GetLit2011

EASTERN WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY’S 13TH ANNUAL

GET LIT! FESTIVAL SPOKANE, WA

APRIL 13-17, 2011 “TELLING THE AMERICAN STORY”

FEATURING MAUDE BARLOW, ANI DIFRANCO

TIM O’BRIEN, SENA JETER NASLUND, LOUISE BORDEN, MICHAEL HARMON,

SUZANNE MORGAN WILLIAMS, SAM KEAN,

MATTHEW DICKMAN & OTHERS

INTERVIEWS

POETRY SLAMS

BOOK SIGNINGS

PANEL

DISCUSSIONS

& MORE EWU.EdU/GETLIT

THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS Media Sponsor

Festival Venues Associated Students of Eastern Washington University EWU Honors and Phi Eta Sigma • Hagan Foundation Center for the Humanities Humanities Washington • Inland Northwest Council of Libraries North Idaho College • Northwest Inland Writing Project • Numerica Odyssey Youth Center • Pride Center-EWU • Pride Foundation Professor Emerita Mary Ann Nelson • Selinger-Shone Foundation Spokane Community College • Spokane Falls Community College Square Peg Concerts • WestCoast Entertainment Whitworth University and Rock and Sling • Unitarian Universalist Church

Event Sponsors (noted on event pages)

Festival Hotel

Welty Foundation I S & Emily Fetterman Foundation

Book Sponsors

Educational Outreach

Joel E. Ferris Foundation

Supporting Sponsors

GET LIT! PEOPLE Program Coordinator Danielle Ward

Assistant Coordinator Melissa Huggins

Online Media Assistant Sarah Campo

Staff Editor Karhonkwison “Kwis” Logan

School Liaison Kristina McDonald

Grant Assistant Bill Milliken

Big Read Assistant Elizabeth Moore

Staff Writer Kristina Morgan

Graphic Designer Rachel Seagrave

Marketing Assistant Brittany Woehle

Festival Assistant Dawn Zickler

Multimedia Specialist Eric Galey

T-shirt Printer Zome Design

Festival Guide Printer The Inlander

Festival Photographers Keith Currie Roopam Kakoti John D. Moore, CCP Photo Credits Spike Mafford for Nancy Rawles Jay Rochlin for Margaret Regan Poster Design Bryan Anderson Writers in the Community Jennifer Miller McIntyre Northwest Inland Writing Project Emily Duvall and Carol Nelson Chase Gallery Karen Mobley Poetry Out Loud Daniel Harrington Writers-in-Residence Sarah Conover, Daniel Harrington, Diana McLean, Susan Virnig Authors Tour Denise H. Adams, Sarah Conover, Mary Cronk Farrell, Deby Fredericks, Dennis Held, Susan K. Marlow, Maureen McQuerry, Kelly Milner Halls, Suzanne Morgan Williams, Carol Muzik, Rebecca Nappi, Kenn Nesbitt, Meghan Nuttall Sayres, Claire Rudolf Murphy, Renee Riva, Terry Trueman University Liaisons Bob Bennett, NIC Thom Caraway, Whitworth Mary Carr, SCC Debra Alley, SCC Tod Marshall, Gonzaga Laura Read, SFCC EWU Dean of College of Arts and Letters and Education Dr. Lynn Briggs EWU CAL Administration Sally Eaton EWU Foundation Deb Blake, Dave Millet, Tim Szymanowski

CONTENTS

Headliners

The Battle for Blue Gold with Maude Barlow........... 6 Tales from the Periodic Table with Sam Kean............. 7 Ani DiFranco in Concert............................................... 9 Reimagining the Classics with Sena Jeter Naslund.... 10 Children’s Author Louise Borden..................................22 Youth Author Suzanne Morgan Williams.................... 23 Young Adult Author Michael Harmon......................... 23 An Evening with Tim O’Brien........................................24 In Conversation with Matthew Dickman.................... 26

Festival Events

2011 Big Read Information........................................... 3 Poetry Slams.................................................................... 4 Community Events......................................................... 5, 28 University Panels............................................................. 8 Poetry Salon After-Hours............................................... 11 Writing Workshops........................................................ 12-13 Community Panels.......................................................... 16-17 Festival Readings............................................................. 18-19 Events for Educators...................................................... 20 Youth Events.................................................................... 21 MFA & EWU Faculty Readings.................................... 27

ts n e v E f o le u d e ch S Page 14 & 15

To purchase headlining event tickets from TicketsWest, go to www.ticketswest.com, call 1.800.325.SEAT, or visit the Spokane Arena at 720 W. Mallon Ave. Note: All students get in free to headlining events with current high school/college ID (except for Ani DiFranco concert).

To purchase workshop tickets from the Corbin Art Center, go to www.spokaneparks.org, call 509.625.6200, or visit Spokane Parks and Recreation Department at City Hall, 5th floor, 808 W. Spokane Falls Blvd.

Stay where the action is. The Montvale Hotel is offering a festival rate starting at $99 a night.

Just mention Get Lit!

THIS YEAR, THE GET LIT!

FESTIVAL IS

TELLING THE AMERICAN STORY! The way we see it, America is not so much a melting pot as it is a scrumptious buffet. In a country that specializes in variety, the American story is really a collection of delicious perspectives. Whose story is “The American Story?” A Japanese American whose family was interned during World War II? A Native American keeping her culture alive by passing down her ancestors’ stories to the next generation? An anti-war college graduate drafted into the U.S. military? Yes, yes, and yes—and so much more. The American story reads like a 100,000 volume novel with millions of characters, each with a distinct voice.

During the Get Lit! Festival, you can hear all of these stories and more as we feature writers from across the spectrum, showcasing the diversity that makes up the American story. Festival authors will tackle environmental issues; translate classics through a feminine perspective; reveal hidden tales from science; expose the personal and political; manifest the sublime and sultry through poetry; explore the stories in nature; address multicultural experiences; and bring history alive.

This year’s theme inspired a huge variety of events for readers and writers alike. There are also opportunities for the community to share their thoughts. While you feast on the buffet of perspectives presented in workshops, readings, panels, and community events, think about this: what is your American story?

Chase Gallery Art Exhibit 8 am – 9 pm Mondays 8 am – 5 pm Tuesdays – Fridays Free

History. Memory. Place. Story. Picture. Space.

From March 4 - April 29, the City of Spokane Arts Department and the Exhibiting Committee of the Spokane Arts Commission present a Chase Gallery exhibit that offers a visual exploration of the theme “Telling the American Story.” Seven groups, made up of local writers, artists, and students, have collaborated to express a variety of artistic perspectives on the American story.

THE BIG READ As an extension of our theme, Get Lit! Programs is hosting Spokane’s third Big Read series from March 4 – April 16, 2011. The Big Read, funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, gives citizens the opportunity to read and discuss a single book within their community.

This year’s selection, Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, is a collection of stories about soldiers who served during the Vietnam War. It was chosen because it exemplifies our American story theme. Tracing the tour of one American platoon, The Things They Carried is considered one of the finest books ever written about combat.

The 2011 Big Read opens on March 4 with a reception hosted by Spokane mayor, Mary Verner, featuring stories by veterans of foreign wars, the release of an Arts Walk map of local memorials, as well as the opening of the Chase Gallery’s “Telling the American Story” art exhibit. Following the kick-off event, there will be multiple tie-in events related to the book. Eastern Washington University’s Theater Department wrote an adaptation of the book which will be staged from March 4 – 12 in Cheney.

DID YOU KNOW?

