Announcing the 2013 Festival Readings!
All readings listed below are free and open to the public.

Patricia McCormick & Emily Danforth
McCormick is the author of five powerful novels with varied subjects, ranging from the psychological suspense of Purple Heart (2009), to teenage substance abuse in My Brother’s Keeper (2006). Joining her will be Danforth, whose debut novel, The Miseducation of Cameron Post(2012), was recently a finalist for the William C. Morris YA debut award. Join us for what is sure to be a powerful reading by these two young adult authors. Saturday, April 13, 11:30 a.m., Downtown Public Library.

The Reading Public A Community Reading
The literary community in Spokane is vibrant, nationally recognized, and growing all the time. In fact, it's growing so quickly that you may have trouble keeping track of who's who. To showcase some of our local talent, this reading will feature three writers living and working in Spokane, with the opportunity for other local writers to take the stage during an open mic.. Saturday, April 13, 12:30 p.m., Red Lion Hotel at the Park, Manito/Audubon Room, Lobby Level.

Jim Lynch & Joe Wilkins 
From urban underbellies to Big Sky dreaming, writers have always sought to capture the true essence of the Northwest. In their writing, both Lynch and Wilkins take us on a journey through the Northwest with humor and heart, through familiar landscapes that local readers will particularly appreciate. Saturday, April 13, 2:00-3:00 p.m., Red Lion Hotel at the Park, Manito/Audubon Room, Lobby Level.

Lidia Yuknavitch
Yuknavitch writes to give voice to the maligned and the silenced. In her writing, she is adept at exploring what it means to be human, drawing on her personal experience as well as creating complex, flawed, and fascinating characters. Saturday, April 13, 3:00-4:00 p.m, Red Lion Hotel at the Park, Manito/Audubon Room, Lobby Level.

Sherril Jaffe & Sharma Shields
The line between the real and the fantastic is a blurry one. In their writing, 2011 Spokane Prize for Short Fiction winner, Jaffe, and Spokane writer, Shields, utilize humor, empathy, and wit to dazzling effect, exploring the strange, the disturbing, and the profound. Saturday, April 13, 4:00-5:00 p.m, Red Lion Hotel at the Park, Manito/Audubon Room, Lobby Level.

A Conversation with Shawn Vestal & Jess Walter Moderated by Sam Ligon
A conversation between the authors and the audience will be facilitated by fiction writer and associate professor of creative writing at EWU, Sam Ligon. Ligon, who edits the literary journal Willow Springs, also had a hand in shaping many of the stories in both We Live In Water andGodforsaken Idaho. Join this trio of writers and friends for captivating stories, insight into the writing process, and certainly many laughs.Saturday, April 13, 5:00 p.m., Barrister Winery, Suggested $5 donation.

For more information on these readings, click here and scroll down to the Saturday, April 13th heading.

Don't Forget to Register for Workshops!
Visit BrownPaperTickets.com and type in "Get Lit"

The Voice is a Muscle with Lidia Yuknavitch
In this workshop we will tease out the wide varieties of voice strategies available to prose writers and practice the fine art of building voices that no one can forget. In the process we will develop a series of metaphors that match the voices you call forth in your writing. You will go home hearing voices in the best of ways. Saturday, April 13, 9:30-11:30 a.m., Red Lion Hotel at the Park, Willow 1.

Literary Collage with David Shields
Shields's work often defies strict categorization and challenges other writers to break free from the constraints of tradition and of their genres. His highly controversial manifesto, Reality Hunger (2010), is a collage of hundreds of quotes from un-cited sources, from surrealist painters to hip hop artists. On the topic of appropriation, Shields says, "Art is a conversation between and among artists, not a patent office." Saturday, April 13, 3:30-5:30 p.m., Red Lion Hotel at the Park, Riverside 1.

Graphic Novel Workshop with Dr. Sean Agriss
This graphic novel workshop considers the place of the genre in the academic canon. For beginners and intermediates that either want to start reading or creating graphic novels, this workshop will investigate the history and development of the graphic novel, will introduce essential "must read" graphic novels, and will explore possible benefits of using graphic novels as teaching tools. Saturday, April 13, 3:30-5:30 p.m., Red Lion Hotel at the Park, Riverside 2.

Registration will open starting March 1. Space is limited to 20 people per session, so pre-registration is recommended. (We will also allow day-of registration, as space allows.) Registration cost is $20 for students with ID, and $30 general. Learn more about these and other writing workshops or pre-register by visiting the Get Lit! website. You can also pre-register by clicking the workshop titles above.

Author Spotlight: Lidia Yuknavitch
Join Yuknavitch for her workshop and reading on Saturday, April 13.

Lidia Yuknavitch is the author of three short fiction collections: Real to Reel (2003), Liberty’s Excess (2000), and Her Other Mouths (1997), as well as the novel Dora: A Headcase. She is also the author of the award-winning memoir, The Chronology of Water (2011). In addition to teaching writing, literature, film, and Women’s Studies in Oregon, Yuknavitch has created the Eugene-based magazine “two girls review,” and a press in Portland called Chiasmus Press. 

Meet the 2013
Get Lit! Festival Nonfiction Writers:

Dr. John Marzluff is Professor of Wildlife Science at the University of Washington. His book, In the Company of Crows and Ravens(2007), reveals the hidden relationship between humans and corvids (crows, ravens, magpies). His latest work, Gifts of the Crow(2012) combines biology, conservation, and anthropology to present an in-depth look at the way humans and crows have mutually influence each other. 

