David Shields Reading This Week!

The Inland Northwest Center for Writers and Get Lit! Programs, in cooperation with Gonzaga University, are pleased to announce to upcoming author events. Visiting author David Shields will be conducting a Q&A session and a reading on Friday, November 30th.

1-2pm
Author Q&A with David Shields
Foley Teleconference Room (Library)
Gonzaga University

6pm
David Shields Reading
Wolfe Auditorium--Jepson Center
Gonzaga University


David Shields is the author of thirteen books, including Reality Hunger: A Manifesto (2010) and the NY Times bestseller The Thing About Life Is That One Day You'll Be Dead (2008). His most recent publication is Fakes (2012), a collection of short fiction in the form of itineraries, instruction manuals, forwarded emails, and other seemingly mundane artifacts, written by today's best writers and compiled and edited by David Shields and Matthew Vollmer.



Reviews for Reality Hunger: A Manifesto...

"David Shield's radical intellectual manifesto, Reality Hunger, is a rousing call to arms for all artists to reject the laws governing appropriation, obliterate the boundaries between fiction and nonfiction, and give rise to a new modern form." --Vanity Fair

"This is the most provocative, brain re-wiring book of 2010. It's a book that feels at least five years ahead of its time and teaches you how to read it as you go." --Alex Pappademas, GQ

"...I don't think it would be too strong to say that Shield's book will be a sort of bible for the next generation of culture-makers." --David Griffith, Bookslut

Spokane is Reading with Chris Cleave

This Friday, October 12th, will be the 11th Annual Spokane is Reading. If you've never been before, Spokane is Reading is a series of events organized by the Spokane Public Library, the Spokane Country Library District, and Auntie's Bookstore. Every year, they bring an influential author to Spokane to discuss one of his or her books with the community.

This year's visiting author is Chris Cleave, who will discuss his international bestseller Little Bee at two free presentations:

The Garland Theater - 1pm
924 W Garland Ave

The Lincoln Center, Monroe Ballroom - 7pm

Not familiar with the novel? The publisher has this to say...

"We don't want to tell you too much about this book. It is a truly special story and we don't want to spoil it. Nevertheless, you need to know something, so we will just say this: It is extremely funny, but the African beach scene is horrific. The story starts there, but the book doesn't. And it's what happens afterward that is most important. Once you have read it, you'll want to tell everyone about it. When you do, please don't tell them what happens either. The magic is in how it unfolds."

Chris Cleave is the author of Incendiary (2005), which inspired the film of the same name. His most recent novel is Gold (2012).

For more information about Chris Cleave, visit his website: chriscleave.com

For more about Spokane is Reading, visit: spokaneisreading.org/2012

Sharma Shields - Author Reading

Auntie's Bookstore is excited to welcome back Sharma Shields into their midst. A former staff member of Auntie's, Shields will be reading from her collection of stories entitled Favorite Monster. Filled with tales of mythical creatures and downright nightmares, the surprising end result reveals that sometimes, the greatest monsters of all are just plain human. Cyclops and werewolves, reality and fantasy, sweet dreams and darkness - all are intertwined within the pages of this delightful book.

Sharma Shields' writing has appeared in many places, such as the Kenyon Review, the Iowa Review, Fugue, and the Sonora Review. She is the recipient of several awards, including being the winner of the Autumn House Fiction Contest, which led to the publication of Favorite Monster. Shields has a BA in English Literature from the University of Washington, and a MFA from the University of Montana. She currently lives in Spokane, WA with her husband, their son, and their beautiful newborn daughter.

Shields will be taking time from from her busy schedule to hang out at Auntie's, visiting the staff and customers, and reading from Favorite Monster. Don't miss her! Come listen on Wednesday, June 27th, at 7:00pm.

Alexis Smith and Evan P. Shneider - Author Reading

Once again, Auntie's is featuring two fantastic up-and-coming authors. Sunday, May 20 will bring two Portland novelists, Alexis Smith and Evan P. Shneider.

Alexis Smith's Glaciers brings you into the memories of Isabel, the bookish protagonist who cherishes the history in things old and vintage. Tucked between the words of Smith's book are highlights into the life of a Portland bookkeeper who dreams about the glaciers of Alaska. Even while turning the pages, one can't help but visualize their own forgotten memories and trinkets, whether they were baseball cards shared with dad, or an old ring handed down generations of a maternal line.