FREE EVENTS INCLUDE: Feb 1 – Mar 10 The Things They Carried featured on KPBX’s Bookshelf March 9 & 10 Teach-In about the 1960s in Cheney/ Spokane March 12 Reading of We Also Served and Military Brat March 18 Eastern’s adaptation of The Things They Carried at the Bing Crosby Theater March 25

Veterans for Peace Panel Discussion

March 27

Selected readings from VETS: Portraits of Veterans and Their Stories

April 7 Staged reading of A Piece of My Heart at Whitworth University April 16

Related Get Lit! Festival readings for all ages

There will be a Wednesday night film series related to the 1960’s and/or wars in general at one of two locations. Plus, multiple book discussions will be open to the public at local libraries, bookstores, and community spots.

The Big Read will culminate in an evening with Vietnam War veteran Tim O’Brien and Iraq War veteran and poet Brian Turner, during the Get Lit! Festival on April 16 at the Bing Crosby Theater. The event will open with a short film of oral histories from local Vietnam Vets created by Tincan. (To read the full article about this headlining event, see page 24).

For a complete list of scheduled Big Read events, go to ewu.edu/getlit.

BookCrossing, which is headquartered in Sandpoint, Idaho is a web-centered international catch-andrelease lending system that allows citizens to read a book and release it into the community for someone else to find. Thanks to BookCrossing, Get Lit! will be scattering a select number of The Things They Carried marked with yellow stickers throughout our community. Our goal is to get as many people as we can reading The Big Read book. If you have a book you’d like to release, visit www.bookcrossing.com.

The Big Read is a program of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services and Arts Midwest.

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POETRY SLAMS

A poetry slam is an outlet for poets to express their voices—literally and literarily—by performing their work in the form of a competition, scored by an audience of judges. It’s a dynamic event where creative thinkers explore their words on the page and out loud, not to mention have a blast with the audience and with each other!

The Get Lit! poetry slams turn the stage over to three groups of young people: youth, ages 5-12; teens, ages 13-18; and college students of any age. Participants are welcome to compete alone or in teams at these energetic and artistic contests.

Here’s the cherry on top: The firstplace winners of the slams will have the chance to perform at headlining events later in the week. The Youth Poetry Slam’s winning act will perform at Auntie’s Bookstore before the April 16 reading by Louise Borden, author of over 20 children’s books. The winners of the Teen Poetry Slam and College Poetry Slam will open for Ani DiFranco’s concert at the Bing Crosby Theater on April 15.

Youth Poetry Slam Wednesday, April 13 — 5:30 pm (registration begins at 5 pm)

Teen Poetry Slam Thursday, April 14 — 5 pm (registration begins at 4:30 pm)

College Poetry Slam Thursday, April 14 — 8:30 pm (registration begins at 8 pm)

all events located at Kress Gallery, 3rd floor, River Park Square Mall

These poetry slams are hosted by EWU’s Writers in the Community, a program for graduate students to volunteer at area schools, correctional facilities, shelters, and other community organizations as creative-writing teachers.

Registration for the poetry slams is free, but we ask that you bring canned food for the WITC drive. For information, contact Jennifer Miller McIntyre at witc@ewu.edu or 509.954.4045.

We are excited for you to share your unique style and perspective with the community!

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Special thanks to our event sponsor.

Also join us for “Cookie,” an interactive solo piece by Heather Gold, compelling comedian, speaker, and social artist. She will perform between the teen and college slams.

(Details on page 5)

Wednesday, April 13 — 6:30 – 8:30 pm Auntie’s Bookstore We all have our own story, or many stories, just itching to get out. There are almost as many ways to tell that story as there are stories to tell. To help sort through the myriad of directions, suggestions, approaches, and opinions on how to tell your own story, the Inland Northwest Writers Guild has organized a comprehensive look at writers’ resources.

Conferences, books, internet sites… the “help” is endless, but finding exactly what you need is often the challenge. The guild meets every third Wednesday of each month at Auntie’s Bookstore in Spokane.

“I Look Like an Egg but I Identify as a Cookie”

COMMUNITY EVENTS

Inland Northwest Writers Guild

with Heather Gold Thursday, April 14 — 7 pm Kress Gallery Described as the love child of Sarah Silverman and Rachel Maddow, Heather Gold is an innovative comedian and public speaker. Her solo performance relates the seeminglystraightforward pastime of baking to the complex recipe that comprises sexuality and self-identity. Using her own unique brand of comedy and a generous amount of kitchen staples, Gold recites her coming-out story while baking a delicious batch of chocolate chip cookies for the audience. “Cookie” has played to sold-out rooms from San Francisco to New York. The Oakland Tribune named “Cookie” Best of the Bay, and Curve Magazine honored the performance piece with their National Lesbian Theatre Award.

This event is brought to you by

Immigration Stories

with Margaret Regan Thursday, April 14 — 7:30 pm Spokane Unitarian Universalist Church Magaret Regan is a journalist who has spent the last ten years telling the stories of the escalating chaos along the U.S. Mexico border. Her book, Death of Josseline: Immigration Stories from the Arizona-Mexico Borderlands, starts with the story of a 14-year-old who was left to die in the desert after becoming ill, then presents other stories from immigrants, activists, human rights workers, and border patrol agents. Regan explores a host of urgent issues related to the migrants who attempt to come north, including border militarization, environmental damage, and the human tragedy of nearly 1,600 migrants who have died over the past decade.

Many thanks to our event sponsor.

THE BATTLE FOR BLUE GOLD WITH

MAUDE BARLOW Wednesday, April 13 — 7 pm

Lair Auditorium at Spokane Community College

Join us as Secretary of State Sam Reed pairs up with Maude Barlow to discuss ways you can become active in all levels of government.

Thursday, April 14 – 9:30 am Hagan Foundation Center for the Humanities at SCC

Opening for Maude Barlow will be the grand-prize winner from Down to Earth NW’s Earth Day writing contest.

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Did you know the average human needs 13 gallons of water per day, but the average North American uses almost 160 gallons?

That in 10 years New Mexico will no longer have fresh water? Or that in less than 15 years two-thirds of the global population will suffer from water shortages? You can see where this is going. Man vs. Nature is a well-known conflict in stories past and present. This one could easily be the plot for a new summer blockbuster, right?

Only this is not science fiction.

Water scarcity is an all-too-real problem. One of the heroes leading the charge is Maude Barlow, national chairperson of the Council of Canadians—Canada’s largest public-advocacy organization—and founder of the Blue Planet Project. She is well known for her social-justice work and water-rights activism and has received 10 honorary doctorates and multiple awards, including Sweden’s Right Livelihood Award (the “Alternative Nobel”). For over a decade, Barlow has been fighting to protect the water rights that every individual deserves.

In Blue Covenant: The Global Water Crisis and the Coming Battle for the Right to Water, Barlow lays out chilling statistics, like those noted above, about the state of water in our world and the bleak future if our leaders continue privatizing “blue gold.” She calls us to fight, here and now, by suggesting a “blue covenant”—a commitment to water conservation, justice, and democracy—because, as she asserts, “to deny the right to water is to deny the right to life.” Join the conversation as Barlow talks about this global issue and suggests ways each of us can act locally to impact our future.

Special thanks to the President’s Speaker Series at Spokane Community College and the Hagan Foundation Center for the Humanities for sponsoring Barlow as part of their “HERO: Think Global, Act Local” series.

TALES FROM THE PERIODIC TABLE WITH

SAM KEAN

Thursday, April 14 — 7 pm Bing Crosby Theater $15 (students free with ID)

Sam Kean grew up breaking thermometers and watching the Hg scatter and pool back together again. Now he spends his time chasing perfect lines of prose and demonstrating that it’s okay for a science lover to find formulas lacking. In college, where he studied physics and English, his real education was not in charts and equations, but in his professors’ stories, which have influenced his perspective on science and his creative approach to uncovering the personalities of the periodic table of elements.

