September 14-16, 2012

Mark your calendars and stay tuned for more news and details in the coming months.

WordFest pictures are here!

On Flickr: Browse a selection of photos from the weekend’s daytime events. All photos courtesy of Sarah Edwards.

On Pictage: View and purchase photos from our evening events. (Please note: you must create a free account to access images.) Courtesy of John Seakwood Photography.

On Rural Intelligence: Party pics from Saturday’s cocktail hour in the Stables.

Enjoy! And thanks so much again to all who took part.

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Looking for book recommendations? Our Writers in Wartime panelists have provided excellent lists of war-themed literature.

Gearing up for next year? Stay tuned! Berkshire WordFest 2011 dates will be announced soon. Bookmark this site and check back for news & updates.

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Check out these recommendations, generously provided by last weekend’s Writers in Wartime panelists.

From Peabody and Emmy Award-winning journalist John Hockenberry:

• Sebastian Junger, War
• Norman Mailer, The Naked and the Dead
• Ernest Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls
• Michael Herr, Dispatches
• Neil Sheehan, A Bright Shining Lie
• Graham Greene, The Quiet American
• Philipp Blom, The Vertigo Years
• Barbara Tuchman, The Guns of August
• Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front
• Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace
• George Packer, Assassin’s Gate
• Dexter Filkins, The Forever War
• Tim O’Brien, Going After Cacciato
• Michael Gordon, Cobra II
• Thomas Ricks, Fiasco
• Evan Wright, Generation Kill
• Anthony Swofford, Jarhead
• Walt Whitman
• Wilfred Owen
• Tony Judt, Postwar
• Evelyn Waugh, The Sword of Honour Trilogy
• Andrew Bacevich, The New American Military
• Colby Buzzell, My War
• Matt Gallagher, Kaboom: embracing the suck in a savage little war
• Anthony Shadid, Night Draws Near
• Rick Atkinson, An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa 1942-1943
• Craig Mullaney, The Unforgiving Minute

From West Point literature professor Elizabeth Samet:

• U. S. Grant, Personal Memoirs
• Tobias Wolff, In Pharaoh’s Army
• Edmund Blunden, Undertones of War
• Evelyn Waugh, Sword of Honour
• A film: Life and Nothing But, directed by Bertrand Tavernier

From novelist Tatjana Soli:

• Tim O’Brien: The Things They Carried; Going After Cacciato; In the Lake of the Woods
• Michael Herr, Dispatches
• Duong Van Mai Elliott, The Sacred Willow
• Perry Deane Young, Two of the Missing

Moderator Frank Delaney read from and recommended Edith Wharton’s own fine collection of war reporting, Fighting France: From Dunkerque To Belport (1915).

To which we at WordFest add the works of each of our wartime panelists: Hockenberry’s Moving Violations; Samet’s Soldier’s Heart; Soli’s The Lotus Eaters; and Delaney’s own lyrical series, which explores the sweep of Irish history: Ireland, Tipperary, Shannon and, most recently, Venetia Kelly’s Traveling Show.

Many thanks to all who took part! For thoughtful coverage of this panel and other events, read Kate Abbott’s reflections in Thursday’s Berkshires Week.

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UPDATE, July 28: Get a flavor of the festival! Check out our Saturday cocktail hour “party pics,” now up at Rural Intelligence.

Berkshire WordFest came to a dreamy close on Sunday. Susan Orlean spoke in the Glen, framed by masses of rue and cleome and nicotiana and the small, darting figure of her son. She described how and why her famously offbeat subjects come to her.

“My subjects are stories and conduits,” she said (or words to that effect). She’s interested in the peculiar, the surprising, the absurd—not as ends to themselves, but as routes into larger truths about the human condition. What is the nature of passion and obsession? Why are human beings compelled to collect things? How do we make connections and forge community?

She was thoughtful, vivid, articulate and extremely funny: all the pleasures of a Susan Orlean story, plus the warmth and charm of the writer herself.

Our popular Poetry on the Terrace series provided the close-out: Hannah Fries, poetry editor of Orion, and Tess Taylor, the current Amy Clampitt Resident in Lenox, read from their work. Fries drew from the material of myth, Taylor from the earth and the person of her grandmother. Rain fell softly on the Terrace awning and mist drifted through the garden.