Evan P. Schneider changes the mood with his book entitled A Simple Machine, Like the Lever. We can all relate in some way to Nicholas Allender, who's endeavoring to keep his head above water in all aspects of his life. Between trying to keep his job, bringing smiles to his girlfriend's face, and not getting lost in the ups and downs of life's trivialities, Schneider's novel offers a change of ordinary in the form of an extraordinary character.

Check out these two amazing authors Sunday, May 20 at 1 p.m. at Auntie's Bookstore.

Join Get Lit! at First Night

Get Lit! Programs is proud to participate in First Night Spokane, the city's family-friendly New Year's Eve extravaganza. You can find us at Auntie's Books at River Park Square (on the 2nd floor), where we'll be featuring two fantastic local authors, as well as providing supplies and direction for you to make your own bookmarks!

Well-known (and adored) authors Kelly Milner Halls and Beth Cooley will both read from their latest work. Kelly Milner Halls writes primarily nonfiction for children, including Saving the Baghdad Zoo and In Search of Sasquatch. Beth Cooley writes fiction for young adults, as well as poetry and literary criticism. Her two novels are Shelter and Ostrich Eye. Each author will read from their work and would be happy to answer questions, sign your copy of their book or chat about writing.

The event will last from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Auntie's at the Square. You will need a First Night button to attend this event, but kids 10 and under gain free admission to all of the First Night events. More information on First Night and how to obtain a button can be found here.

The readings will begin at 7 p.m., but stop in any time to create your own bookmark, write a poem using word magnets or simply browse Auntie's great selection of books.

See you at First Night!

EVENT CANCELED: Margaret Regan

We regret to inform you that the Immigration Stories with Margaret Regan event has been canceled. This free reading was set to take place on Thursday, April 14 at the Unitarian Universalist Church. We will update you if the author will be rescheduled in the coming weeks at the same venue. HOWEVER...the UU church still plans to hold a discussion on issues of immigration with local experts. So the conversation continues! There are also two other events to check out that night: Heather Gold performs "I Look Like an Egg, But I Identify as a Cookie" at 7pm at the Kress Gallery (3rd Floor of River Park Square Mall) or there is Sam Kean's discussion of The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World for the Periodic Table of Elements at 8pm at the Bing Crosby Theater. Click here for a complete list of events.

Check out our Get Lit! Festival PSA

Keep an eye out for our sweet new 2011 Get Lit! Festival commercial on TV. You can also check it out on YouTube .

Get Lit! posters, signs, and festival guides are all over the place. Where have you seen Get Lit! Festival around town? Let us know!

Sometimes the Story Finds You

Each year we ask some of our festival authors to offer up some wisdom on writing. Suzanne Morgan Williams, author of Bull Rider, shares her thoughts on the writing process as well as the importance of people sharing their stories with each other.

Sometimes the story finds you. I’ve been giving revision workshops lately and the first thing I ask writers is “What is your book really about?” The fact is, during that first draft, I never know and I suspect that’s true for others too. So it’s an important question. Until you answer it, your work can’t sing. What starts out as a conflict, say between a cautious mom and her son who wants to be a bull rider, ends up being about loyalty and empowerment and family resiliency. Oh, and about two brothers – one, Cam, who now doesn’t want to be a bull rider and another, Ben, who was a bull rider until he was blown up by an IED in Iraq.

This was not the story I set out to write when I began Bull Rider. I didn’t want to write about war injuries. But my son-in-law was in the service and the war in Iraq was heating up and I just kept thinking about this other brother in the O’Mara family and what he might be doing if he were a Marine. Cam’s story was changing to include Ben and Ben was demanding equal space on the pages. So that’s what Bull Rider was really about: the consequences and sacrifice of war and the strength of one fictitious family. It just took me a while to realize it.

I think the best books come from the writer’s emotional experience and the questions he’s grappling with if not directly from his or her physical experience. That’s what gives a book heart. That’s when you can answer that question, “What’s your book really about?” And those books can open conversations. They allow others who’ve maybe had that physical experience to access their own emotions. Or they let those who haven’t been through the book’s conflict to practice – what would they do? How would they feel? In the case of Bull Rider, it was also my honor to learn from real stories – from the blogs of wounded soldiers to the stories of my father-in-law who landed at Anzio beach and fought through Italy and Germany during World War II. My husband said his father never talked much about the war and when he finally told me this story in 2006, I understood why. So much loss. “Did you like Italy?” I asked him. “There wasn’t much left to see.” That and the numbers from his unit – 90 percent dead, wounded or missing – pretty much summed it up.

