BLUE HILL – A celebration of the written word is set to mark its third year in Blue Hill.

The Word. Blue Hill Literary Arts Festival is taking place October 24-27 in venues around Blue Hill. There will be speakers and panels and workshops galore, all dedicated to the joy of words. There will also be a number of other events – poetry crawls and art installations and community dinners and more.

Every bit of it dedicated to a celebration of all things literary.

The event has seen a number of acclaimed authors and literary types come through over the past two years, but this year’s festival looks to be bigger than ever, with notables from all walks of writing life participating over the three days of Word.

Here’s a quick look at some of what we’re talking about:

There will be a number of conversations featuring literary types. Journalist Dave Cullen and local student organizer Abigail Jakub will be interviewed by Brook Ewing Minner. Novelists Joe Hill and Elizabeth Hand will chat, as will New Yorker TV critic Emily Nussbaum and Blue Hill Books owner Samantha Haskell. In addition, there will be a panel on ethics in memoir courtesy of Maine Writers and Publishers Association, featuring Gibson Fay-Le Blanc, Elizabeth Garber, Linda Buckmaster and Jaed Coffin.

The New York Times children’s books editor Maria Russo will give a talk on “How to Raise a Reader”

As for workshops, well … wow. Music legend Noel Paul Stookey will offer one in songwriting and Richard Blanco – Obama inaugural poet - will offer one in poetry. Cynthia Thayer has a workshop on helping writers get unstuck, Elizabeth Minkel offers up something about writing fan fiction and Katherine Koch takes on memoir.

There are some all-ages workshops as well. Mia Bogyo will teach some bookmaking fundamentals, while Charlotte Agell (Catch an Idea) and Ellen Booraem (Lightning Round for Writers Young and Old) lead workshops that offer different forms of writing guidance.

The Poetry Crawl will feature former Maine Poet Laureate Betsy Sholl and fellow poets Sonja Johanson, Kifah Abdullah, Mark Statman, Marie Epply and Elizabeth Garber.

Plus, we have Word.Art, the annual show of word-related art at Winings Gallery. This year, the show features Mark Statman, Katherine Koch, Katy Helman, Kristy Cunnane and Buzz Masters.

All that, plus the festival will feature the debut of a new collaborative words-and-music performance piece courtesy of Paul Sullivan and the aforementioned Richard Blanco.

Sounds like a lot, doesn’t it? That’s because it is; it’s an incredible amount of literary excitement to be packed into just three days, but there are a lot of people who work incredibly hard to make sure that it all comes to fruition.