At its Feb. 7 meeting in New York, the Kenyon Review Board of Trustees approved a proposal from Kenyon College to incorporate management of the Kenyon Institute and its programs into Kenyon Review operations. Transferring the Institute, a program of Kenyon College, to the Review will expand the Review’s summer workshops to include the Institute’s profession-based writing programs in biomedical research, playwriting and writing in new media for clergy, as well as the discussion-based Summer Seminar, a great books course. The unification will create one of the largest and most diverse summer writing programs for adults and high school students in the country.
“The Kenyon Review’s long-range aspirations include development of programs that would promote writing across a broad range of genres and purposes, so the opportunity to bring on the well-established Kenyon Institute program was a perfect opportunity for us,” said David Lynn ’76 P’14, editor of the Kenyon Review.
Now entering its fifth summer, the Institute was established by the Kenyon College Board of Trustees as part of a strategic plan to build summer activity on the Kenyon campus. Since its first summer in 2013, the Institute has tripled in attendance and revenues, now serving more than 400 writers and generating over $600,000 in annual revenues. In October, Sarah Kahrl, founding director of the Institute, was appointed executive director of the Five Colleges of Ohio, Inc., prompting an assessment by the College of the Institute’s future.
The Kenyon Review Young Writers Workshop, started in 1990, draws nearly 200 high school juniors and seniors each year to Kenyon’s campus. The popular Writers Workshops, also held in the summer, offer adult writers weeklong courses in fiction, literary nonfiction, poetry, nature writing and translation.
“Kenyon is known worldwide for its excellence in writing and literature thanks in large part to the Kenyon Review’s 75 years of literary excellence,” President Sean Decatur said. “Both the Review and the Institute have developed remarkable partnerships with leading authors and institutions that enrich the life of the College and extend its impact to high school students and adult audiences.”
The Review and the Institute are collaborating on a transition during summer 2017. A temporary director reporting to the Review’s Director of Programs Anna Duke Reach P ’08, ’11 will oversee Institute programs as Kahrl completes her tenure in May; the Review will initiate a search for a permanent director in fall 2017.
For more information about Kenyon Review programs, including the Young Writers Workshop, visit kenyonreview.org. For more information about Kenyon Institute programs, visit kenyoninstitute.org.