My father-in-law was 86 when we talked. He died last week. I treasure the memories he shared and put them into Bull Rider. But how many years did he not say anything? Who could understand losing nine of every ten of your buddies? What price did he pay to not bring that pain home to his family? The story in Bull Rider found me. I’m not a veteran and I’m not from a military family, although we’ve become one since our daughter’s marriage. I am a good listener. I listened to myself. Then I listened to so many stories. It is my honor to share a little bit of what I learned. I hope it opens a conversation.

For a list of books about the military experience and military families that are good reads for kids aged 7 through high school visit her website and open Veterans, then Books.

If you are interested in hearing more, come to see Suzanne's reading during the Get Lit! Festival at Auntie's Bookstore on April 16 from 1-1:45pm. She is also leading a workshop for ages 10 and up from 9:30-11 am on Saturday at the Riverpoint Campus. Both events are free!

Community Contests

Want to share your story with audiences at the Get Lit! Festival? Consider submitting to one of the following local writing contests. The winners of each of these contests will read their work at different events during the festival. Keep in mind that the deadlines are fast approaching!

>The Pacific Northwest Inlander’s 101-Word Fiction Contest
Readers are invited to share micro-masterpieces of narrative, voice and character. Multiple winners will be published in The Inlander and on Inlander.com. Then eight lucky finalists will be selected to compete at the 101-Word Fiction Showdown on Sunday, April 17, at Auntie’s Bookstore from 3:30-5 pm as part of the Get Lit! Festival. At the showdown, The Inlander’s Senior Writer, Michael Bowen, will challenge eight of the region’s best writers of micro-fiction to compose three short tales related to “Telling the American Story.” They will then face off in a tournament that will determine who will be the Inland Northwest’s Flash Fiction Guru. The contest deadline is Thursday, March 3 at 3 pm. For questions, email feedback@inlander.com or visit http://www.inlander.com/spokane/101words.

>Earth Day Writing Contest
To help commemorate Earth Day 2011, DowntoEarthNW.com is inviting writers and thinkers to think global and act local by sharing what Earth Day means to them in today’s world. Judged by poet Ed Skoog, author of Mister Skylight, contestants can submit work of various genres to info@downtoearthnw.com by 5 pm March 31. The contest winner will read prior to the April 13 appearance of Maude Barlow at Spokane Community College’s Lair Auditorium.

>KSPS Young Writer Contest
Students in grades 4-6 are welcomed to submit an essay, article, story, or poem about their favorite American hero (deadline is March 31; visit www.ksps.org/community-education/ksps-young-writers-contest/ or email dit@spokaneschools.org for more details). The winner will read their piece at the festival before headlining youth author Suzanne Morgan Williams on Saturday, April 16 from 1-1:45 pm at Auntie’s Bookstore.

A Festival Headliner Reveals a Serious Historical Error

Get Lit! Programs tries to bring to our festivals authors who have concern for the world and a desire to create a better future for underrepresented individuals. So we were pleased to find out that one of our nonfiction headliners for the 2011 festival is shedding light on a serious mistake in America's history.

Jack Hamann, a Seattle-based author, calls out for justice for a group of WWII soldiers in his 2005 book On American Soil, co-written with his wife Leslie. The book chronicles how 43 African-American soldiers stationed at Seattle’s Fort Lawton were wrongly accused and court-martialed for the lynching of Italian POW Guglielmo Olivotto in August 1944. Twenty-eight of those soldiers were dishonorably discharged.

Because of the book, in part, the U.S. Army reversed the verdict in 2007 and gave 14 of these soldiers honorable discharges; many, however, died in shame or haven’t been located. Hamann is still active in revealing the truth and pushing for the installation of educational markers at Fort Lawton so visitors will know what really happened.

At the festival, Hamann will read from and discuss On American Soil, as well as leading a workshop on writing journalistic nonfiction. Other authors, including Tim O’Brien and Brian Turner, will share their own perspectives on some of the important issues American soldiers face. We are pretty excited about it!

