Get Lit! Festival presents Pie & Whiskey

George W. Bush once famously said, “We ought to make the pie higher.” In honor of that sentiment, Sam Ligon, associate professor of creative writing at Eastern Washington University, and Kate Lebo, Seattle-based poet and renowned pie baker, will host the first ever Get Lit! Pie & Whiskey Reading. Authors will read poetry, short fiction and flash nonfiction inspired by the two greatest after-dinner delicacies: pie and whiskey, which will be served at this event. You must be 21 to attend. 

Readers include: Steve Almond, Elizabeth Austen, Caitlin Horrocks, Chris Howell, Laurie Lamon, Kate Lebo, Sam Ligon, Tod Marshall, Shann Ray, Molly Tenenbaum, Nance Van Winckel, and Jess Walter.

Date: Thursday, April 12

Time: 9:30 p.m.
Venue: Woman's Club, 1428 W 9th. (This venue is not easily ADA-accessible. Please contact us ahead of time if you'd like to attend so we can make the proper arrangements. 509.359.6977 or getlit@ewu.edu)
 Cost: Free admission will include complimentary pie and one beverage. Additional beverages will be for sale. 

Special thanks to Dry Fly Distillery and Woodinville Whiskey Company for supporting this event.

Poem of the Week by Elizabeth Austen

House Fire

I reach for my yellow dress. It bursts
into flame. Anything I remember
burns again. Recipes from Nana's walnut box,
father's letters, every photograph: all
the same black exhalation-
the remains of everything consumed
coat the remains of everything spared.
Memories reduced to images without
objects to anchor them hover
in the space between this morning-
when each room stood intact-
and now, a time without geography.
Nothing ties me to the past.
No family portraits, no letters
urging goodness, steadiness, obedience.
All the old imperatives
curl in the lingering heat.


Elizabeth Austen is a Seattle-based poet, performer, and teacher. As part of the 2012 Get Lit! Festival, Austen will be one of the readers at the first ever Pie & Whiskey Reading at 9:30 p.m. at the Woman's Club on Thursday, 12. She will also be participating in the panel From Vinegar Bottles to Verse: Discovering Poetry in Overlooked Objects on Friday, April 13 at 12:30 p.m. at the SFCC Spartan Theater and later that night, she will be reading and discussing her work at the Poetry Salon at the Rocket Bakery. And aspiring performance poets, don't miss out on your chance to work directly with her during her Saturday workshop Beyond the Page: Poems Aloud, Poems Alive.

Get Lit!'s Poetry Salon

The Get Lit! Festival is having an informal poetry salon, modeled after the salons of early 20th century Paris. The event will consist of a reading and discussion by six poets hosted by Eastern Washington University's Creative Writing professor Jonathan Johnson. Each of the poets will discuss their craft and their writing life.

The poets include:

Elizabeth Austen, a Seattle poet, performer, and teacher will be reading from her book Every Dress a Decision. She has produced literary programming for one of Seattle's NPR affiliates, KUOW, which introduces recordings of the Pacific Northwest literary events and interviews local and national poets.
Click here to watch Elizabeth Austen read from her book, Every Dress a Decision.

Thomas Brush is an author of three poetry collections and his work has appeared in journals such as Poetry, The Iowa Review, Prairie Schooner, and The North American Review. He established a literary magazine called Better Days, along with a reading series, while teaching English at Kent-Meridian High School. Brush’s forthcoming poetry collection Last Night, winner of the 2011 Blue Lynx Prize, includes poetry from the last twenty years about his childhood, his current reflections on the world, and the places he delights in and lives in.

Molly Tenenbaum has three full-length poetry collections: The Cupboard Artist (2012), Now (2007), and By a Thread (2000), as well as chapbooks Blue Willow, Old Voile, and Story, and single poems in many journals. She has held residencies at Hedgebrook and at the Helen Riaboff Whiteley Center, participated in the Jack Straw Writers’ Program, and was awarded a 2009 Washington State Artist Trust Fellowship.

Kathryn Smith is an EWU MFA alum, a copy editor for the Spokesman-Review, a master gardener in training, and a community volunteer. According to Mary Oliver, Smith tries to "keep my mind on what matters, / which is my work, / which is mostly standing still and learning to be astonished."

Kathleen Flenniken was recently named the Washington State Poetry Laureate and her second collection of poetry, Plume, was selected for the Pacific Northwest Poetry Series. Her first collection of poems, Famous, winner of the 2005 Prairie Schooner Prize, was named a 2007 Notable Book of the Year by the American Library Association and a finalist for the Washington State Book Award.

Russell Thorburn enjoys having a successful career as a poet, teacher, and radio hour writer. He writes poems about “fighting against the silence” based on his personal life journey. He repeatedly includes a character named Agent X who time travels to sorrowful and gratifying moments in Thorburn’s life. Thorburn has compared Agent X to Kurt Vonnegut’s Billy Pilgrim.   

What: Poetry Salon

Where: Rocket Bakery (1325 W. First Ave., Spokane)

When: Friday, April 13 2012 9:00 PM

Cost: FREE!

More Information:

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