Kean’s writing is pure Au. His debut book, The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements, reveals unlikely connections between science and everyday life.

Did you know that scientists wanted Bk’s chemical symbol to be Bm because it was such a “stinker” to discover? Did you know that Sb is a hermaphrodite (i.e. half metal/half insulator)? Or that Br gas is “a phalanx of foot soldiers clashing with the mucous membranes”? Humor, scandal, and action abound in Kean’s view of science.

He clearly knows his stuff, but Kean never uses it to intimidate. His well-researched facts are buoyed on a conversational tone as familiar to us as O. From his perspective, all of those “yl” words (xylyl, seryl, and isoleucyl, to name a few) become relatable and oddly comforting, much like a dysfunctional family. After listening to Sam Kean for a while, you’ll probably be surprised at the things you never thought to wonder about.

Many thanks to our event sponsor.

Hg = mercury Au = gold Bk = berkelium Sb = antimony Br = bromine O = oxygen

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UNIVERSITY PANELS FRIDAY, APRIL 15

Life Becoming Art Through Poetry

Spokane Falls Community College Bldg. 24, Room 110 9:30 – 11:30 am Poets have the gift of seeing beauty in all types of experiences, be it mundane chores, family memories, pop-culture surroundings, or journeys through nature. Matthew Dickman, Kathleen Flenniken, Lowell Jaeger, and Laura Tohe will discuss their unique views on life and how they translate their perspective into poetry. Connie Wasem, English Department Chair and co-advisor to the Wire Harp at SFCC, will moderate.

Parking Info: Two-hour guest parking spots are available in the P1 lot off of Ft. George Wright Drive. For other locations or longer periods of time, free one-day passes are available from the secretary of the nearest campus building.

Place as Character

Spokane Community College Hagan Foundation Center for the Humanities Learning Resources Center, Bldg. 16, 2nd Floor 9:30 –11:30 am Many authors create intriguing characters, but few can imbue place with a personality that makes it tangible within the reader’s imagination. Such writers get inspiration from their surroundings to recreate environments that are paradoxically imaginary and real. Join authors Jonathan Evison, Benjamin Percy, and Heather Sharfeddin as they discuss how they manifest scenery into vivid characters within their own published works. The moderator for this event is Scott Orme, an SCC instructor and faculty advisor of their literary magazine, Trade.

Parking Info: Visitor parking passes are available for free at the security office located on the first floor of Building 1.

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Perfecting Perspective

Eastern Washington University Hargreaves Hall, Reading Room 210 10 am – noon Stories are most effectively told when the point of view is clear and reliable. The writer uses the perspective of the character or narrator to guide the reader through a unique vision of reality. Fiction authors Sena Jeter Naslund, Julie Otsuka, and Nancy Rawles will discuss how they employ perspective to tell stories through their characters. Dr. Beth Torgerson, Assistant Professor of English at Eastern Washington University, will moderate.

Parking Info: Free parking is located in lot P-12 behind Roos Field. Metered parking is available at most campus lots. Day permits for campus lots are $5, available at 131 Tawanka Hall.

Finding Themes in Our Life Story

North Idaho College Molstead Library, Todd Lecture Hall Noon – 1:30 pm Everyone’s life has an important theme or two, something that drives interests, thoughts, and creative powers—something we just keep coming back to. Learn how Sam Kean, Ruth McLaughlin, and Brenda Peterson took their own themes—science, family history, faith, and nature—and wrote them into true stories. Jonathan Frey, instructor of English at North Idaho College, will moderate this discussion.

Parking Info: Temporary permits are available at: the Parking office in the Headwaters Complex B; College Relations office in the Sherman Administration Building; and the Admissions office located in Lee Hall. Metered on-street parking is also available.

Thank you to our sponsors.

ANI DIFRANCO IN CONCERT

Friday, April 15 — 8 pm (doors open at 7 pm) Bing Crosby Theater $37 in advance ($39 at the door) For over 20 years, internationally-acclaimed singer, songwriter, and guitarist Ani DiFranco has been offering up a mixture of folk, rock, jazz, and then some, with poetic lyrics and spoken-word performances that are sometimes personal, sometimes political, and always insightful. We can tell you she has her own record company, Righteous Babe Records, which features work similar to her own from other independent musicians. We can tell you that, since 1990, she has released over 300 songs on 20 albums, the most recent of which is Red Letter Year. But beyond that, we thought it best to let her songs reveal a little more about the self-described “Little Folk Singer”: I am not a pretty girl; that is not what I do. I ain’t no damsel in distress, and I don’t need to be rescued. I am not a maiden fair and I am not a kitten stuck up a tree somewhere…though the one person who really knows me best says I’m like a cat. Yeah, the kind of cat that you just can’t pick up and throw into your lap. I am a poster girl with no poster. I am 32 flavors and then some.

I’ll tell you what, there is plenty wrong with me, but I fixed up a few old buildings and I’ve planted a few trees, and children seem to like me and animals too, like the birds and the bees.

I’m becoming transfixed with nature and my part in it, which I believe just signifies I’m finally waking up. And now here’s this tiny baby, and they say she looks just like me, and she is smiling at me with that present/infant glee, and I would defend to the ends of the earth her perfect right to be.

Celebrating the same spirit of artistic expression, the winners of the Teen and College Poetry Slams will open the concert.

Lyrics From: Not a Pretty Girl Virtue 32 Flavors Way Tight Evolve Present/Infant Paradigm Hat Shaped Hat

I was born to two immigrants, who knew why they were here.

This event is brought to They were happy to pay taxes for the schools and roads— you by happy to be here. They took it seriously—the second job of citizenry. Because you are what you do in order to prevent becoming what you’re busy not doing, and if you do, do it truly, and you arrive at it newly, then in the end you are absolved, and the problem of heaven is solved.

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REIMAGINING THE CLASSICS WITH

SENA JETER NASLUND Friday, April 15 — 7 pm The Lincoln Center $15 (students free with ID) We know Captain Ahab in Herman Melville’s Moby Dick as a vengeful man searching the seas for the whale that maimed him. But what of the life he leaves behind when he embarks on his adventures? What of the woman who loves him from afar? Who is she? What are her hardships, her hopes, her regrets?

Sena Jeter Naslund decided to tell the other side of the story, which begins with a woman in labor in a small, cold cabin in Kentucky. Her husband, Ahab, is away at sea; her mother has gone to fetch a doctor. She is alone. In the midst of her painful, fitful sleep, she hears the bounty hunters—angry and wild like a pack of wolves—pounding at her door. And so Una makes her debut in Ahab’s Wife, Naslund’s epic retelling of an American classic.

Naslund breaks through the underdeveloped feminine archetype and breathes life into Una, creating a three-dimensional character as graceful and powerful as the sea. In stylized, poetic language, Naslund offers a deep look into the lives of 19th-century New England women and adds layer upon layer of color to America’s literary landscape.

AND NANCY RAWLES Author and playwright Nancy Rawles creates another character from a classic in her novel My Jim. Mark Twain told the tale of Jim, a slave escaping down the Mississippi with a white boy, Huck. But now Rawles tells the story of Jim’s wife and children; a story of love and strength that sharpens and broadens the past. Using dialect to bring Sadie’s slave narrative to life, Rawles adds an honest, fresh, feminine perspective to historical fiction.

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Thank you to our sponsor.

