It’s Here!
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!
Garrison Keillor:
More Breaking News!
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.
Join Us Tonight at
3rd Thursday in Pittsfield
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.
Thanks to Kelly Bevan and The Advocate for a nice feature on WordFest, including interviews with Elizabeth Brundage and Jim Shepard.
Tune in Tomorrow!
UPDATE, July 9: Listen to the segment!
Berkshire WordFest will be on WAMC’s The Roundtable tomorrow at 9:45 a.m. The broadcast will be coming to you live from Tanglewood with all that’s new and noteworthy on the Berkshire cultural scene this summer. Listen in!
Check back tomorrow for a podcast of the program and behind-the-scenes photos.
Catch Roundtable co-host Joe Donahue in person on Saturday, July 24 at The Mount. He’ll be interviewing Ruth Reichl (11 a.m.), Jim Shepard (2 p.m.) and Roy Blount Jr. (4 p.m.). Get your tickets today! Day passes also available.
And stay tuned here for speaker Q&As, coming soon…
It’s the “Summer of the
Written Word”
“This is the summer of the written word at The Mount,” notes Lesley Ann Beck at Berkshire Living.com. She’s right! Here are a few of the ways you can enjoy words, written and otherwise, at The Mount this summer:
- Be part of Berkshire WordFest! Purchase your tickets today.
- Immerse yourself in the lives and times of fascinating figures in our 17th Annual Lecture Series.
- See how Wharton’s words have been adapted to stage and screen in our new exhibit, Dramatic License.
- Come August, be beguiled by Wharton Salon performing Summer, Wharton’s tender coming-of-age story set in the Berkshires.
Beck concludes, “It’s an exceptional lineup of writers and events; Edith Wharton would be proud.” We think so, too!
