By Christian Coffman

NATCHEZ — Trinity Episcopal Day School student Camille Taylor will not be roping bulls this week. She will be roping words — lassoing her creativity.

Taylor was selected to attend this week’s McMullan Young Writers Workshop on the Millsaps College campus.

Taylor said the workshop is a chance for creative writers to absorb and harness their craft.

“It’s a hard thing to learn how to lasso in and learn how to craft, to take in what you’re writing,” Taylor said.

Taylor will join 54 other  Mississippi high school students and freshman college students in the workshop.

Student’s will participate in a morning and afternoon writing classes with writing professors each day. Students will also learn about how to become published in journals and magazines.

The senior said she has always had a big imagination, but it was not until eighth grade, after writing an essay for a Daughters of the American Revolution contest, did she learn to like writing.

“Any of my school teachers can tell you that I was always daydreaming,” Taylor said. “I just learned how to channel that into something more creative.”

Taylor said she is looking forward to meeting fiction writer Pam Houston, who is this year’s keynote speaker.

Houston’s stories have been selected for issues of Best American Short Stories, The O. Henry Awards, The 2013 Pushcart Prize and Best American Short Stories of the Century.

Taylor’s mother Courtney said the students in her daughter’s senior class at Trinity like to challenge each other academically.

“They’re encouraged to do these enriching things,” Courtney Taylor said.

Camille Taylor said she is excited about the week and hopes it will be challenging and fun.

“I’ve never participated in anything that was exclusively in writing,” Taylor said. “I hope that the energy will be good and relaxed, and we can all learn.”