Celebrate the written word on November 8-9 in the town of Grand Coteau! Sharpen your craft in this 2-day festival with creative writing workshops hosted by published authors. There will also be a community stage for open mic and “Drive-by Poetry”.
At this event, youth give dramatic presentations of festival authors’ writings.
Friday, November 8
6:30-9:00 pm—Reading at The Hive (Grand Coteau) with Featured Authors: A$iahMae, Darrell Bourque, &
Tyler Robert Sheldon. Each reading will be followed by a brief Q&A.
Books will be available for purchase.
Saturday, November 9
Community Workshops with featured authors!
You must pre-register for these writing workshops. Limited seats available. Click on hyperlinked text to be redirected to registration form.
9:30-11am - Workshop 1 with A$iah Mae
Sign up for this creative workshop with talented poet, the Poet Laureate of Savannah, Georgia, A$iah Mae.Participants will be guided through both the histories of poetry and zine making as modes of creative resistance while engaging with a piece of their own writing (if available) and/or creating new writing. The workshop will conclude the makings of your very own zine to take home. Prior zine making is not necessary.
1-2:50pm - Workshop 2 with Darrell Bourque
The workshop will consist of a brief discussion of forms and how to work around them or adapt them to your poems to be influenced by forms but not hemmed in by them. Participants will bring to the workshop 3 titles of songs, 3 sentences/lines from stories or poems, and 3 lines from news articles, newspapers, or broadcasts that have stuck with them in all cases material that is provocative and that they might want to expand onto a poem.
3:00-4:50- Workshop 3 with Tyler Robert Sheldon
This workshop will focus on building understanding of classic creative narrative structure through examination of conflict in literature and comics. We will briefly explore classic and contemporary-classic texts in each of these genres, including Moby Dick, The Fault in Our Stars, Calvin and Hobbes, The Great Gatsby, The Lord of the Rings, and other works. We will unpack how their authors utilize point of view and conflict to lend their work movement, texture, and high narrative stakes.
Also on Saturday, a Community Stage at Thensted Center is open to all writers and performers. Youth Creative Writing Contest winners will read their works and receive awards..
Local students will circulate through Grand Coteau and Sunset performing "Drive By Poetry", dramatic readings of works by the visiting writers."
DRIVE BY POETRY
9:30-11:00am Students perform Drive by Poetry at various locations in Grand Coteau
1:30-12:00pm -Students Meet and Greet with Featured Authors
COMMUNITY STAGE at the Thenstead Center
11:00-11:30am Students perform Drive by Poetry
11:30-12:30- Youth Writing Competition Awards Ceremony & Reading
12:30-1:00 Brief performances by Featured Authors
2:00-3:00-All Writers and Performs are invited to share on the Community Stage
For more information on this event, visit The Festival of Words. Also, follow Festival of Words Cultural Arts Collective on social media for updates.