Friday, April 15 — 9 pm Montvale Hotel Atrium

Victor A. Charlo is an elder of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes in Dixon, Montana, who writes passionately about the beauty of Native traditions. His book, Put Sey, roughly translates to “Good Enough.” Kathleen Flenniken proves that a poet can start writing in her 30s and definitely be good enough. Her second collection of poetry, Plume, was selected for the Pacific Northwest Poetry Series, and she has received numerous fellowships and grants. She’ll also share from Famous, winner of the 2005 Prairie Schooner Prize, the 2007 Notable Book of the Year by the American Library Association, and finalist for the Washington State Book Award. Laura Tohe didn’t approach being “famous” from a typical angle. She grew up speaking Diné (Navajo) and living without electricity or plumbing.

Her stories come to life through prose, poetry, and music, and many awards have recognized her as a gifted writer. Her book, Tséyi’: Deep in the Rock, is a collection of elegant reflections on the Canyon De Chelly. Her motto is, “If you don’t have a story, you’re an empty person.”

Thank you to our sponsors.

Rock and Sling

POETRY SALON AFTER-HOURS Come bask in the glow of creative ideas at this dynamic, informal poetry salon, an event which has its roots in early 20th-century Paris.

Thom Caraway, editor of Whitworth University’s Rock & Sling and author of the poetry chapbook A Visitor’s Guide to North Dakota, hosts the discussion between these five poets about their craft and life. We invite you into their conversation.

Lowell Jaeger is certainly not an empty person. He does it all: published writer, father, husband, creative writing professor, founding editor of Many Voices Press, winner of the Grolier Poetry Peace Prize, recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Montana Arts Council, and national trainer with the Project on Civic Reflection (Valparaiso University). We is his fourth collection of poems. His motto is, “He came, he saw, he wrote it down.” Laura Read writes down everyday moments and transforms them into works of art.

Now a teacher at Spokane Falls Community College, she earned her bachelor and MFA degrees from Eastern Washington University. Her first published chapbook, The Chewbacca on Hollywood Boulevard Reminds Me of You, is this year’s chapbook award winner from Floating Bridge Press, which Kathleen Flenniken co-edits.

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WRITING WORKSHOPS-MORNING

Poems as Portraits

with Lowell Jaeger General 17905/Student 17906 How do we move beyond the “I” of so many contemporary poems? How do we expand a poem’s consciousness to include the “us,” the “we,” and the “other”? What are the strategies a poet can use to portray characters — real and imagined — who appear meaningful and true?

In this two-hour workshop, poet Lowell Jaeger will lead students to explore these questions through close examination of poems by established poets, as well as in-class exercises and the workshopping of poems you bring in.

Those who pre-register will be sent a course packet including selected readings and be given the opportunity to send their own work to Jaeger for an in-depth critique. Jaeger teaches creative writing at Flathead Valley Community College (FVCC) in Montana. He is also the founding editor of FVCC’s Many Voices Press.

The Second Draft of History

with Jack Hamann General 17907/Student 17908 Working under strict deadlines, reporters famously produce “the first draft of history.” But seasoned journalists often long for the time and space to tell the rest of the story. This workshop explores the kinds of stories that cry out to become books and offers first-hand accounts and suggestions from journalists who have moved their reporting from the printed page (or the television screen) to the bookshelves.

Jack Hamann has worked as a network correspondent and documentary producer for CNN and PBS. He has received several honors from the National Press Club and the Society of Professional Journalists. His book, On American Soil: How Justice Became a Casualty of WWII, was selected as the Outstanding Investigative Book of 2005 by Investigative Reporters and Editors, Inc.

The Zine Scene

April 16 — 9:30 – 11:30 am Riverpoint Campus, Phase One Bldg. $30 ($20 for students with ID) Mining Family History for Stories

with Julie Otsuka General 17899/Student 17900 Starting with recollections of her own family’s stories, Julie Otsuka went on to research published accounts of Japanese American imprisonment in WWII internment camps before writing the novel, When the Emperor was Divine. Your own family history might be filled with illuminating true stories of unimaginable comedy or tragedy. As a writer, you may feel challenged by your own desire to reveal the truth while preserving respect for those who cannot tell their own stories.

Writers may ask themselves, “Am I the right person to tell this story? Am I getting the story right? Am I doing these people justice? Or, am I even entitled to tell it?” This workshop allows participants to move past these questions in order to write meaningful stories steeped in realism.

Edit Like a Pro

with Henry Covey and Gretchen Stelter General 17901/Student 17902 Just as your résumé should help you put your best foot forward, your manuscript, query letter, and book proposal should reflect polish and professionalism to agents and publishers.

This workshop will cover quick-and-easy tips for editing your work, including grammar and punctuation pitfalls as well as developmental tricks to polish, tighten, and finalize your work.

It will also teach you how to craft queries and proposals that pack a punch. Participants should bring two copies of a query letter or “About the Book” abstract (contained in a nonfiction proposal) for their manuscript to receive hands-on editing on grammar and content during the workshop. Editing duo Gretchen Stelter and Henry Covey own and operate Cogitate Studios, a freelance editing, and writing company in Portland.

Stelter worked as a former literary agent as well as a freelance editor for Simon & Schuster and Random House. While working at Beyond Words Publishing, Covey served as the Managing Editor for Rhonda Byrne’s best-selling book, The Secret.

with Julia Lipscomb General 17903/Student 17904 Start your own publishing revolution! Zines offer a way to contribute to local culture. This workshop will introduce the zine as a medium of storytelling, provide a history of local zines, and give those interested in noncommercial media an opportunity to create and distribute something they can have full artistic and publishing control over, all on a small budget. Whitworth graduate Julia Lipscomb navigated her way around the Spokane music scene by distributing a monthly fanzine called “The Lab Underground” in high school. Since then, she has worked in archiving special collections at the Vera Project, Zine Archive & Publishing Project (ZAPP) in Richard Hugo House, and the Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture.

Writing Off the Page

Sneaking Past the Dragons

Nitro Nonfiction: How to Write and Teach Dynamic Nonfiction

with Nancy Rawles General 17911/Student 17912 Whether you’re writing novels, plays, short stories, or songs, conflict is essential to any narrative form. School children will insert conflict into their recollections of recess, and honest reporters have been known to embellish conflict for the sake of a story. What makes conflict so compelling? This workshop will show you how to get the most out of any conflict, which is often how change comes about in life and in fiction. Nancy Rawles is an accomplished playwright as well as the author of three critically acclaimed novels, including Love Like Gumbo and Crawfish Dreams. Her plays have been produced in Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Seattle. with Ruth McLaughlin General 17915/Student 17916 This energetic workshop will help participants “sneak past the watchful dragons of self-consciousness”— as C.S. Lewis termed it—to begin writing their life stories. In the way that Confessionalism became an outlet for poets, memoir writing has become an artistic expression for writers who favor prose.

Participants will learn tricks and topics that they can use to fuel their work and will also explore the role of voice in memoir writing. Ruth McLaughlin teaches writing in Great Falls, Montana. Her memoir, Bound Like Grass, unravels the hardships of growing up in an impoverished family on an isolated farm to reveal the life lessons she learned. This book is her effort to understand why she left home but couldn’t leave Montana.

Developing Your Blogging Style

WRITING WORKSHOPS-AFTERNOON

Conflict: The Key to Drama

with Nance Van Winckel General 17913/Student 17914 Writing needn’t be confined to a book or magazine.

Open to writers in all genres, this workshop will help you generate exciting options for your words to “live” in the physical world. Bring objects—textiles, rocks, bark, paintings, digital media, or other items—on which you might put some text. The goal of this workshop will be to spark emotions and foster ideas that are uncontainable on the page. So be wild and creative! Building on the tradition of graffiti artists, poet Nance Van Winckel has invented a cross-discipline artwork called pho-toems.

