Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox. Star Tribune file photo by Chris Welsch.

The fourth annual Bemidji Library Book Festival will draw writers from all over the state to teach and read and sign books. Paid for with money from the state Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund (commonly known as the Legacy Fund), the festival is free and open to all, though some sessions require preregistration.

Speakers over the week-long festival include children's writers Alison McGhee, Lise Lunge-Larsen, John Coy and David LaRochelle; poet Joyce Sutphen; mystery writers Chuck Logan, William Kent Krueger and Brian Freeman; and authors Brenda Child, Anton Treuer, and Will Weaver.

The festival opens at 10:30 a.m. Monday, June 17, with Alison McGhee speaking at the library, and will close at 5:30 p.m. Saturday, June 22, with a reading by State Poet Laureate Joyce Sutphen at the Headwaters School of Music and the Arts.

Call 218-751-3963 to register, or visit the Kitchigami Regional Library System website for more information and for a full schedule.