THIS PAGE IS BEING EDITED thanks for your patience. brb.
PAUL SMITH'S COLLEGE
Kettle Pond remains grateful to call Paul Smith’s College home in 2026. Paul Smith's campus is located within the Adirondack Park in Upstate New York and the conference is a few hours' drive from most locations in the northeastern United States (as well as much of southern Ontario & Québec).
Kettle Pond is also accessible by air, bus, and train. Conference staff will be available to pickup (and return) attending writers to all major transit points listed below on June 20 & 27th (check-in & departure dates* for 2026).
BY TRAIN to PLATTSBURGH, NY (PLB)
Train service between Plattsburgh & NYC Penn Station is available once daily via Amtrak, including stops along the route in the Hudson Valley and Albany, NY (or to/from Montréal, CAN for writers originating in/headed toward points north). Resident Writers travelling to Kettle Pond from other locations are advised to check the Amtrak website directly for connections to the Adirondack Line, and to plan their journeys accordingly.
All writers arriving by train in Plattsburgh will be met by Kettle Pond staff who will transport them and their belongings to campus. assist with checking into conference housing, and ensure they are oriented and/or transported to evening events on Saturday, June 20.
BY BUS to PAUL SMITHS, NY
Bus service directly to Paul Smith's College is available daily via Adirondack Trailways.
Kettle Pond staff will be ready to receive all writers arriving by bus on campus, as well as assist with transporting them and their belongings to conference housing, and ensure they are oriented and/or transported to evening events on Saturday, June 20.
BY AIR to PLATTSBURGH (PBG) & SARANAC LAKE (SLK)
Writers arriving by air** to either Adirondack Regional Airport (SLK) in Saranac Lake, NY or Plattsburgh International Airport (PBG) in Plattsburgh, NY will be met by conference staff at their destination airport and transported along with their belongings directly to conference housing on campus.
While many more options for commercial flights to greater region (Albany, Burlington, etc) are available, Kettle Pond is unable to serve airports other than those listed above. Writers who do not wish to rent a car or transfer to train or bus service from their point of arrival are advised to either book flights into one of the airports listed above, or to chose one of the other travel options listed on this page.
BY CAR***
For many writers, the most direct means of travel to the conference will be by car. The campus is located inside the Adirondack Park in upstate New York (~30 minutes from Lake Placid, ~15 minutes from Saranac Lake) and is within several hours drive of most locations in the northeastern United States (as well as major cities in Ontario & Quebec).
(~20 miles from Lake Placid, ~13 miles from Saranac Lake)
* Writers planning to arrive outside of official open and close dates of conference week should contact Kettle Pond staff directly for additional information. We will highly discourage this, if not outright refuse it. That said, even when necessary & totally understandable on the writer's part, we have a very limited staff and can rarely afford to send them on shuttle runs outside of check-in and departure hours. When any of the scheduled transit detailed above has schedule changes, believe us, we won't lose you, we're already adapting and will happily bring you to campus; if it is your advance plan we're being queried about adapting to... well, trust us, we do get it, but assume finding your own way to campus is the difficult, expensive, and still best-case scenario; revocation of admission isn't off the table if you make this a whole thing for us. In essence: sincerely, feel free to ask; but first ask yourself: why?
*Don't! plan to arrive late or leave early without contacting staff.
**AIR!! REAL ID
***CARPOOLING?***
Writers who wish to carpool to campus will be offered the opportunity to note this in their registration forms upon confirming attendance to the conference (following formal offers of admission). Kettle Pond staff will make every effort to connect writers interested in sharing rides to campus. We have found this typically works out quite well, though it is worth emphasizing the conference merely facilitates these connections; Kettle Pond does not currently have the resources or staffing to provide transportation to writers arriving outside of the immediate area (read: to locations other than those listed below for air, bus & train travel).
OTHER TRAVEL QUESTIONS?
You got more Q's?? Okay, that's cool. Writers with additional travel questions are encouraged to contact conference staff directly with their concerns. We are here to help!