These digital photographs are layered with other images and small bits of text, or mini-poems. (Experience in another medium is welcome, but not required.)

with Kelly Milner Halls and Claire Rudolf Murphy General 17917/Student 17918 This interactive workshop with award-winning local writers Kelly Milner Halls and Claire Rudolf Murphy features the process of writing nonfiction from idea to proposal. Kelly and Claire will share model nonfiction children’s books and discuss the steps in their own writing process, and lead participants in exploring their own nonfiction ideas through discussion and freewriting exercises. This workshop is open to all participants interested in exploring the writing and teaching of nonfiction for children and adults. Kelly Milner Halls loves writing about the things that make children’s eyes pop: dinosaurs, cryptids, wild horses, albino animals, and child mummies. Claire Rudolf Murphy is the author of multiple works of fiction and nonfiction for children and young adults, including Children of Alcatraz and I Am Sacajawea.

with Dr. Molly Johnson and Dan Webster General 17919/Student 17920 With over 100 million active blogs available online, web logs have evolved beyond basic online diaries into interactive communities of knowledge. Whether you are interested in creating an informational blog on a particular subject—politics, travel, fashion, education, music, arts or crafts—or if you are using a blog to enhance the overall communication and culture of your business or organization, this workshop is for you. Experienced and novice bloggers alike are invited to join EWU Associate Professor Molly Johnson and 30-year-veteran columnist and freelance blogger Dan Webster to discuss how and why people blog, and to explore strategies on style and language for framing your entries to a particular audience. You will leave with new tools and fresh ideas for how you can contribute to the blogosphere.

April 16 — 3:30 – 5:30 pm Riverpoint Campus, Phase One Bldg. $30 ($20 for students with ID)

Space is limited, so pre-registration is suggested. To register, go to www.spokaneparks.org or call 509.625.6200.

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GET READY...

Women’s Votes, Women’s Voices Exhibit MAC Museum Until May 7

CALENDAR OF EVENTS THURS. APRIL 14

Discussion with Maude Barlow and Sam Reed Hagan Foundation Center for the Humanities at SCC

Telling the American Story Exhibit Chase Gallery March 4 – April 29

(register 4:30 pm)

Heather Gold performs “Cookie” Kress Gallery 7 pm

Operation Homecoming Screening Moran Prairie Library April 16 — 6:30 pm

Tales from the Periodic Table with Sam Kean Bing Crosby Theater 7 pm $15

WED. APRIL 13 Youth Poetry Slam Kress Gallery 5:30 pm

Immigration Stories with Margaret Regan Unitarian Universalist Church 7:30 pm

(register 5 pm)

Inland Northwest Writers Guild Meeting Auntie’s Bookstore 6:30 pm

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WORKSHOPS SAT. APRIL 16

The Battle for Blue Gold with Maude Barlow Lair Auditorium at SCC 7 pm

Place as Character SCC 9:30 – 11:30 am Hea th Life Becoming Art Through Poetry SFCC 9:30 – 11:30 am d G ol

Poets Up! Blue Door Theatre Fridays in April 8 pm $9 ($7 with student ID)

University Panels

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9:30 am Teen Poetry Slam Kress Gallery 5 pm

FRI. APRIL 15

College Poetry Slam Kress Gallery 8:30 pm

(register 8 pm)

Perfecting Perspective EWU 10 am – noon Finding Themes in Our Life Story NIC noon – 1:30 pm Reimagining the Classics with Sena Jeter Naslund and Nancy Rawles

The Lincoln Center 7 pm $15 Ani DiFranco in Concert Bing Crosby Theater 8 pm $37 in advance ($39 at door) Poetry Salon After-Hours Montvale Hotel Atrium 9 pm

Riverpoint Campus 3:30 – 5:30 pm 9:30 – 11:30 am Developing Your Blogging Style Mining Family History for Stories Conflict: The Key to Drama The Second Draft of History Sneaking Past the Dragons Edit Like a Pro Writing Off the Page The Zine Scene Igniting the Inner Reader Poems as Portraits How toWrite andTeach Dynamic Nonfiction Putting Pen to Paper Willow Springs Teen Writing Writing the West – Kids (90 min) $30 ($20 with student ID) youth events free

SAT. APRIL 16

Festival Readings at Riverpoint

Ruth McLaughlin and Heather Sharfeddin 10 – 11 am Jonathan Evison and Brenda Peterson 11 am – noon Jack Hamann 3:30 – 4:30 pm Bruce Bjornstad and Jane Fritz 3:30 – 4:30 pm Benjamin Percy 4:30 – 5 pm John Laursen 4:30 – 5:30 pm EWU Alumni Reading 5 – 6 pm

Youth Readings at Auntie’s

Come One, Come All Community Reading Auntie’s Bookstore 1 – 3 pm (register 12:30 pm)

Regional MFA Reading Barrister Winery 2 – 4 pm 101-Word Fiction Showdown Auntie’s Bookstore 3:30 – 5 pm

Kid’s Reading Louise Borden and Kelly Milner Halls 11:30 – 12:30 pm Youth Reading Suzanne Morgan Williams 1 – 1:45 pm Young Adult Reading Michael Harmon 2 – 2:30 pm

EWU Faculty Reading Barrister Winery 4:30 – 6:30 pm

Tim O ’B r

Japan Week Reading at River Park Square Lives Interrupted with Julie Otsuka 3 – 4 pm

SUN. APRIL 17

In Conversation with Matthew Dickman The Lincoln Center 11:30 am $15

Native American Spotlight at MAC Museum Culturally Infused Words 1 – 2:30 pm Traditional Stories of the First Americans 2:45 – 4:30 pm An Evening with Tim O’Brien and Brian Turner Bing Crosby Theater 8 pm $15

VENUES Auntie’s Bookstore 402 W. Main Ave. Barrister Winery 1213 W. Railroad Ave. Bing Crosby Theater 901 W. Sprague Ave. Blue Door Theatre 815 W. Garland Ave. Chase Gallery Spokane City Hall 808 W. Spokane Falls Blvd.

EWU Cheney Campus Hargreaves Hall C St. and Seventh St. EWU Riverpoint Campus Phase One Bldg.

668 N. Riverpoint Blvd.

Hagan Foundation Center for the Humanities Spokane Community College Learning Resources Center Bldg. 16, 2nd Floor 1810 N. Greene St. Kress Gallery River Park Square Mall (3rd Floor, behind food court) 808 W. Main St. The Lincoln Center 1316 N. Lincoln St.

n ie

Montvale Hotel 1005 W. First Ave. North Idaho College (NIC) 1000 W. Garden Ave. Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture (MAC) 2316 W. First Ave. River Park Square 808 W. Main St. Spokane Community College (SCC) Lair Auditorium (Building 6) 1810 N. Greene St. Spokane Falls Community College (SFCC) 3410 W. Fort George Wright Dr. Unitarian Universalist Church 4340 W. Fort George Wright Dr.

PANELS AND TALKS SAT. APRIL 16

Riverpoint Campus noon – 1:30 pm Chapbooks Freelance Journalism 101 Writing the American Story Comics and Cartoons in the Classroom

1:45 – 3:15 pm Ins and Outs of the Publishing Process The Art of Nature Writing From Novel to Graphic Novel Pathfinder: Ideas, Writing, Reading, and Research

Events are free unless otherwise noted.

COMMUNITY PANELS AND TALKS

Saturday, April 16 — Riverpoint Campus,

Phase One Bldg.