Happy Friday

Happy Friday! Check out this great post by Melina over at Bark, on the importance of young adult and children's book writers.

"The whole event made me remember the squirming, secretive feeling of reading as a kid, the way the world of the book continued far out of the bounds of the book itself– I would be writing in the before and after and in-between scenes in my head while I was brushing my teeth in the morning and sitting bored and confused in math class. I would read while walking from my room to the dinner table and while climbing the stairs up to bed. And for some reason it seemed like this book-grip was the usual experience of reading for me, as opposed to now when it’s a rare and beautiful exception.

I’m sure I am not original in what I described above. But I do think in recent years I forgot the specific incomparability of what it felt like to read as a kid. And how much all that early absorption of alternate universes made me want to write. In some ways, I think good Young Adult writers are the most influential artists in our culture."

http://thebarking.com/2010/11/you-might-have-forgotten-from-where-you-remember-that/

100 Years After Death, Mark Twain Publishes New Autobiography

By an act of genius, Mark Twain is still alive, 100 years after his death.

On November 15, the first of three volumes of an autobiography he dictated during the last four years of his life will be published by the University of California Press.

For six years, a team of experts at the Mark Twain Project at Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley, has been laboring over 5,000 pages of manuscript, and is now ready to present the 760-page volume. Within the next five years, the second and third volumes, each about 600 pages, will be released. Although parts of the autobiography have surfaced throughout the years, more than half of the entire work is previously unpublished.

Twain requested that the book be published a century after it was written so that he could speak his mind in complete freedom, without fear of losing his reputation or offending those he wrote about. And it does provide never-before-seen insight into Twain's thoughts. In addition to including his characteristically witty tales, Twain castigates the military and makes jabs at Wall Street tycoons.

Dictating the book also helped Twain speak freely without self-censoring. Written in a haphazard, stream-of-conscious manner, Twain proudly called the autobiography "a complete and purposed jumble." He also wrote to a friend that "The form of this book is one of the most memorable literary inventions of the ages. . . . It ranks with the steam engine, the printing press & the electric telegraph. I am the only person who has ever found out the right way to build an autobiography."

The collection is strikingly relevant, both politically and stylistically. Many are now calling Mark Twain the world's first blogger, and no doubt contemporary readers and writers will connect to his honest, blow-by-blow accounts of his thoughts.

You can read more about the autobiography on The New York Times and The Philadelphia Inquirer.

2011 Festival Headliners Announced!

Drum roll, please!

Eastern Washington University's Get Lit! Programs is delighted to announce the headliners for our 2011 Get Lit! Festival, each presenting a distinct perspective on our theme of "Telling the American Story."

Tim O’Brien will discuss The Things They Carried, his classic collection of stories about American soldiers in the Vietnam War. Sena Jeter Naslund, author of Ahab’s Wife, will present feminine perspectives on the classics. Matthew Dickman will be interviews as well as read from his All American Poem, an energetic depiction of our everyday experiences with pop culture and beauty.

Get ready for nonfiction writers Maude Barlow, global activist and author of international best seller Blue Covenant: The Global Water Crisis and The Coming Battle for the Right to Water; and Sam Kean, sharing his creative take on the Periodic Table in New York Times bestseller The Disappearing Spoon.

Headlining children's writers include: Louise Borden, author of a myriad of books, including a dramatic, true tale about the creators of Curious George; Suzanne Morgan Williams, author of Bull Rider and other multicultural and historic nonfiction books for children; and Michael Harmon, the unconventional author of the youth books Skate, The Last Exit to Normal, and Brutal. Our musical headliner is singer and songwriter Ani DiFranco, who will perform original songs and spoken word.

Festival passes for the headlining events go on sale Friday, November 5 via TicketsWest or by calling 1-800-325-SEAT. By purchasing a pass, you will be saving $20-$25 off individual ticket costs and service fees. Passes gain admission to see Tim O’Brien (with Brian Turner), Sam Kean, Matthew Dickman, and, on Friday, either Sena Jeter Naslund (with Nancy Rawles) or Ani DiFranco in concert. The regular festival pass is $45. The pass that includes the Ani DiFranco concert ticket is $60 (quantity limited). (Note: individual DiFranco tickets go on sale November 5 for $35.)

Students will again get in free with a current high school or college ID to the headlining events (except DiFranco). Student tickets will be available at the college bookstores or they can get one at the door as space allows.

