Beverly Arts Fest Features New Writers Studio

(Colleen Michaels, artist Erik Lomen, and me in front of Lomen's mural of Gloucester's late poet Vincent Ferrini.)

I'm lucky to live in a town that values art and community. On Saturday, June 19, Arts Fest Beverly takes place on Cabot Street (rain or shine).

This year, Montserrat College of Art is hosting The Writers Studio at 238 Cabot St., a space devoted to the local writing community. Storytelling and kid-focused events happen in the morning, while the afternoon is filled with plays, poetry, and fiction. I'll be there all day, and will read with the poets at 2 p.m. There's also an open mic at the end of the day.

The Writers Studio is the brainchild of poet Colleen Michaels, the new director of Montserrat's Writing Center. Here's an excerpt from Jennifer Jean's interview with Colleen about the studio from Art Throb:

“The Festival is a bridge for me. I want to bring my community life, my Montserrat life and my writing life together. I want folks to know The Writers Studio features the people in your neighborhood. We writers are all meeting in our living rooms, creating, having a good time-why not bring it to the community.” We talked about how this Festival event can be a great way to bring local writers together with student creative writers and those who would like to start writing: “So many North Shore writers are accomplished — are going places — and when you’re around other writers you do more and better work. At least this has been my experience.”

Read the entire interview and get the full schedule of Saturday's Writers Studio events.