Begotten by Lit by Michael Bowen
"Spokane's literary festival got started in 1998 with a marathon, day-long reading that was attended by about three people huddling in the rain.
Get Lit! has expanded since then - so much so that we've all gotten a little spoiled. In the peak years of 2004-5, a long line of literary big dogs - Garrison Keillor, Kurt Vonnegut, Sarah Vowell, Dave Barry, Lynda Barry, Rita Dove, David Sedaris, Robert Bly, Salmon Rushdie - delivered readings here. It seemed that we'd be able to attract the big names for quite some time.
Yet while budgets have slenderized in recent years, Get Lit! forges on with new ideas. In 2009, for example, EWU creative writing professor Sam Ligon gave novelist Charles Baxter the full James Lipton/Actors Studio treatment, complete with note cards; there was a lively discussion at Auntie's Bookstore about the role in a digital environment of newspapers and other media; and wonder of wonders, a late-night crowd jam-packed a side room at Europa to hear ... five poets reading and discussion their poetry.
And people say nobody cares about reading anymore. Especially poetry.
On the contrary, there's a hunger for it.
For April 2010, for example, another one of those household names (like one of those big names from five years ago) seems likely to make an appearance. But whoever's here, Get Lit! will still present multiple opportunities to see the woman behind the poem, the man behind the novel: the literary word, humanized. Writing and reading, such solitary exercises, feel even more energized than almost any other art form by the presence, voice, mannerisms, quirks of the author, seen in person.
Cities that care about books don't simply have bookstores. They encourage - and attend - literary events. So let the Lit Get you: It's one week out of the year when reading isn't solitary but social."
Get Lit! Reaches out to Kids by Michael Bowen
Get Lit! doesn't just run for a week. It runs all year long.
You've heard about the big name authors dropping in for readings during April, sure. But Get Lit! also organizes educational outreach projects for students (K-12) throughout the year. Since 2004, in fact, Get Lit! has reached more than 25,000 students in our area.
And how does it "reach" them? Through author tours, for one thing.
Imagine being a fifth-grader on the rez or a middle-schooler at a remote rural school. Your teacher's making you read some dumb book by some guy who's probably ... and then the guy himself actually shows up at your school. You get to hear the author read his words in his own voice. He discusses his writing habits, how he works, how he got his book published. He helps you create your own stories.
When students get a chance to meet a published author, books come alive and imagination blooms.
Another way that Get Lit! reaches out to students is the Writers-in-Residence program. A professional writer with a master's degree commits to a particular school for a semester or even an entire school year. Working with three classrooms, she leads literary discussions and writing workshops. The kids get to write their own poems, stories, essays, and songs - and even go on creative-writing field trips. Then, at the end of the residency, the students hold a community reading and collect their work in an anthology for all to see.
Get Lit! also hosts the regional competition for Poetry Out Loud, the national recitation contest - supported by the National Endowment for the Arts and Poetry Foundation - which encourages high school students to learn about poetry through memorization and performance.
And that's one of several ways that Get Lit! helps make writing come alive for young authors - not just in April, but all year long."
**Save these dates for the 2010 festival: April 14-21
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