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A few dispatches from WordFest:

• Declaring the festival a “huge success,” Berkshire Living’s Lesley Ann Beck offers her lovely “top ten list of moments” from the weekend.
• WGBH’s Daily Dish writer Cathy Huyghe dishes on Ruth Reichl’s talk of craft and “food-first” experience of the world.
• Susan Orlean tweets on The Mount: Wow — Edith Wharton’s house, The Mount, is extraordinary. Worth a trip to Lenox MA just to see it…
• Martha McPhee in a similar vein: I loved being at Wharton’s house and look forward to more. Rainy though gorgeous.
• And Ruth Reichl: The Mount this morning; so beautiful, even in steamy weather. Thoughtful audience. Amanda Hesser wandering gardens with her adorable twins.

The Mount is deeply grateful to all twenty-nine of this year’s smart, generous and thought-provoking speakers, plus our interviewers and intoducers extraordinaire! And thank you, so much, to all who came and took part. Photos and videos from the weekend to come.

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Check back soon for information on next year’s festival! Dates to be announced shortly.

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Yesterday was a delight from start to finish! Highlights from one attendee, Lesley Ann Beck of Berkshire Living, here, and photos and videos to come.

At last night’s dinner, Garrison Keillor, our Henry James awardee, gave a moving speech in which he passed along these simple yet profound truths to the writers and would-be writers in attendance:

1. Don’t write for the ghosts of your past. Write for your reader.
2. Everyone has a secret heart and secret life. Even your mother. Write yours, and don’t be too delicate about it.
3. Write with your whole heart. Your readers deserve this; you owe it to them.

Many of us listening, writers or not, felt we’d stumbled into the secret fellowship of those who live by and for words, and welcomed as friend and kin. There was magic in the air.

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Festivities continue and wrap-up today with more lively literary talk:

• Elinor Lipman (The Family Man, My Latest Grievance) reads from her work and talks, salon-style, with book lovers on The Mount’s Terrace at 8:30. Breakfast included.
• Judith Thurman, Laura Miller and Katie Roiphe talk about rule-breaking literary women they love at 10:30.
• Dani Shapiro (Devotion) is in conversation with Susan Arbetter at 11 in the bewitching sylvan setting of The Mount’s glen.
• Susan Orlean (The Orchid Thief) is in conversation with Susan Arbetter at 2.
• Poetry readings on the Terrace at 12:30 and 3:30.

See you there!

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UPDATE, 5:30 p.m.: Catch Lesley Ann Beck’s live coverage of WordFest! It’s been a wonderful day! Next up: Cocktails in the historic Stables.

We had a terrific start to WordFest 2010 last night, with Francine Prose’s provocative and stylish talk, Ten Ways of Looking at Edith Wharton. In it, Prose considers the complexities, foibles, quirks (such as Wharton’s childhood penchant for “make up,” a game that involved embellishing aloud the contents of books in rapid-fire, almost incantory fashion) and, yes, undeniable brilliance of the multi-faceted author/gardener/designer/artful liver of life. Hometown hero Louisa Gilder gave a sparkling, heartfelt introduction of Prose. Thanks to all!

Much more ahead today and tomorrow! Some tickets are available at the door—please join us for these and other highlights:

• Breakfast with Elizabeth Brundage (just a couple of hours from now!)
• In-depth interviews with foodie Ruth Reichl, virtuosic fiction writer Jim Shepard and humorist (of Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me! fame) Roy Blount Jr.
• Lively, thoughtful panel discussions on Old Money, New Money and Writers in Wartime
• Special booksigning with tonight’s keynote speaker, Garrison Keillor, at 1 p.m. and many other booksignings throughout the day
• Poetry on the Terrace
• Cocktails in the historic Stables with festival authors—mix and mingle with the literati in a casual, rustic setting

See you at the ’Fest!

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Berkshire WordFest kicks off TONIGHT! 