First Session Noon – 1:30 pm

Chapbooks

with Matthew Dickman, Kathleen Flenniken, and Laura Read For centuries, small booklets that are easy to make and distribute have been popular. Whether stapled, saddle-stitched, or perfect bound; self-published or printed by a small press, these short collections allow poets of all levels to feature a sampling of their work. Award-winning poet Matthew Dickman first published his work in the chapbooks Amigos and Something About a Black Scarf. Kathleen Flenniken, co-editor and president of Floating Bridge Press, is dedicated to publishing Washington State poets. This year’s Floating Bridge Press Chapbook Award went to SFCC professor Laura Read for her collection, The Chewbacca on Hollywood Boulevard Reminds Me of You. All three poets will share their thoughts on the role chapbooks play in today’s culture. Poet Christopher Howell, founder and director of EWU’s Willow Springs Books press, will moderate.

Freelance Journalism 101

with Luke Baumgarten, Jordy Byrd, and Kirsten Harrington Unearthing stories that interest you and then pounding out an article can reveal your passions to the world. Doesn’t the life of a freelance journalist sound romantic? But is this really how it works? What are the struggles and the joys of freelance journalism? Luke Baumgarten is a staff writer at The Inlander, and a contributor to Billboard Magazine, Willamette Week, and the San Antonio Current. Jordy Byrd is a full-time freelance journalist in Spokane. Her stories about taxi cabs and ice climbing fill the pages of publications such as The Inlander and Out There Monthly. Kirsten Harrington is a Spokane freelance journalist specializing in food writing. Her work appears regularly in The Spokesman-Review, The Inlander, and Spokane Coeur d’Alene Living Magazine. With 25 years of journalism experience, EWU Assistant Professor Jamie Tobias Neely will moderate.

Second Session 1:45 – 3:15 pm Ins and Outs of the Publishing Process The Art of Nature Writing with Henry Covey, Jonathan Evison, and Gretchen Stelter Authors, editors, and agents share valuable advice in this panel that covers the particulars of independent and commercial publishing. Author Jonathan Evison is also the executive editor of The Nervous Breakdown (TNB), an independent online culture magazine and publisher (TNB Books) that features the work of established and emerging authors, poets, and other artists from around the world. Editor, writer, and designer Henry Covey worked as a managing editor for The Grove Review and Beyond Worlds Publishing before beginning a freelance editing company, Cogitate Studios, with his editing partner, Gretchen Stelter. Stelter has worked as a ghost writer, literary agent, and editorial director before co-founding Cogitate Studios. Moderated by author, EWU professor, and Willow Springs editor Samuel Ligon.

with Bruce Bjornstad, Jack Nisbet, and Brenda Peterson Some of history’s most memorable writers such as Thoreau, Frost, and Muir, have drawn inspiration from their natural surroundings. Join us as three contemporary authors share how nature has sparked ideas for their writing. Bruce Bjornstad, geologist and author of the field guide On the Trail of the Ice Age Floods, will discuss his studies of the grandiose land formations located right here in Washington State. Novelist and creative-nonfiction writer Brenda Peterson’s curiosity about and respect for nature radiates through 15 books, such as Build Me an Ark: A Life with Animals. Jack Nisbet, winner of the 2010 Pacific Northwest Book Award for his biography of naturalist David Douglas titled The Collector, is himself a naturalist, teacher, and writer of multiple books on nature. Moderated by Jane Fritz, award-winning environmental journalist and author of Legendary Lake Pend Oreille.

Native American Spotlight Writing the American Story

with Michael Harmon, Heather Sharfeddin, and Brian Turner Everyone has stories to share, but the magic is in the writing of them. These celebrated writers will offer their perspectives on the American story and share about their creative processes. Based on his own teenage experiences, Michael Harmon writes about tough issues in a real way in awardwinning young adult novels such as Brutal and Skate. Born and raised in the Northwest, Heather Sharfeddin infuses the landscape into her books like Windless Summer, where there is a notable relationship between place and character. After serving seven years in the U.S. Army, including a year each in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Iraq, Brian Turner channeled his experiences into poetry that resulted in The New York Times’ Editor’s Choice titled Here, Bullet. Moderating this panel will be Shann Ray, author of American Masculine and professor of leadership and forgiveness studies at Gonzaga University.

From Novel to Graphic Novel

with Danica Novgorodoff and Benjamin Percy The story of three small-town Oregon boys whose fathers are off fighting in Iraq takes on a cinematic quality in Danica Novgorodoff’s hands. She explains her interest in narrative art: “My writing has always been very visual, so combining the two media seems the natural way to get at what I’ve always tried to do with art—tell a story.” Join us as these authors discuss the creative processes behind turning Benjamin Percy’s short story Refresh, Refresh, into a graphic novel. Novgorodoff is an artist and creator of five graphic novels, whose work has earned her a 2007 Eisner Award for Best Single Issue Comic and as well as national acclaim. Percy’s fiction and nonfiction have been read on National Public Radio and performed at Symphony Space.

Saturday, April 16 Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture Culturally Infused Words

panel with Gloria Bird ,Victor Charlo, and Laura Tohe 1 – 2:30 pm Native Americans have passed down oral histories and life lessons in the form of stories for generations.

Today, the stories of Native Americans have become more personal and more contemporary as authors often try to link their past influences to their present reality. Gloria Bird is a poet, essayist, and novelist whose work attempts to reveal the truth in her aboriginal experience without exploiting it. Poet Victor Charlo attempts to reconcile the love he has for his native language with his post-secondary education in English. Poet and nonfiction author Laura Tohe incorporates her rich Dine heritage into her many forms of expression. Moderated by Dr. Elise Boxer, Assistant Professor of American Indian Studies at EWU.

Traditional Stories of the First Americans

storytelling with Taress Alexis, Marilyn James, and LaRae Wiley 2:45 – 4:30 pm Have you ever wondered how Chipmunk got the stripes on her back? Or how Bear lost his beautiful, fluffy tail? Get answers from these legends and many more as local storytellers share their traditional Salishan stories of the Inland Northwest. Taress Alexis, creator of a traditional-foods curriculum and member of the Sinixt Nation, teaches cultural workshops throughout Kootenai Regional District in British Columbia, CA. Sinixt Nation activist Selkirk College educator and storyteller, Marilyn James, has spoken around the world to audiences young and old. LaRae Wiley, member of the Arrow Lakes Band, is a Salish language teacher, singer, songwriter, and storyteller. Kindergarten and pre-school students from the Salish School of Spokane will also perform a skit and sing songs in their native language.

Families and children of all ages are invited to this storytelling event. Plus, children will learn how to create a traditional cornhusk doll.

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IN THE THEATER

Shaped by the American West

10 – 11 am The West’s grand and sometimes lonely landscapes provide a unique setting for the challenges of family relationships. Ruth McLaughlin, author of Bound Like Grass: A Memoir from the Western High Plains, and Heather Sharfeddin, author of the novel Sweetwater Burning, tell the stories, respectively, of a broken family struggling to survive on an isolated Montana farm and a crime against a solitary Muslim family in a remote Idaho town.

Both writers expertly capture how the West shapes its inhabitants.

Exploring Fresh Angles on America

11 am – noon Jonathan Evison, author of the eagerly anticipated novel West of Here, loves to push himself to new and uncomfortable places. The same might be said of Brenda Peterson, who wrote I Want to Be Left Behind: Finding Rapture Here on Earth, a memoir that situates itself in the uncomfortable space between fundamental religion and deep ecology. With humor and honesty, these authors explore new ways to look at American landscapes, people, traditions, and connections between past and future.

