Word. Art. is an exhibit of visual art that contains words, letters, or book forms. Artists will include Stu Kestenbaum, Susan Webster, Robert Shetterly, and Josh Krugman. There will be a reading at 6 pm by Josh Krugman.
Free event
Kick off a weekend of literary festivities, meet and mingle with festival authors, and support Word’s future. Join us for wine, beer, and delicious hors d’oeuvres/light supper from our favorite local chefs.
Short stories, in the hands of a master, can be revelatory and joyful, piercing and mysterious. The concentrated power of a great short story is incomparable, serving as inspiration for iconic movies ranging from 2001: A Space Odyssey to Brokeback Mountain. Join us to hear two masters of the form talk about the challenging craft of making a literary impact in a handful of pages.
Free event
Got a story about the Blue Hill area? Let’s preserve it! Word is collaborating with Maine Sound + Story, an effort to preserve the history, memory, and stories of Maine through sound, images, and oral history. Blue Hill Peninsula residents can sign up for 15-20-minute interviews with Galen Koch, an audio producer, educator, and sound artist who co-founded MS+S.
Free event, registration required
If you are a writer or fan of fiction who is interested in scriptwriting, this generative workshop with Elizabeth Searle will give you an introductory overview and some in-class exercises to get you started in writing script scenes. In-class exercises will give students a taste of the exciting and collaborative world of scriptwriting. No experience necessary; open to all who are curious about creating scripts.
Join Chef Afton from The Reader's Kitchen as she reads aloud from The Very Hungry Caterpillar and teaches kids and their caregivers how to make fruit skewers inspired by the story. Ideal for children ages 2 to 5, but all are welcome.
Free event
This two-hour workshop will cover the broad strokes of crafting historical fiction. We'll talk about the role of research, look at short-cuts and tips specific to historical fiction, think about plots and characters set deep in the past, and, finally, spend some time generating writing that could be a seed for a short story or longer work.
Poetry gives us a place to tell the truth, honor where we come from, and imagine something different. In this workshop, we’ll explore how the stories we carry can become poems that move people and create change. Through gentle writing prompts, conversation, and optional sharing, participants will be invited to write from their own experiences, identities, and communities. No poetry experience is needed—just bring humble curiosity for the layers of yourself, your voice, the world around you.
How do you research and write about someone when there is little to no information readily available? Michelle Young, author of The Art Spy: The Extraordinary Untold Tale of WWII Resistance Hero Rose Valland, shares her journey uncovering the vibrant, untold story of her heroine's life partner, Joyce Heer, the unexpected research angles and resources she uses, and how she pulls on insignificant threads that often lead to big discoveries.
In these five exercises, we will be drawing on fairy tales, ghost stories, family stories, and all the things that bring us pleasure when we encounter them in narrative. Bring pen and paper or your laptop, and two first sentences from the work (novels, short stories, nonfiction, essays) of two writers you love.
Back by popular demand!
Are you a writer eager to build impact and audiences in the digital age and curious about emerging options like Substack, blogs, and social media? Join this brisk hands-on workshop with longtime online journalist and podcaster Andy Revkin to explore tools, tactics, and practices that can help anyone make the most of online writing and connectedness, while blunting the downsides of some platforms.
Four experienced DMs will be at the Blue Hill Public Library to share their expertise being Dungeon Masters for the beloved game Dungeons and Dragons. Erich Bensheimer, Nick Berry, Brittany Courtot, and Tim Peper, will teach participants different aspects of DMing and host a brief activity for participants to practice some of the new skills they’ve learned, along with resources available to take home.
Free event, pre-registration required
Word’s popular Poetry Crawl returns! Join us on an easy walk around Blue Hill village to hear a sequence of readings by five remarkable poets at four local venues. Poets include Dawn Potter, Nyamuon “Moon” Nguany Machar, Maya Stein, Gibson Fay-LeBlanc, and Stuart Kestenbaum.
Free event
Enjoy a casual supper of chicken and vegetarian chowder, Tinder Hearth bread, salad, and sweets between the Poetry Crawl finale and the conversation between Michelle Young and Alicia Anstead, courtesy of the Simmering Pot crew.
Rose Valland, curator of the Jeu de Paume art museum in Paris during the WWII German occupation, is credited with infiltrating Nazi leadership to save more than 60,000 artworks stolen from Jewish owners. Last year, award-winning journalist Michelle Young published the definitive account of this unlikely heroine in The Art Spy: The Extraordinary Untold Tale of World War II Resistance Hero Rose Valland.
Free event
The first page is a writer’s best shot at engaging a reader. Literary agent Ann Rittenberg will begin by discussing some of the best first pages in English literature before a close read of first pages from participants’ works in progress. Participants will be asked to read the selected published first pages in advance and to bring their own first pages.
Caroline Bicks, the Stephen E. King Chair in Literature at the University of Maine, became the first scholar granted access to Stephen King’s private archive of manuscript drafts and other materials. Bicks’ book, Monsters in the Archives: My Year of Fear with Stephen King, describes what she learned about the creation of classic works from The Shining to Carrie. She will discuss her findings with Laura Miller, Slate.com books and culture columnist.
Free event
Mingle with fellow festival-goers before the festival finale. Cookies and cider will be served starting at 3pm. Lucy Marcus of Brooksville will read her contest-winning short story at 3:45.
By donation
Monson, Maine, USA is a hybrid dance, poetry, and theater work featuring Gretchen Berg, Teresa Carson, Gwyneth Jones, and Dawn Potter. Anchored by the poem “Monson, Maine, USA” and set to music by Frigg, Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs, and Maria Kalaniemi and Eero Grundström, the performance is at times comic, at times heartrending. It is a portrait of people and landscape, exploring how both change and solidify over time.
Free event
