Literary Festival 2010: April 14-21

Since its humble beginnings in 1998 as a one-day marathon of literary readings sponsored by Eastern Washington University Press and EWU's Department of Creative Writing, the Get Lit! Festival has grown. The Spokesman-Review lovingly called it "the little literary festival that could," and they were right. By 2004, the audience--which in 1998 consisted of three homeless men seeking shelter from the rain--had swelled to 10,000 people who participated in a weeklong celebration. By then, the festival featured nationally renowned authors such as Kurt Vonnegut, Garrison Keillor, Dave Barry, and Sarah Vowell, as well as regional talent from Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana.

In venues that include the restored Bing Crosby Theater (750 seats) and the INB Performing Arts Center (2,700 seats), the Get Lit! Festival has showcased the following authors:

Now in its twelfth season, the Get Lit! Festival continues to grow. Each year, local educational institutions such as Gonzaga University, Spokane Community College, Spokane Falls Community College, North Idaho College, and Whitworth University have joined with Eastern Washington University to bring five or six well-known writers to our community. With the generous support of community organizations and businesses, we have also invited between ten and fifteen authors from the Northwest to each festival, spotlighting the literary talent in our own backyard.

Our weeklong celebration of reading and writing offers events for people of all ages including lectures, readings, book signings, workshops, panel discussions, visits by festival authors to local colleges/universities, poetry slams, and other youth events. In the future, we hope to expand our definition of storytelling in order to reach an even wider audience. Some of the events to watch for at future festivals are:

• author presentations and readings that center on graphic novels, playwriting, screenwriting, songwriting, blogging, and spoken-word poetry
• events combined with radio, music, film, and theater performances
• community readings by writers of all ages
• writing workshops for all ages
• poetry slams for college-level students as well as children and teens
• Spokane Is Reading for Young Adults
• writing contests
• a small-press book fair

The Get Lit! Festival seeks above all to foster a love of reading, writing, and celebrate the world of literature among all those in our community. We hope that each year more people will join with us to embrace the power and the magic of words.