The Word literary arts festival in Blue Hill, Maine, will celebrate its tenth anniversary from October 22-25, 2026, with a focus on short stories for the first time. The event will open on the evening of October 23 with a discussion featuring Ben Shattuck and Kelly Link. Shattuck, who won the 2025 Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award for his collection "The History of Sound," will converse with Link, an acclaimed writer known for her fantasy stories and her debut novel, "The Book of Love." The event will take place at 7 p.m. at the Bay School.
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Shattuck also wrote the screenplay for a 2025 film based on his collection’s title story and authored a memoir titled "Six Walks: In the Footsteps of Henry David Thoreau." He co-owns a general store in Dartmouth, Massachusetts, founded in 1793. Kelly Link, a 2018 MacArthur Fellow, has published five story collections, with her most recent being the Kirkus Prize finalist "White Cat, Black Dog." She runs an independent bookstore in Easthampton, Massachusetts.
On Saturday night, October 24, Michelle Young will discuss her acclaimed book "The Art Spy: The Extraordinary Untold Tale of WWII Resistance Hero Rose Valland". This work was named a Best Book of 2025 by several organizations, including the New York Public Library. Young will be in conversation with journalist Alicia Anstead at 7 p.m. at the Blue Hill Congregational Church.
As part of the festival, a variety of workshops will be offered. Topics include historical fiction with Shattuck, fiction with Link, and historical nonfiction with Young. Additional workshops will cover screenwriting, poetry, e-newsletters, blogs, and pitching sessions with literary agent Ann Rittenberg. Early registration at wordfestival.org is recommended due to limited space.
The festival will feature a Poetry Crawl on Saturday afternoon, highlighting current Maine Poet Laureate Dawn Porter alongside other notable poets like Stu Kestenbaum and Maya Stein. A new initiative, In Our Own Words, will invite residents to record their stories, led by Galen Koch of the Maine Sound & Story archive.
Teen workshops will include a session on "How to Be a Dungeon Master" conducted by Dungeons & Dragons experts. For very young children, Chef Afton Cyrus will read "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" and lead a fruit-skewering session, supported by Bar Harbor Bank & Trust.
The Word.Art show will run throughout the festival at the Cynthia Winings Gallery, showcasing artwork by writers and featuring readings by poet Josh Krugman. All author events, excluding workshops, are free and open to the public.
The festival will also hold fundraising events, including a cocktail reception before the opening discussion featuring Shattuck and Link, and a chowder supper before the event with Young. Ticket details can be found at wordfestival.org. The festival’s media partner is WERU-FM, with Blue Hill Community Development serving as a fiscal sponsor. For more information, visit wordfestival.org or call 374-5632.