No More Food, No More Black Gold

You might expect the author of The End of Oil and The End of Food to be gloomy and dry, but at a recent appearance in San Francisco , Paul Roberts was described as "candid and engaging." Thanks to the Hagan Foundation Center for the Humanities and the President's Speakers Series at Spokane Community College we'll be able to see this charismatic speaker at next year's festival on Wednesday the 15th of April at 7.30 pm in the Lair Auditorium at SCC.

A journalist since 1983, Paul Roberts has written for The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, and The (UK) Guardian and has freelanced for Slate, USA Today, The New Republic, Newsweek, The Christian Science Monitor, Rolling Stone, and Outside magazine. He was a finalist for the National Magazine Award (1999) and for the New York Public Library Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism in 2005.

The topics of The End of Oil, the decline of global petroleum production, the social and political costs of a post-oil shock and the possibilities for moving beyond oil, are hotter now than they were when the book came out. That explains why a 2004 Mother Jone's interview with Paul Roberts reads like it is about our upcoming election, if you just blank out the candidates' names. In his June 2008 National Geographic article, "Tapped Out," Paul describes how oil companies are predicting when supplies will level off, but explains why that won't change how much money we're spending at the pump. "Whatever the ceiling turns out to be, one prediction seems secure: The era of cheap oil is behind us. "

As if not being able to drive your SUV for much longer isn't bad enough, Paul's latest book, The End of Food, discusses the factors involved in third world food crises and how western nations will soon feel the effects of them, because of how dependent we are on our large-scale, hyper-efficient industrialized food production, which generates food more cheaply than at any time in history, but has reached a point of dangerously diminishing returns.

Read Bee Wilson's May 19, 2008 Critic at Large article, "The Last Bite: Is the world’s food system collapsing?," in The New Yorker for an in dept review of the book. Then listen to Paul Roberts discussing these issues with Tom Ashbrook on NPR's On Point show from May 28 of this year. That should prepare you enough to be able to participate in what is sure to be a lively discussion on the 15th. You could of course also buy Paul's books and read them before next April.

See you then!

Probation Officer, Undertaker's Assistant, Supermarket Shelf Stacker, then Acclaimed Writer and Poet = Simon Armitage

On April 19, 2009, Spokane will have the amazing opportunity to listen to Simon Armitage reading his work. Critics love his poems, but he is a prolific writer who also writes non-fiction, novels, and scripts for film, TV, and theater.

He has received numerous awards for his poetry including: the Sunday Times Author of the Year, one of the first Forward Prizes and a Lannan Award. Rumor has it that he is also short listed to be the new UK Poet Laureate next year.

You would think that someone as talented and prolific would have gone through an extensive writer’s program, but although he has taught writing at the University of Leeds and the Iowa Writer’s Workshop, and is a current senior lecturer at the University of Manchester, his own academic foundation is not in Comp., Lit., or even English.

Maybe because his biography includes a Geography degree at Portsmouth Polytechnic and a postgraduate qualification in social work at Manchester University, as well as a variety of non-writing careers, Simon Armitage work speaks to people from all groups of life. We are ecstatic that he is going to be speaking to the people of Spokane.

For more information about Simon’s work visit his website at: http://www.simonarmitage.com/
Our favorite areas of the site are the Poem of the Day and the Audio & Video clips of the author reading his work.

Fans on this side of the pond includes Gwyneth Paltrow. Here she is, reading Simon’s poem "The Gift" which was commissioned by UNICEF for their Born Free from HIV campaign, created to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV.

October is Literary Prizes Month

This month's literary prize announcements include the Nobel Prize in literature and The Man Booker Prize.

According to the Independent, the Nobel Foundation "infuriated the bookies, delighted the bookish and thumbed its nose, again, at the American book industry" when they chose British/French author Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio. To find out if you agree with the committee's assessment of him as an "author of new departures, poetic adventure and sensual ecstasy, explorer of a humanity beyond and below the reigning civilization, " read the interview with him in France-Diplomatie. (You may have to scroll down to see the interview.)

If you want to know how to become a successful author and win £50,000 at the tender age of 33, then read about how the Man Booker Prize committee decided that Aravind Adiga's book The White Tiger was their obvious 2008 winner on the prize's news site. It also contains a link to a video interview with the author.

Get Ready for Get Lit! 2009 and Jane Smiley

Mark your calendars for next year's festival that will take place April 10-19!

It is going to be hard to top the amazing events we had last year. But as much as we loved spending time with our fabulous 2008 authors, we are excited about what 2009 has in store.

The first headliner we secured is Jane Smiley. On Thursday, April 16th, Get Lit! and the Washington Library Association will host An Evening with Jane Smiley at The Bing Theater. She'll read and discuss her most recent novel, Ten Days in the Hills, a satirical exploration of Hollywood set against the U.S. invasion of Iraq and then do a book signing.

Smiley has written more than ten novels and three non-fiction books. In 1992, she received the Pulitzer Prize for A Thousand Acres. If you can't wait until April to read Jane's prose and find out about her writing life, here are some links to wet your appetite:

• Jane blogs for the Huffington Post. To access her blogs and sign up for alerts for when she's published a new one visit: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jane-smiley/.
  
  


• To find out how an author transitions from books to blogging, read Jane's 2007 interview with The Progressive's Matthew Rothschild: http://www.progressive.org/mag_intv1207.
  
  


• That same year, Washington Post's Bob Thompson spoke with Jane about writing Ten Days in the Hills. Among other things, the author described how she found herself confronting a technical problem she'd never faced before: Too much sex. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/19/AR2007021901231.html

Stay tuned for more information on our other headliners.