EWU Alumni Reading

Speaking Truth to Power: Modern Lessons

from a Historic Injustice at Seattle’s Fort Lawton 3:30 – 4:30 pm Jack Hamann’s heroes are Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., President Jimmy Carter, and teachers, which is fitting, because Hamann does what they have done: change what needs to be changed and make a difference for the better. Sponsored by the Humanities Washington Inquiring Mind Program, Hamann 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. Hamann’s reading is sponsored in part through the Inquiring Minds program from

Benjamin Percy’s Wild Ride

4:30 – 5 pm Benjamin Percy turned his love of nature—hiking a snake-shaped trail through the woods, camping on the side of a mountain, fishing a slow bend of a river—into inspiration for the spooky setting in his latest novel. The nightmarish hunting trip in The Wilding reveals the deep-seated flaws of a variety of characters and explores the dilemmas of land development, all woven in a way that will keep you on the edge of your seat.

5 – 6 pm Each year Eastern’s Inland Northwest Center for Writers honors a recently published alumnus with the Creative Writing Distinguished Alumni Award. This year’s selected writer, Shann Ray, has a forthcoming collection of short stories, American Masculine: Montana Stories, that also won the prestigious Katherine Bakeless Nason Literary Publication Prize. In order to celebrate the range of talented writers who have received an MFA from EWU’s creative-writing program, this event will also showcase Maya Jewell Zeller (Rust Fish, short-listed for the New Issues Poetry Prize) and Jeremy Halinen (What Other Choice, selected as the winner of the 2010 Exquisite Disarray First Book Poetry Contest).

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FESTIVAL READINGS Saturday, April 16 Riverpoint Campus, Phase One Bldg.

IN THE CLASSROOM

RIVER PARK SQUARE MALL

Guides to Our Region’s Unique Natural History

3:30 – 4:30 pm If “literary guidebook” had its own genre, Bruce Bjornstad and Jane Fritz would have it covered.

Bjornstad’s book On the Trail of the Ice Age Floods: A geological field guide to the Mid-Columbia Basin and Fritz’s Legendary Lake Pend Oreille go far beyond ordinary guidebooks by giving us in-depth, well-crafted insight into the historical and contemporary natural stories of areas in our region. Join them in becoming passionate about the Mid-Columbia Basin’s spectacular landforms and Idaho’s awe-inspiring wilderness of water.

The Photographic History of the Northwest

4:30 – 5:30 pm John Laursen poured years of his life into the production of a masterpiece titled Wild Beauty: Photographs of the Columbia River Gorge, 1867–1957. This book pairs text with historical photographs telling the story of the Northwest’s natural grandeur. Over 130 carefully chosen images make this stunningly beautiful book one that takes a broad and deep look at the land we love.

Lives Interrupted with Julie Otsuka 3 – 4 pm

Julie Otsuka’s grandfather was imprisoned in 1942 for being a Japanese immigrant, and her grandmother and mother were taken from their homes to spend three years in a secured camp in Utah. Her debut novel, When the Emperor Was Divine, is based on her own family’s experience during a period of history many of us have chosen to forget. Writing from five different points of view, she offers us an unforgettable account of a family in wartime. This reading is in collaboration with Spokane’s annual Japan Week.

EVENTS FOR EDUCATORS

Workshops April 16 at Riverpoint Campus, Phase One Bldg. $30 ($20 for students with ID)

Putting Pen to Paper

with Barbara Crumb and Beverley Wolff 9:30 – 11:30 am General 17909/Student 17910 This interactive workshop will explore the use of writers’ notebooks to improve student writing in all content areas. Taught by two experienced Northwest Inland Writing Project teachers, this class has something for teachers and pre-service teachers of all grade levels and content areas. Barbara Crumb, Sandpoint High School English teacher, and Beverley Wolff, administrator of Pullman’s Montessori School, will facilitate discussions and provide activities that reveal the benefits of using writers’ notebooks.

Igniting the Inner Reader

with April Niemela 3:30 – 5:30 pm General 17921/Student 17922 Schools have long worked to create a community of readers but have often struggled to imbue students with a love of reading. This interactive workshop from the Northwest Inland Writing Project explores the reasons we read, the ways we love reading, and how reading has shaped our lives. Take this discussion and set of activities back to your own school and watch the community of readers take shape. Bring a flip camera to the session and take your experiences away with you in 21st-century style. Join April Niemela, ninthgrade language arts teacher at Jenifer Junior High as she facilitates a workshop on igniting the inner reader.

Also available for clock hours: How to Write and Teach Dynamic Nonfiction with Kelly Milner Halls and Claire Rudolf Murphy 3:30 – 5:30 pm (check page 13 for description)

Continuing-education credits will be available for K-12 teachers through NEWESD 101. The cost for 3-5 hours is $10 and for 6 hours is $12. You can sign up for credits the day of the event with a check.

Register at spokaneparks.org. Look for “Register for Classes,” then “Activities” and enter the registration number for the workshop you wish to attend. You can also call 509.625.6200 or visit Spokane Parks and Recreation at City Hall.

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Panels and Talks April 16 at Riverpoint Campus, Phase One Bldg.

Free

Comics and Cartoons...in the Classroom?

with Sammi Curry, Danica Novgorodoff, and Manny Trembley noon – 1:30 pm Although illustrations in picture books, cartoons, comics and graphic novels are considered child’s play by most, these visuals have been shown to improve students’ reading and comprehension. Sammi Curry is a first grade teacher at Athol Elementary who has researched the benefits of using visual literacy in the classroom for readers at all levels. Danica Novgorodoff is a professional artist and graphic novelist whose work has been exhibited around the nation. Manny Trembley is a Spokane-based illustrator who works with Eric Anderson on a graphic novel series for kids called PX!. Dr. Emily Duvall, who teaches courses on critical literacy and visual literacy at the University of Idaho, will moderate.

Pathfinder: Ideas, Writing, Reading, and Research

with Louise Borden 1:45 – 3:15 pm Join children’s author Louise Borden as she discusses her process as a writer, shares the stories behind many of her books, talks about the reading-writing connection, and narrates some of her research travels. Borden is the author of 25 nonfiction children’s books that chronicle many facets of the American story. They are about ordinary people who do extraordinary things. Themes of friendship, family, and courage are threaded throughout, inspiring young readers with stories from our nation’s history.

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ars, the Nor For over 25 ye s used researchha P) IW (N t ec oj Writing Pr rs to empower teache to es gi te ra st based teachers g writers as well as in tic ac pr e m ts’ co be prove their studen im n ca ho w g in of writ stricts in serves many di P IW N s. tie is ili ab n Washington and er st Ea d an o ah Id Northern ecific ms to a school’s sp ra og pr t af cr to g willin te with st a summer institu ting needs. They also ho teachers and visi rt pe ex om fr ps worksho actices in ing the best pr ht lig gh hi s or of th au eracy. A University lit g in rit w d an it is reading development cred al on si es of pr o Idah Duvall at $60. Contact Emily also available for for more details. emily@uidaho.edu

GetLit! Programs includes educational

outreach programs that help develop child literacy for low-income, rural, and alternative schools within the Inland Northwest.Whether it is a one-day visit from a published author, an extended residency lasting 10 or 26 weeks with a professional creative writer, or an in-class poetry-recitation contest that sends students to regional, state, and national levels of competition, Get Lit! Programs promotes languagearts skills and fosters an abiding love of learning.

Through these ongoing programs— Authors Tour, Writers-in-Residence, and Poetry Out Loud—Get Lit! helps energize students about reading, engages them in discussions around literature, and challenges them to think critically and creatively about our world. We encourage students to think of themselves as writers and teach them the power of the pencil!

