2013 Festival Authors
Drumroll, please: Eastern Washington University’s
Get Lit! Programs is delighted to announce the lineup for the 2013 Get Lit! Festival!
Chances are you've read something, if not many things, by
Joyce Carol Oates. Maybe you spent a winter afternoon bundled up with
We Were The Mulvaneys,
an Oprah’s Book Club selection. Or you might have spent the summer lost
in her genre-bending re-imagining of Marilyn Monroe's life and death,
Blonde.
Her widely anthologized short story "Where Are You Going, Where Have
You Been?" likely sparked discussion during your high school or college
English courses, or you might have read her 2011 memoir,
A Widow’s Story.
As the author of more than 100 books, including novels, novellas,
memoirs, poetry collections, plays and children's books, and countless
essays and short stories, Joyce Carol Oates is among America's most
prolific and beloved writers.
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Joining her will be
Jaimy Gordon, whose National Book Award-winning novel,
Lord of Misrule
(2010), launches readers into the corrupt and cutthroat world of cheap
horse racing. At a rundown racetrack in West Virginia, horseman Tommy
Hansel and his girlfriend, Maggie, plan to get rich and get out fast.
But soon everyone has taken an interest in the pair, and by the time
Hansel's fourth horse, Lord of Misrule, takes to the track, the stakes
are far more than money.
(Friday, April 12, Bing Crosby Theater, 7 p.m.)
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As a poet, a professor of creative writing, and the Poetry Editor for the
Harvard Review,
Major Jackson's
career is defined by dedication to the arts community and the drive for
poetic evolution. He can portray the complexity of human relations in
anything from a long narrative examination of urban life to a brief
ten-line poem about forgotten possessions. Of his most recent
collection, the Hudson Review writes, "the poetry Major Jackson offers
us in
Holding Company—unashamedly lyrical, in flight from
narrative, layered with allusion and homage—sounds different from any
other being written today." Jackson is the award-winning author of the
poetry collections
Holding Company (2010),
Hoops (2006), and
Leaving Saturn
(2002), a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist and winner of the
Cave Canem Poetry Prize. Jackson will be joined by notable poet
Robert Wrigley, who will read from his latest work,
The Church of Omnivorous Light: Selected Poems (2013). Wrigley is the widely anthologized author of eight previous collections of poetry, including
Beautiful Country (2010), and a winner of the Poets' Prize, the Kingsley Tufts award, and six Pushcart Prizes.
(Saturday, April 13, Bing Crosby Theater, 7 p.m.)
Get Lit! will also welcome
Kim Barnes, award-winning author of
In the Kingdom of Men,
“a mesmerizing, richly imagined tale of Americans out of their depths
in Saudi Arabia, a marriage in peril, and one woman’s quest for the
truth, no matter what it might cost her.” Barnes’ previous work includes
the highly acclaimed novel
A Country Called Home (2009) and the memoir
In the Wilderness (1997), a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.
Jonathan Evison is the author of
All About Lulu and the century-spanning bestseller
West of Here. With his new novel,
The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving,
Evison is covering miles rather than years. In this “hilarious,
harrowing road trip,” Ben Benjamin—forty, newly single, and
unhinged—meets Trey, a nineteen-year-old with a vivid imagination and
muscular dystrophy. Together, they set out across the country to learn
what it means to care, and to heal.
(Thursday, April 11, Bing Crosby Theater, 7 p.m.)
Festival Passes and individual tickets for the headlining events go on sale Friday, January 25, via
TicketsWest
(1-800-325-SEAT). The festival pass will be $45, which will gain
admission to all headlining events. By purchasing a pass, you can save
$15-$20 off individual ticket costs and service fees. Individual
tickets for each event are only $15. All headlining events are free to
all students with a valid high school or college ID.
Additional Featured Authors
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Christopher McDougall’s career as an AP journalist and a writer for
Outside,
New York Times Magazine, and
Men’s Health
has sent him into the midst of wars in the Congo and Rwanda, into the
coconut trees of Brazil to investigate an unusual form of exercise, and
on a hunt for a fugitive Mexican superstar. In
Born to Run (2009),
he sets out test his limitations as a long-distance runner. His journey
takes him from Harvard’s laboratories to Mexico’s Copper Canyon where
he meets a unique tribe of runners who often cover over 100 miles,
barefoot, without injury or rest.
(Wednesday, April 10, Spokane Community College, free and
open to the public. Bloomsday Training Run, 6 p.m. Talk and
book-signing, 7 p.m.)
Other featured authors for the 2013 festival include
David Shields, author of fourteen works of fiction and nonfiction, including
Reality Hunger: A Manifesto,
a controversial work that pushes at the boundaries of nonfiction,
asserting that “all art is theft” and that “reality cannot be
copyrighted.” His latest book is
How Literature Saved My Life (February 2013). Novelist
Jim Lynch has written three novels set in Washington State, including
Truth Like The Sun, which takes place in Seattle during the 1962 World’s Fair. Lynch was the winner of the 2009 Washington State Book award for
Border Songs.
For a complete list of participating festival authors, visit our website.
Hometown favorite and award-winning author
Jess Walter will also appear at the Get Lit! Festival, reading from his new collection of short stories,
We Live in Water (February 2013). He’ll be joined by
Shawn Vestal, Spokesman-Review columnist and author of the story collection
Godforsaken Idaho.
The pair will read from their brand-new collections, discuss writing,
and answer questions. Moderated by writer, editor, and EWU professor
Samuel Ligon.
In addition to the incredible lineup of authors, Eastern Washington University’s Theatre program will offer
a special engagement of Ode,
an original play based on the whirlwind romance between the great
English poet John Keats and Fanny Brawne, a romance cut short by tragic
events. The play, written by poet and EWU professor Jonathan Johnson,
will run during March 2013, and return for an encore performance on
Tuesday, April 9, as part of the Get Lit! Festival.
Other Events To Look Forward To:
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The 2nd Annual Pie & Whiskey reading
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Poetry slams for kids, youth, teens, and college students
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Exhibit at the Chase Gallery featuring work created by pairs of local artists & writers
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The Come One, Come All community reading
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Writing workshops, panel discussions, and more!
Updates will be posted to the Get Lit! website over the next two weeks, including the complete festival schedule with all dates, times, and venues. Check back soon!