• Join us at 6 p.m. for a fantastic opening talk with one of the most distinguished women in American letters, Francine Prose. Party on the Terrace follows. $50. Tickets still available! Call 413-551-5113 to purchase.
• Are you a fiction lover? A memoir junkie? A New Yorker zealot? Curious about what makes writers write (and tick)? Get your tickets for Jim Shepard, Dani Shapiro, Susan Orlean and others, each individually in conversation with leading area journalists. Get your tickets today: 413-551-5113. $25 or $20 for Mount members. One-hour conversation followed by booksigning.
• Speaking of books: get yours now! The Festival Bookstore is open all day and through the weekend. Or call 413-728-8155 to reserve. We recommend that you purchase books prior to attending events. Great titles for each author appearing at the festival.
• Are you an early bird? Get the (book)worm! Tickets still available for our breakfast events. Have coffee and conversation with Elizabeth Brundage (Saturday) or Elinor Lipman (Sunday) in the morning serenity of The Mount’s beautiful Terrace. You’ll have a chance to mingle with the authors, ask questions and hear readings from works-in-progress or new releases. Not to be missed for fiction fans!
• It’s going to be a literary feast-ival! Don’t just take it from us; check out this preview in Berkshire Living. See you there!

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Special booksigning added to Saturday line-up! Read news release.

Garrison Keillor will be signing books at Berkshire WordFest from 1 to 2 p.m. on Saturday, July 24. This special addition to the festival line-up allows daytime festival participants to meet the Prairie Home Companion creator and get their books signed by a masterful storyteller, on and off the page. Two recent Keillor titles are available for purchase in the Festival Bookstore: Pilgrims: A Wobegon Romance and 77 Love Sonnets, an anthology of original poems. The bookstore is open now through the weekend, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. today and tomorrow; 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Call to reserve your copies: 413-728-8155.

The booksigning takes place in Teddy Wharton’s Den. The signing event is free with the purchase of a $10 Grounds Pass or $16 General Admission to The Mount. Both types of admission passes give you access to The Festival’s free events, including the full array of booksignings, poetry readings on the Terrace and a host of wordgames. Bookstore access is included in both passes.

Garrison Keillor is the recipient of The Mount’s 2010 Henry James Award. He will be honored at our Festival Fundraiser dinner on Saturday, July 24, from 7:30 to 10:30 p.m. A few tickets are still available! Evening includes an intimate dinner at Seven Hills with Keillor and other festival authors, and a talk by Keillor as you’ve never heard him before: a voice with a face, a master broadcaster unspooling his tales from just across the room.

COUNTDOWN TO WORDFEST! First Annual Literary Festival launches tomorrow, Friday, July 23. Read about it in today’s Berkshires Week. Tickets still available but going fast! Call 413-551-5113.

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Just released: the book trailer for Elizabeth Brundage’s newest thriller, A Stranger Like You, due out next month. Watch it! Better yet, join Brundage for breakfast and hear her read from the book on Saturday, July 24 at 8:30 a.m. Details here.

“Am I crossing the line?” Thoughtful New York Times Op-Ed by Dani Shapiro on Larry Rivers and her own experiences defining the boundary between life and art, parental responsibility and artistic license. Hear Shapiro live on Sunday, July 25 at 11 a.m. in conversation with Susan Arbetter. Details here.

Keep pace with Susan Orlean on Free Range, her New Yorker blog, and count the days till July 25, when she’s in conversation with Susan Arbetter at WordFest (2 p.m.)! Details here.

Read the July issue of the Sandisfield Times! Edited by none other than Simon Winchester of bucolic Sandisfield, MA (pop. 824, or thereabouts). Hear him at WordFest on July 24 at 10:30 a.m. Details here.

Not new, but certainly noteworthy: If you missed Elinor Lipman’s Modern Love piece in the New York Times a few months ago, act now to correct the oversight! Read “Sweetest at the End.” And chat with Lipman over breakfast on July 25 at 8:30 a.m. Details here.

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Tonight is 3rd Thursday, and we’ll be there! Berkshire WordFest has a table at Pittsfield’s fabulous, freewheelin’ street fair, celebrated each month, May through October. You can find us at Dunham Mall, just off North Street (see map). Stop by and say hello!

The party gets started at 5 p.m. and keeps kicking till 8 p.m. (and beyond). Enjoy tons of live music, art openings, sweet treats, fine food, and silly fun (like a beach on North Street!). Preview the hottest happenings and head to Pittsfield tonight.

In the News

Thanks to Kelly Bevan and The Advocate for a nice feature on WordFest, including interviews with Elizabeth Brundage and Jim Shepard.

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