Mark your calendar for April 13-17 and start thinking about your own American story!

Author Randall Platt Wins WILLA Literary Award

Congrats to local author Randall Platt, winner of the 2010 WILLA Literary Award! The nationally-recognized award, which honors Pulitzer Prize winner Willa Cather, annually celebrates remarkable published literature that emphasises a woman's experience in the west. Her novel, Hellie Jondoe, was selected by a panel of twenty-one professional librarians. Set in 1918, the historical novel centers around a plucky thirteen-year old orphan and pickpocket (Hellie, of course) who heads west in order to seek a better fortune than the one she began with -- only to become an unwitting caretaker for two other children along the way. The young adult novel is the eighth title by Platt, whose website describes her writing as, "...for adults and young adults and those who don't own up to being either."

To learn more about Randall Platt, her collection of titles, and how her modeling career has influenced her writing life (and vice versa), visit her website.

Want an Author at Your School?

It's that time of year again: time to sign up for a Writer-in-Residence at your school!

Get Lit!'s Writers-in-Residence Program pairs authors with K-12 schools in and around Spokane. The author works with three classrooms for an hour a week each, guiding discussions in literature and generating enthusiasm for writing. Since 2004, over 1,000 young writers have worked with a writer in residence, and each year they produce a Young Writers Anthology. Here is a poem from student Jacob Olsen at Lidgerwood Elementary from the 2009-2010 school year:

I Stopped a Volcano

I lived next to a volcano
and I was cooking
a saber-toothed tiger.
Before I took the first bite
the volcano erupted. All of the dinosaurs
were killed. I tried to stop it
but I fell in the volcano.
The volcano spit me out
and I was OK.
I stopped the volcano.
Then I called Yo-Yo my pet pterodactyl
and Yo-Yo picked me up with his legs
then I climbed on his back.
We flew away and my food
was burned from the volcano.

Here's another, by student Titus May at Lidgerwood Elementary:

Shiny Trumpet

My dad played a shiny new trumpet
in a band
he was really amazing
he played rock tunes
everyone loved him
I wanted to play it
but my grandpa sold it
for money
I miss that trumpet

The program also allows classroom teachers to develop new strategies to teach writing and literature, and the writers in residence leave behind their lesson plans so that other teachers can benefit from them as well.

Students from the WiR class at Barker Alternative School

From Momo Lesky:

Going For Now

walk me to the bus stop
high beams on in the dark cloudy rainy night
four wheeled vehicles race down the black tar river
from green to red, here's our chance to scamper across the road
the back cotton balls of sky let down wet cold tears
bright beamed and moaning like a woman in labor
the bus has come to take me home


There are a number of different options available. Your school can choose to have a Writer in Residence at your school for 26 weeks, 10 weeks, or a special field trip event.

Parents, teachers, students-have your school participate! For more information, look here for Options & Fees.

"Crafting a Great Story" panel

Now that the fabulous 2010 Get Lit! Festival is over, the team at Get Lit! thought we'd take some time to reflect on a few of the amazing events held this year.

One of the first events of the festival this faithful intern attended was the "Crafting a Great Story" panel, which featured Janet Fitch, Kevin Canty, Lore Segal and Lisa Norris, and was moderated by Laura Read, instructor at SFCC.

The four panelists each read a sample of their work and then opened things up for questions to the audience at large. Many community members were in attendance as well as SFCC, EWU and other college students, and the questions ranged from "Where do you get your ideas for novels?" to specific questions about plot, character and getting published.

Both Kevin Canty and Janet Fitch agreed that the process of writing a piece can stretch over a very long time period. Canty informed the audience that he is currently working on four novels (!?!) at the same time, and informed everyone that he didn't publish his first story until age 40. Fitch expressed a similar journey, describing how she decided to be a writer at age 21 "before she'd written anything," she joked, and from that point it took her ten years to get her first story published.

The panelists also agreed that much of their best work had come out of pieces they'd originally envisioned being much shorter. Fitch's novels Paint it Black and White Oleander, she told the audience, both grew out of short stories, and Lore Segal explained how sometimes you have to let the piece determine its own length.

Each author expressed a different way of approaching their work, but they all agreed on the importance of having someone you can trust to read your work and provide honest feedback. Fitch and Canty both cautioned against using a family member, while Norris countered that she has successfully relied on her spouse to be her first reader throughout her career.

