BLUE HILL — Word, the annual Blue Hill literary arts festival scheduled for Oct. 19-22, will offer six craft workshops for writers of all levels in a variety of genres.

The in-person workshops will convene in a variety of venues in Blue Hill village. Costs range from $35 to $50. Workshop descriptions and registration links are available at http://www.wordfestival.org.

The festival also will feature evening conversations with novelist Jennifer Egan and New York Times critic A.O. Scott, as well as a performance of T.S. Eliot’s “Four Quartets,” poetry readings, Word.Art, children’s programming and a panel discussion on podcast writing.
Workshops are as follows:

Saturday, Oct. 21
9-11 am
A Window Into Memory–a generative memoir workshop with Meg Weston
Meg Weston, author of the memoir-in-verse Letters from the White Queen and the recently retired president of Maine Media Workshops +College, will use the Amherst Artists & Writers (AWA) method of facilitating a safe window to get past our inner (and outer) critics so we can write.

10 am – noon
Happy Poems! A generative poetry workshop with Chen Chen
Can happy poems be as good as the poems that wreck us? Experiment with writing about/from/through happiness, joy, and pleasure. Chen Chen’s second book, Your Emergency Contact Has Experienced an Emergency (BOA Editions), was a best book of 2022 according to The Boston Globe, Electric Lit, NPR, and others. It was also named a 2023 Notable Book by the American Library Association.

1-4 pm
Introduction to Screenwriting with Jim Picariello
Jim Picariello discusses what makes screenwriting so different from other types of narrative prose, and introduces general formatting standards of film and TV screenplays. A Brooksville resident, Picariello is an award-winning screenwriter and film-maker, working in both short and feature-length films.

Sunday, Oct. 22

9 am – 4 pm
Songcrafting with Noel Paul Stookey and George Emlen
Returning to Word by popular demand, this workshop offers songwriting techniques in a group setting to aspiring songwriters of all levels and genres. Best known as “Paul” of the multi-platinum-selling group Peter, Paul & Mary, Blue Hill resident Noel Paul Stookey has been a singer and songwriter since the 1960s. George Emlen of Blue Hill is a longtime conductor, composer, arranger, songleader and music educator in Maine and Massachusetts.

12:30-2:30 pm
Bookmaking with Kristy Cunnane
Explore the exciting one-page book and create your own “zine” (small book) with Orland artist Kristy Cunnane, who has been making artists’ books for more than 20 years.

12:30-2:30 pm
Freeing Yourself From Writer’s Block with Dan Kois $35
Exercises geared to all levels, from experienced writers to those who have a story to tell and don’t know where to start. Dan Kois is a longtime writer, editor, and podcaster at Slate. He’s the author of two novels, Vintage Contemporaries and the forthcoming Hampton Heights.

More information: http://www.wordfestival.org or 207-374-5632.