Word festival writing workshops are open to participants of various skill levels and are taught by celebrated writers in a range of genres. With the exception of youth events, workshops are either two or three hours long and require registration and payment in advance. Payment is non-refundable. Workshop fees are kept low with grants from the Stephen and Tabitha King Foundation, the Anahata Foundation, the Lojo Foundation, and the Maine Arts Commission, an independent state agency supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as other generous donors.
For more information, click on the workshop title
Back by popular demand! This workshop will meet Saturday from 9 am to noon, take a one-hour break, then reconvene for song-finishing from 1 to 4 pm. George Emlen and Noel Paul Stookey (best known as “Paul” of the multi-platinum-selling group Peter, Paul & Mary) will offer songwriting techniques in a group setting to aspiring songwriters of all levels and genres. If you only have a melody, we'll help you find a lyric. If you only have a lyric, we'll help you find a melody. Class size is limited, so sign up early.
It is difficult to talk about grief, and it can even be more difficult to write through grief. Participants, led by poet Maya Williams, will examine how grief is related to mental health, and how poems might be written and revised during hard times. Limited enrollment
What happens when we allow the natural world to tell its own story, the place itself to speak? Led by Samaa Abdurraqib and Katherine Hagopian Berry, this workshop encourages participants to explore writing with (not just about) nature. Participants will be led through a series of interactive prompts that allow them to explore different natural guises. Limited enrollment
We know from the poets that memory is often attached to singular artifacts, emblems, or events imbued with significant feeling and meaning and self-knowledge. How can we prompt these recollections, and compose the song lines that cohere around them? Led by Penobscot Press columnist Todd R. Nelson, participants will consider the inspiring sounds, objects, and places we’ve stored away, the texts and techniques, the words and phrases, for making them vivid and enduring. Limited enrollment
How do novice creators learn the skills they need to master their craft and navigate the business? They have to show up. Led by author Megan E. Freeman, this workshop will demonstrate how the practice of showing up can advance the professional trajectory of any ambitious creator. Participants will engage in real-time SMART goal-setting and action-planning, and will leave with actionable strategies that can be employed immediately. Limited enrollment
Our brains think – and we read -- in mental images rather than in abstractions. Images function on two levels at once: as real sensory things in the world, and as paths into a story’s, and your reader’s, emotional core. Led by Kate Moses, this workshop will illuminate how images work and how to use them in your own writing, whatever your genre. Limited enrollment