By Michael Foster-Sanders/campus editor

Words were exchanged at the annual Wordfest March 23 and 24 at NE Campus.

The event, which is on its third iteration, started as an idea by author Arianne “Tex” Thompson for writers in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex to come together, NE English associate professor Urania Fung said.

“She [Tex] looked around the metroplex and she seen that it was a lot of writer groups and many writer groups don’t know about each other,” Fung said. “So, she thought it would be a good idea for one organization that all the groups know about and can network so they could all know each other and writers could find the best group for them.”

The Writers Organizations ‘Round Dallas, or WORD, was formed to cultivate a more diverse, successful and united North Texas literary community.

The two-day event featured authors, screenplay writers and speakers who held writing workshops and showed historical pieces from past times such as armor from medieval times.

NE English associate professor Rebecca Balcarcel is a member of WORD and an author.

She said the event for the two-day period had over 500 people to attend this year and may end up outgrowing the NSTU building where the event is held annually.

NE Campus is becoming a haven for literary writers with creative writing classes and upcoming continuing education classes where students can take non-credit writing classes as well, Balcarcel said.

She wants people to know that these events are important to up-and-coming writers to learn the tricks of the trade and also learn how to avoid some of the pitfalls that writers go through.

“Writers can network and meet other writers, share advice about publishing [and] how to use social media to promote their work,” she said. “Everybody got something useful from the day.”