Throughout, all the panelists were friendly, kind, funny and open. They joked with each other and with the audience, but answered each question earnestly and thoroughly. During a break halfway through as well as after the panel, each author was approached by audience members who had another question or just wanted to shake hands. One SFCC student took a self-portrait of himself and Lore Segal using his IPhone while a local writer chatted with Lisa Norris. A few students eagerly held out books for Janet Fitch to sign while Kevin Canty thanked a student for their praise of the short story he'd just read.

Overall the panel was a resounding success! The auditorium was full of eager listeners, the audience asked well-meaning questions and hearing each author read a snippet of their work before beginning the discussion was so interesting. I left the panel feeling inspired by each writer's commitment to their work and relieved that these confident, successful authors had struggled as young writers. Gives the rest of us a little hope!

Festival Wrap-Up

What a fantastic lineup we had for the festival this year! Thank you to all of our authors, organizers, volunteers, supporters and attendees.

Just a few thoughts on the slew of amazing events this intern was able to attend:

Selected Shorts: Hearing Isaiah Sheffer in person was incredible. James Noughton and Susanna Thompson, both accomplished performers, were the other readers and the audience was entirely enamored with all of them. The stories, revolving around the theme of "Fatherhood" included selections by John Updike, Roald Dahl and Maxine Swann.

Richard Russo/Jess Walter: If you didn't make it to this event, you've probably already been told, but you missed out. Big time. Russo and Walter, longtime friends, had a packed house at the Bing Crosby Theater rolling in the aisles. Walter read a hilarious short story, as yet unpublished, which he explained came out of a writing exercise between he and Sherman Alexie, while Russo read from his latest novel, That Old Cape Magic. The two bantered back and forth, discussed screenwriting as well as novel writing and answered extensive questions from the audience. When the evening finally ended, everyone exiting the building was still smiling and laughing.

In Conversation with Janet Fitch: This headlining event at the Bing Crosby Theater was also a tremendous success. Fitch read from Paint it Black and then settled into an onstage question & answer period with a moderator. The setup seemed perfect for Fitch, whose conversational style drew the audience in and made the event feel very intimate. Her honest opinions and self-deprecating humor made for an engaging event, and she also took various questions from the audience after the onstage Q&A. There was quite the line for book signings afterward, that's for sure. You can check out her blog here.

Those are just some initial thoughts on the fantastic events attended by this intern! Keep checking back for more information on next year's equally amazing lineup!

Check out what authors Janet Fitch, Ana Maria Spagna and Susan Rich thought by visiting their blogs!

Jazzin' it up

It's not every day that Spokane, WA sees celebrities like this. Pushcart Prize winner, National Book Award nominee, performer at Carnegie Hall, four-time national Poetry Slam champion; featured in the HBO series "Def Poetry Jam;" documented performing her poetry in a short film; instructor in poetry, performance and creative writing; inductee into the International Literary Hall of Fame for Writers of African descent. That's right, it's just one person with a boatload of accolades. Oh, and did we mention she's performed alongside Adrienne Rich, Sharon Olds, Rita Dove, Joyce Carol Oates, Allen Ginsberg, Walter Mosley, Gwendolyn Brooks, Billy Collins and Galway Kinnell? And even Viggo Mortensen, of Lord of the Rings fame?

Of course, it could be none other than world-renowned performance poet Patricia Smith, who will perform her poems alongside top local jazz musicians, melding music and poetry into one exciting evening, Wednesday, April 21, 7 p.m. at The Fox Theater.

Smith often explores the relationships between music and poetry, having worked with blues bands and improvisation jazz groups. She says of the experience, “Here's how it's worked with bands I've performed with before. I very seldom know for sure what I'm going to read until I'm in the venue. Instead, I share the tone of the poem—what it's about, how long it is, and if there are any special moments I should signal—once I begin, the musicians catch the rhythm and mood of what I'm doing. They inspire me and, hopefully, I inspire them. That's how the best performances are created.”

Local jazz musicians (and EWU professors) Todd DelGiudice, Don Goodwin and Rob Tapper will be joined by other locals to perform with Smith, drawing on their various experiences with the Spokane Symphony and Spokane Jazz Orchestra. Opening the evening will be the next generation of poetry performers, including the 2010 Regional Poetry Out Loud winner as well as the first place Get Lit! Youth, Teen and College Slam winners. The event is free for students with ID and $20 for the general public. Tickets can be purchased through Ticketswest.

