The Get Lit! Festival is Just Around the Corner

The Get Lit! Festival is just around the corner and there are many free community events for all literature lovers! With over 35 events at multiple downtown venues on Saturday, plus multiple events throughout the week, there truly is something for everyone. We hope to see you at some of the headliner readings as well as some of these free events between April 13-17:

For those interested in nonfiction, Get Lit! offers a panel on freelance journalism on Saturday as well as a reading by Jack Hamman who shares an overlooked part of history—the unjust murder allegations brought against 43 African American soldiers—in his true story On American Soil: How Justice Became a Casualty of WWII. Earlier in the week, on Thursday, at the Unitarian Universalist Church, journalist Margaret Regan will share over a decade of stories that she has collected related to immigration at our southern border. Or, you can come to the Kress Gallery at the River Park Square Mall to watch comedian Heather Gold perform her coming-out story in the kitchen in “I Look like an Egg, but I Identify as a Cookie."

Environmental enthusiasts will want to check out water-rights activist Maude Barlow, who is speaking at a free event at SCC on Wednesday. There is also a Saturday panel on the art of nature writing, followed by a reading from Bruce Bjornstad and Jane Fritz, who share insight into the historical stories of our region. Benjamin Percy will then share his book The Wilding, which explores the dilemmas of land development in a way that will keep you on the edge of your seat. Plus, John Laursen will be here to showcase our region through photographs of the Columbia River Gorge.

To explore the variety that this year’s theme encompasses, writers of various genres will offer their perspectives on writing the American story in a panel on Saturday. There will also be readings on how the West captures and shapes its inhabitants by Ruth McLaughlin, author of Bound Like Grass: A Memoir from the Western High Plains, and Heather Sharfeddin. After that, Jonathan Evison, author of West of Here, and Brenda Peterson, who wrote the memoir I Want to Be Left Behind: Finding Rapture Here on Earth, explore new ways to look at American landscapes, people, traditions, and connections between past and future. In addition, Julie Otsuka will be reading at the River Park Square Mall on Saturday in collaboration with Japan Week. Her novel, When the Emperor Was Divine, describes the travails of a Japanese American family's internment in a Utah enemy alien camp during World War II.

Get Lit! Programs will also host a Native American Spotlight on Saturday at the Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture. First, there will be a panel where Gloria Bird, Victor Charlo, and Laura Tohe will discuss incorporating their heritage into their writing. Later, families and children of all ages are invited to hear three storytellers—Taress Alexis, Marilyn James, and LaRae Wiley—share traditional songs and oral stories of the First Americans. Kindergarten and pre-school students from the Salish School of Spokane will also perform a skit and sing songs in their native language.

If you like a mixture of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction, there are various options: the EWU Alumni Reading, the Regional MFA Reading, and the EWU Faculty Reading are all a good bet on the weekend.! The Inlander will once again be hosting their 101-Word Fiction Showdown on Sunday with the eight finalists from their short fiction contest. And for the poetry lovers, the popular Poetry Salon After-Hours will be held on Friday night at the Montvale Hotel atrium, complete with fireplace and couches. Just like it was in the salons of old. Poets Lowell Jaeger, Kathleen Flenniken, Laura Tohe, Victor Charlo, and Laura Read will gather to share their work and their thoughts about writing with you.

Plus, there will be a Lost Horse Press Reading on Friday, April 15 from 3 - 5 pm in the Walther Gallery of the MAC Museum. The featured readers will include Lost Horse Press poets: Henry Real Bird, Maya Jewell Zeller, Christopher Howell, and D.S. Butterworth. They will be joined by renowned classical guitarist, Leon Atkinson as well as Fiddlin' Red Simpson. Maya Jewell Zeller will also be participating in the EWUAlumni readings at the Riverpoint campus on Saturday and Chris Howell will participate in the EWU Faculty reading at the Barrister Winery on Sunday.

And, of course, for the writers, this year’s panels and talks are designed to encourage you to share your version of the American story. Saturday topics include the ins and outs of the publishing process as well as poetry chapbooks. Artist and writer, Danica Novgorodoff will also be here to explain how she turned a book into a graphic novel. Friday panels, held at the local college campuses, are also open to all. They will explore: life becoming art through poetry, perfecting perspective, using place as character, and finding themes in your life story. Then, if you or anyone you know is interested in sharing work, Get Lit! welcomes you to the Come, One, Come All Community Reading on Sunday which is open to readers of all ages and genres.

Find all the details at www.ewu.edu/getlit. There you can also page through our complete festival guide online! Tickets and festival passes are still available for all of the headlining events as well as the workshops.