The Fairhope Center for the Writing Arts will be very active in the coming months, with classes that are free to the public and a special art event, all with the help of local authors.

A fiction writing workshop in conjunction with the University of South Alabama Baldwin County in Fairhope will be conducted during June and July. The 12 sessions will be available for anyone interested in learning or honing the craft of working with words.

This program is made possible by grants from the Alabama State Council on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Published authors Joe Formichella (The Wreck of the Twilight Limited, Here’s to You Jackie Robinson: The Legend of the Prichard Mohawks, and the upcoming Murder Creek: The “Unfortunate Incident” of the Death of Annie Jean Barnes) and Suzanne Hudson (In a Temple of Trees and In the Dark of the Moon) will lead the workshops every Tuesday and Thursday from 6 until 7:30 p.m. beginning Tuesday.

Visiting authors, Sonny Brewer (The Poet of Tolstoy Park, A Sound Like Thunder, and the upcoming Cormac: The Tale of a Dog Gone Missing) and writer-in-residence J. Wes Yoder (Carry My Bones) among others, will also participate.

The first session will be held at the Wolff Cottage at 9 N. School St. Subsequent meetings will be held at the Wolff Cottage and/or USA Baldwin, Room 13 (across from old church campus), depending upon the number of participants.

For more information, call (251) 895-5921 or (251) 610-0912.

The Center is also inviting local published authors to participate in a words-to-art project in conjunction with the Eastern Shore Art Center’s “Very Special Art” exhibit.

Nancy Raia worked with the special artists, including local blind artist Ricky Trione, to produce pieces currently on display in local store windows. The writers are asked to choose any piece and respond to it in poetry or prose, impressionistically or factually, by June 21, when a reception is to be held at the Eastern Shore Art Center.

Writing participants should have shop owners and/or employees post the author’s name on or near the piece so that other writers will know how many have responded to that particular piece. It is recommended that no more than three or four written responses be done to any one piece.

Responses should be e-mailed to esac@mindspring.com or turned in to Raia at the Eastern Shore Art Center, along with the artist’s name and title of the work. All art pieces, along with the written responses, will be on display later this month.