Smith has received stellar reviews around the world for how compelling and energetic her performances are. One critic, Victor Infante, raved, “Smith epitomizes what a performance poet should be: supremely confident, radiating with presence, drilling each word for precise effect, no nuance or inflection too small for consideration.”

Smith is currently at work on the verse memoir Shoulda Been Jimmie Savannah and the young adult novel The Journey of Willie J.. Her fifth book of poetry, Blood Dazzler, was a finalist for the National Book Award.

Insight with Sallie Tisdale

"Insight with Sallie Tisdale" will be at 11:30 a.m. in the Marie Antoinette Ballroom of the Davenport Hotel. You can also join her for the Davenport's Sunday Brunch at 10 a.m., just mention Get Lit! when you make your reservations with the hotel.

Sallie Tisdale says that her perfect day would include sunshine, a good book, being outdoors, and perhaps a good baseball game on the radio. Now that doesn't sound striking or controversial, right?

Tisdale is known best for being provocative, examining various issues around sex, gender, medicine and morality. She was a registered nurse and has written about her experiences working in various clinical settings. Despite the tense issues she often explores, she can engage almost any ready through her head-on approach to each topic. She knows better than to proselytize; instead, she demonstrates the complexity of each chosen topic and approaches it directly, without apology.

Her most recent book examines the female teachers of Buddhism she'd never heard about in her 25 years of practicing. Once she realized most of the Buddhist literature she was reading was by men and about men, she decided to explore how women have contributed to the Buddhist life, and the result was her seventh book, Women of the Way: Discovering 2,500 Years of Buddhist Wisdom.

Tisdale has taught at Reed College, Northwestern University, and New York University. One of the writing tips she shares with students is:

"Ignore the rules. Forget what they taught you in the writing program. Ignore the bestseller lists and whatever seems to be in fashion right now. Read the writers you admire, but not very much. Don't imitate; but if you're really stuck, open a book of poetry and pick a line at random, and do a free write from it. Then throw it away. Keep piles of notes, lines and titles, and anecdotes. You will find a place for a few of them someday. Accept a few hard truths: There is 95-percent chaff for the few kernels of wheat. Revision is continual. Most good writers don't get published very easily. Most bestsellers suck. It's not a meritocracy. Write for the sake of the words. Keep your day job."

Her books include The Sorcerer's Apprentice: Tales of the Modern Hospital (1986), Harvest Moon: Portrait of a Nursing Home (1987), Talk Dirty to Me: An Intimate History of Sex (1994), and The Best Thing I Ever Tasted: The Secret of Food (2000). Her work also frequently appears in such periodicals as Conde Nast Traveler, the New York Times Magazine, and The Antioch Review.

Dr. Reza Aslan on The Daily Show!

One of the first events to kick off the Get Lit! Festival features Dr. Reza Aslan, who will address the intersection between religion and political conflict, expressing his concern for how those two elements have contributed toward a rise in militancy and terrorism.

Dr. Aslan has written two books on religion and politics, but despite the intense issues he is concerned with, he believes political engagement is the best way to moderate radical ideologies. Best of all, even though he's been published in countless scholarly journals, he also knows how to reach an even larger group of intelligent viewers: The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Reza Aslan
http://www.thedailyshow.com/
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Reform

Not only does he know his stuff, but he's funny and engaging as well. Based on that interview, it looks like the Get Lit! attendees are in for a treat.

Dr. Aslan will speak on Thursday, April 15 at 7 p.m. in the Doubletree Hotel's Grand Ballroom. Tickets are $20 general admission and free with a student ID. For more info, look here.

In his most recent book, How to Win a Cosmic War: God, Globalization and the End of the War on Terror, Dr. Aslan examines the origins of the Israel-Palestinian conflict; zealotry in various religious forms; the history of Islamic jihadist distortions of Islam; the repressive governments that produce such radicals; and analyzes America's current war on terrorism.

Dr. Aslan holds degrees in religion from multiple universities including Harvard, and he also holds an MFA in Fiction from the University of Iowa. Born in Iran, he currently lives in Los Angeles where he works as an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at UC Riverside and a contributing editor of The Daily Beast.