The conference gives students the opportunity to work with C-SC faculty and students on a variety of approaches to writing, such as creative writing, non-fiction writing, music and playwriting, among others. Students from a variety of local high schools attend the conference.

Bailey Williams ’19 will be the keynote speaker. Her poetry collection “Utter & Unutterable” was published in 2019. Williams now is an administrative assistant at the Missouri School for the Blind in St. Louis.

Other participating authors will be:

• Mary Mock Harroun `66, who has self-published three books on elder care — “The Grow Program: Getting Residents Out of Wheelchairs,” “Advising Parents on Elder Care” and “The Grow Program: For Home Care Exercises.” Harroun now lives in Mundelein, Ill.
• Kiarra Lynn Smith `13, who has published five books — “Collective Face: A Series of Quatrains on Community Building,” “Let’s Speak! Kiswahili: 3 Short Stories Teaching Basic Kiswahili Words,” “The Book Cart Dance-Off: A Library Tale,” “Vibration: A Collection of Poetry, Essays and Art,” and “The Ballad of the Bleached Out Face.” Smith now works for EyeSeeMe Books in St. Louis.
• Kyle Darnell ‘10, who has published three books — “Evansville Monsters,” “Weird Tales of Goblins” and “Ghouls and Ghosts.” Darnell lives in Evansville, Ind., teaches at the University of Evansville and is a print/ceramic/fiber artist.

The conference gave students the opportunity to work with C-SC faculty and students on a variety of approaches to writing, including creative writing, poetry, self-reflection, theatre, music technology and writing for literary publication, showcasing C-SC’s literary magazine, Harmony.

Tim Ayers, the author of several books, including “Brain Byters: A Nanobot Kids Adventure” and “Five Little Christmas Dramas for Today’s Kids,” gave the keynote speech. Students then moved on to hands-on writing sessions on a variety of different writing topics and rhetorical approaches.

Maple was honored for his description of surviving an automobile crash in the Character Building and Fanfiction category. Rieffer was recognized for her poem about an oil painting called “Summer Lake” by Richard Dutton in the Inspired by Art: Writing in Response to Artistic Creations category.

Other winners at this year’s conference were:

Drawing From Experience: Crafting a Graphic Memoir: Cierra Courtois, Quincy Notre Dame and Noah Crenshaw, Canton

Form and Function: Analyzing and Crafting Poetry: Isabella Brinkman, Quincy Notre Dame

Character Building and Fanfiction: Erieland M. Cady, Canton

Inspired by Art: Writing in Response to Artistic Creations: Jason Crane, Griggsville-Perry (Ill.)

The conference was founded by Professor Emeritus Carolyn Kane, who still funds it each year.

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