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The Muse at Saranac
Every September since 1990, 45 to 50 high school students, most from Northern New York, have converged on Canaras Conference Center for the St. Lawrence University Young Writers Conference. In groups of around eight, they spend a long weekend working intensively on their writing with professionals such as Native American poet and University award recipient Maurice Kenny, novelist and short-story writer Liz Inness-Brown '76, and St. Lawrence writing faculty Natalia Singer, Albert Glover and Bob Cowser. High school English teachers from the region also attend, helping chaperone as well as discussing their own writing and the teaching of writing.
"We do this to give high school students a chance to celebrate writing, to meet fellow writers and to learn about St. Lawrence's writing offerings," says conference co-director and Assistant Director of Admissions Beth Bullock Larrabee '97, who was a student participant in the first three conferences. "I believe the conferences were integral in developing my ability to use language effectively," she adds.
That sentiment is echoed by many conference "alumni," a number of whom have subsequently enrolled at St. Lawrence. "The conference opened my eyes to a different way of learning," says Amy Frey '04, Malone, N.Y. "The creative environment was much more accepting and passionate than in any high school English class. Canaras provided an amazing backdrop where my creative juices could freely flow away from the buzz of the real world." -NSB