in order to pursue them, those who were unable to leave home for a summer because of family commitments. We wanted to create creative writing education that was boundless and flexible, true to the core values of SUNHOUSE.


In the founding of the SUNHOUSE Summer Writing Mentorship, we created a space committed to improving accessibility and fostering sincere community relationships. With customized curricula written by our mentors and our completely need-blind, virtual process, SUNHOUSE is a program designed to be just as unique as each of its mentees.

Our Journey ✺

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. One of our key initiatives was our Microgrant for BIPOC and/or LGBTQ+ writers, offering $100 each to our winners Exodus Oktavia Brownlow and Gaia Rajan to use towards tackling submission fees and more. Another initiative was our 24-hour response event, wherein we aimed to prioritize the marginalized voices in our submission queue.


Our collection of interviews, too, expanded. 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 second consecutive year, SUNHOUSE has truly become the mentorship we wished we had as young writers. 

Our Journey ✺

Financial Aid Policy ✺

Financial Aid Policy ✺

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. 

Our Team ✺

Ruoyu Wang

Ruoyu Wang

Ruoyu Wang

Program Director

Ruoyu Wang (they/他) is a writer from Seattle. A YoungArts winner in Poetry and a Best Small Fictions nominee, their work appears in Sine Theta Magazine, COUNTERCLOCK, Capilano Review, and The Shore, among others. Currently, they are an Executive Editor at The Dawn Review and love vintage postcards.

Ivi Hua

Ivi Hua

Ivi Hua

Assistant Director

Ivi Hua is an Asian-American writer, dreamer, & poet. A Pushcart Prize & Best of the Net nominee, she is the author of Body, Dissected (kith books, 2024) and cofounder of Young Poets Workshops. Ivi believes in the initiation of change through language, & you can find her @livia.writes.stories on Instagram.

Abigail Chang

Abigail Chang

Abigail Chang

Creative Director

Abigail Chang is a designer and writer from Taipei, Taiwan. An incoming undergraduate student at Northwestern University, she is the Creative Director of the SUNHOUSE organization, as well as the EIC of SUNHOUSE Literary. Her work appears in Salamander, Los Angeles Review, Diode, Redivider, Puerto del Sol, The Normal School, and elsewhere. She can be found at abigailchang.space.

Our Team✺

Colophon ✺

Colophon ✺

Colophon ✺

Colophon ✺

Colophon ✺

Brand & website design/development by Abigail Chang

Typeset in Overused Grotesk and Libre Caslon Text

With thanks to Framer & tooooools.app