Chris McDougall has worked as an AP journalist and a writer for Outside,New York Times Magazine, andMen’s Health. In Born to Run (2009), he travels from Harvard’s laboratories to Mexico’s Copper Canyon where he meets a unique tribe of runners who often cover over 100 miles, for fun, without injury or rest.

David Shields is the acclaimed author of fourteen books of fiction and nonfiction, including work that often defies strict categorization, blending and defying conventions from multiple genres. His most recent work, How Literature Saved My Life (2013), continues his appeal to writers and readers to demand more from their art.

Glenn Stout is the author of Young Woman and the Sea (2009), the true story of Trudy Ederle—the first woman, and sixth person, to swim the English Channel. He is also the author of Fenway 1912 (2012), which covers the early days of Fenway Park.

Joe Wilkins's poems, essays, and stories have earned vast recognition and awards. In his memoir, The Mountain and the Fathers (2012), Wilkins captures life in the Big Dry, a desolate region in eastern Montana that shapes the men who live there and rarely lets them go.
 

Upcoming Events:

15th Annual Get Lit! Festival
April 8-14 - Spokane, Wash.

Announcing the Get Lit! Kids and YA Headliners!

Announcing the 2013 Youth Headliners

Patricia McCormick is a two-time National Book Award finalist and the author of five critically acclaimed young adult novels, including Never Fall Down, the story of a young Cambodian boy whose musical talent proves to be his sole chance of surviving the Khmer Rouge. Joining her will be Emily Danforth, author of the widely acclaimed novel The Miseducation of Cameron Post. This event will be free and open to the public. Saturday, April 13, 11:30 am, Spokane Public Library Downtown Branch.

Rebecca Stead is the Newbery Award-winning author of When You Reach Me and First Light. Her newest book, Liar & Spy, is a story about spies, games, and friendship. The story centers on seventh-grader Georges, his eccentric new homeschooled friends, and an apartment building spy mystery that needs to be solved. This event will be free to all youth; tickets for adult general admission are available through TicketsWest. Sunday, April 14, 11:30 am, Bing Crosby Theater.

Get your Get Lit! Festival Passes Now
Buy a pass and save $20-$25 off individual ticket costs and service fees.

Eastern Washington University’s 15th Annual Get Lit! Festival will feature over 50 events including author presentations and readings, writing workshops, panel discussions, poetry slams and writing contests. A Festival Pass gets you in to see the all of the headlining events: Jonathan Evison and Kim Barnes on Thursday, April 11; Joyce Carol Oates, Jaimy Gordon, and David Shields on Friday, April 12; Major Jackson and Robert Wrigley on Saturday, April 13; and Rebecca Stead on Sunday, April 14. The Festival Pass is regularly priced at $45, saving you $20-$25 off individual ticket costs and convenience charges. Individual tickets can also be purchased for each of the headlining events for $15. (Note: Students get in to all headlining events free with current ID.) 

Author Spotlight: Major Jackson
Join Major Jackson and Robert Wrigley for a conversation about poetry.

Major Jackson is an American poet, a professor of creative writing, the author of three poetry collections, and the Poetry Editor for the Harvard Review. His work has earned him the 2001 Cave Canem Poetry Prize as well as the honor of being a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the NAACP Image Award. He has taught in the graduate MFA programs at Columbia University and New York University. He lives in Burlington, Vermont, where he is the Richard Dennis Green and Gold Professor at University of Vermont. While his earlier works consisted mostly of long narrative poems, Holding Company signals a creative evolution with its concise ten-line lyrical poems and ecstatic tone.

“True enough,/he wanted a row of filaments inside like Times Square./The sockets were dead” –Lying

Poetry Out Loud Regional Final
Learn more about the National Poetry Out Loud Competition here.

Thursday, February 7th, Get Lit! Programs hosted the Eastern Washington Poetry Out Loud Regional Final at the Bing Crosby Theater. Students from nine regional high schools recited classical and contemporary poetry for a chance to proceed to the state finals and get one step closer to becoming national champion. Tom Zbyszewski from Liberty Bell High School won the competition with his incredible performances of “Golden Retrievals” by Mark Doty and “Famous” by Naomi Shihab Nye. Langston Ward from Mead High School, last year’s state champion, placed second with stirring recitations of “The Gift” by Li-Young Lee and “A March in the Ranks Hard-Prest and the Road Unknown” by Walt Whitman. Both Zbyszewski and Ward will compete in the state finals in Tacoma on March 9. 

For more information about this year's festival, visit our website.

Tom Wayman Reading at Riverpoint

Get Lit! Programs and Eastern Washington University's Visiting Writers Series are pleased to announce author Tom Wayman will be reading in the Phase 1 Auditorium at Riverpoint this Friday, February 22nd, at 7:30pm. The event will be free and open to the public.

Wayman is the author of 18 collections of poetry, two collections of short stories, and the novel Woodstock Rising (2009). He'll be sharing work from his latest collection of poetry, Dirty Snow (2012).

About Dirty Snow:

Tom Wayman's newest collection of poems, Dirty Snow, unflinchingly considers the impact of the Afghan War: its absence and presence in Canadians' everyday lives as citizens of a nation at war. The collection explores Wayman's view that Canada's military intervention in a civil war between two odious sets of combatants has degraded Canadians' quality of life by, among other means, the conflict's relentless absorption of public funds in pursuit of dubious ends...