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.

Telling the American Story at the Chase Gallery

The Spokane Arts Commission announces "Telling the American Story: History, Memory, Place, Story, Picture, Space", a group exhibition in conjunction with Eastern Washington University's Get Lit! Festival at the Chase Gallery from March 1 - April 29, 2011.

Some of the featured artists are: Gordon Wilson, Laurie Lamon and John Kuhn, creators of a piece titled, "Things we Throw Away"; Lisa Conger, Darrell Sullens and Stephanie Turner's "Depot"; and Joe Comine, Rosie Comine, Scott Eubanks, James Comine and Simon Miller's film, "The Futility of War and the Letters." Tiffany Patterson, Mark Anderson and Jessie Fountain have created a portrait inspired by the Salish language; Bernadette Vielbig, Tom Davis and Ben Read are working on an intergenerational group portrait; and Norvel Trosst and Zan Agzigian are creating an installation titled, "Dreaming Becomes Reality" which includes three poems, "Memory," "Change," and "Bye, Bye, Lie." The photographs and poems in this piece allude to and reveal the illusion of the American Story sthrough black and white photos with window-blinds between each photo that display poems on each side of the blind that can be flipped and read front and back by viewers using a turn stick. This is a show that seems complicated and it is - one reason this show is a must see!

Augury Books: Editors' Prize in Poetry

Augury Books is an independent press based in New York City. They are proud to announce their inaugural Editors' Prize in Poetry. The reading period will be from March 15 - May 15, 2011 and the winner will receive a $1,000 honorium and publication with Augury Book as well as ten complimentary copies of the book.

Multiple submissions are accepted as long as each manuscript is submitted individually with separate reading fees. All entries will be considered for publication. Submit 40 - 75 pages of poetry and an acknowledgments page. Please do not include a bio. There is a $20 entry fee and a deadline of May 15, 2011.

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!