The James Baker Hall Foundation is proud to sponsor the Young Writers Conference. Created by Christopher McCurry and developed in 2022 by the Literary Arts students at SCAPA Lafayette, the Young Writers Conference hosts young writers from around the Bluegrass. The conference is completely student run and led with readings, panels, workshops by and for student writers. The Young Writers Conference will convene March 28 at the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning and coincides with several Youth Writing Contests offered by the Carnegie Center.
The Young Writers Conference is free and open to the public and offers young writers between the ages of 12 and 18 the opportunity to learn from and network with one another. The schedule consists of morning and afternoon panel sessions; a reading from the SCAPA Literary Arts junior class; and an adult and youth Keynote reader, selected by the co-directors of the conference. The adult keynote speaker in 2026 will be Kathleen Driskell, Kentucky’s current Poet Laureate.