If you are interested in bringing Get Lit! Programs to your school, please contact Danielle Ward at dward@ewu.edu or 509.359.6977. For complete details on these programs, visit our website at www.ewu.edu/getlit.

Kids’ Workshop: Writing the West

YOUTH EVENTS

9:30 – 11 am Ages 10 + Kids will love this interactive workshop that uses images of Western landscapes to spark conversation and writing. Youth author Suzanne Morgan Williams often works with young writers to create fiction and nonfiction stories with setting, character, and plot, showing them how to find creative inspiration from their surroundings. No registration necessary, but participants should bring plenty of paper and a pen or pencil, and be ready to have fun!

Willow Springs Teen Workshop

3:30 – 5:30 pm Teens Aspiring high school writers are invited to share their poetry (three poems) or prose (up to eight pages of fiction or nonfiction) with their peers in small groups led by the editors of EWU’s nationally-recognized literary journal, Willow Springs. Students must bring four copies of each piece. You can pre-register at willowspringsewu@gmail.com or 509.359.7435.

For over 30 years, Willow Springs, the literary journal that is published twice yearly by Eastern Washington University’s creative-writing MFA program, has been engaging its audience in an ongoing discussion of art, ideas, and what it means to be human. In addition to featuring interviews with some of the most notable authors in contemporary literature, Willow Springs publishes the finest in essays, fiction, and poetry by a diverse variety of writers—from the up-and-coming to Poet Laureates and Pulitzer Prize-winners.

Also, see page 17 for more information about Traditional Stories of the First Americans, an interactive Native American storytelling event for the whole family.

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CHILDREN’S AUTHOR

LOUISE BORDEN Saturday, April 16 — 11:30am – 12:30pm Auntie’s Bookstore

They fly. They invent. They face the struggles of war.

Louise Borden’s characters are ordinary people who do extraordinary things. “I write about people who have courage,” she says. “We all need courage to follow our dreams, to help others in the world, and to face the future.”

History comes to life in Borden’s stories. In Across the Blue Pacific, young Molly writes to a soldier fighting in World War II. In Sleds on Boston Common, a boy is brave enough to ask a British general to move his troops out of the local children’s sledding area. The Journey that Saved Curious George tells how the original authors of the book series ran from the Nazis. Other stories are about John Hancock, Bessie Coleman, and the Wright brothers. They are about winter and sailing and school. They are as diverse as America, and they are inspired by Borden’s love for reading and learning.

Also at this event, enjoy a performance from this year’s Youth Poetry Slam winners!

In a simple, poetic style, Borden puts big ideas into the hands of young readers. She lets them know that, like her characters, they too can make history.

WITH KELLY MILNER HALLS Kelly Milner Halls published over a thousand magazines and newspaper articles before she started writing children’s nonfiction. Numerous awards for her books include the Benjamin Franklin Award, the Junior Library Guild Premier Selection, and Izaak Walton League of America Conservation Book of the Year. Her most recent book is Saving the Baghdad Zoo: A True Story of Hope and Heroes, a fascinating account of the U.S. Army’s rescue of zoo animals from Iraq’s war zone.

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We would like to thank Professor Emerita Mary Ann Nelson for sponsoring all of these youth events.

YOUTH AUTHOR

SUZANNE MORGAN WILLIAMS Saturday, April 16 1 – 1:45 pm Auntie’s Bookstore Suzanne Morgan Williams is a bull-writer. Talk about daring and adventurous. To research her books, she has ventured four times to the Canadian Arctic; immersed herself in Chinese history, including medicine, inventions, and feng shui; and pondered UFOs outside Nevada’s Area 51. For her most recent book, she entered the bull ring.

The bull’s massive body shifted against the sides of the chute and perched above him, Williams had the choice to jump on or back out. True to form, she jumped.

Well, okay, she didn’t actually get on the animal, but Williams

did take on the bull of the writing world: the novel. After writing 11 nonfiction books for children ages 10-14, she has now completed Bull Rider, a story about a middle-school boy who sets aside his skateboard to join his family’s bull-riding tradition.

His brother has just returned from Iraq in a wheelchair, but when Cam is clinging to the back of a bucking Brahma, those worries fade away.

Cam says, “It takes some guts to move past what everyone expects from you”—something that is true in sports, in writing, and in life. Join Suzanne Morgan Williams as she moves past expectations and dives into the challenge and success of a new adventure.

Also at this event, the winner from the KSPS “Telling the American Story” contest will read their winning essay.

YOUNG ADULT AUTHOR

MICHAEL HARMON Saturday, April 16 2 – 2:30 pm Auntie’s Bookstore Mike Harmon seems bent on bucking the system, whatever “the system” happens to be. A high school diploma?

Nah. College? MFA? No big deal. Rules?

Overrated. Harmon’s route to success includes skateboarding, backpacking, voracious reading, and persistent writing. Chuck your expectations, because Mike Harmon never does what’s expected.

A father of two teenagers and inspired by his own experiences as a teen, Harmon fills his novels with nonconformist young adults who throw off the structures that hold them down. In his latest novel, Brutal,

main character Poe, a punkrock high-schooler whose irritatingly rigid mother has pawned her off on a previously-absent father, finds herself trapped in another clean, straight-laced environment full of typical, teenage drones. She fights to be herself, and possibly echoes Harmon’s sentiments when she declares, “I don’t need somebody to tell me what I should be.” In Harmon’s forthcoming book, The Chamber of Five (June 2011), 16-yearold Jason decides to overthrow a private school’s mysterious and menacing power elite. No matter what Harmon’s characters pull off, it’s always a smart and thoughtprovoking escapade.

AN EVENING WITH

TIM O’BRIEN Saturday, April 16 — 8 pm Bing Crosby Theater $15 (student free with ID)

Let me tell you a story. The stranger it is, the more likely it’s true...

“Stories are for joining the past to the future. Stories are for those late hours in the night when you can’t remember how you got from where you were to where you are. Stories are for eternity, when memory is erased, when there is nothing to remember except the story.”

This evening is the culminating event for the 2011 Big Read. We are grateful to the NEA grant that made it all possible.

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Born in a small Minnesota town, O’Brien grew up playing baseball, reading, eating ice cream, and swimming before going onto a nearby college to earn a degree in political science. Though strongly pro-peace, he decided to honor the draft and ended up trudging through Vietnam’s Quang Ngai Province from 1969-1970 as a foot soldier.

A year later, O’Brien returned with a Purple Heart and a lifetime of heavy experiences to carry.

Turning his burdens into artistic expression, he struggled along with his characters and his readers to find beauty in the complexities of life and war. Some of what he related was fictional, but every word was grounded in gritty, bewildering, ironic reality. In a book which gave voice to many people’s unspoken memories, he said, “By telling stories, you objectify your own experience.

You separate it from yourself. You pin down certain truths.

You make up others.” And some 20 years after his tour of duty, when O’Brien went back to Vietnam, the journey enabled him to no longer see it as a war zone but as a whole place.

The moral of this story is that it has no moral. It is a story we can all understand—one that, in some ways, we all carry.

Sponsored by the Inland Northwest Council of Libraries (INCOL), EWU Honors, and Phi Eta Sigma.

AND BRIAN TURNER

VETERANS’ VOICES As a compelling addition to this event, Tincan, a nonprofit organization that uses information technology and interactive media for education and community development, will show a 10-minute film created as a part of the Veterans’ Voices project funded by a grant from Humanities Washington.

Eight high school students from the Spokane area conducted oral histories with veterans to create a film reflecting our theme of “Telling the American Story.” We hope you enjoy it!

Years later, across the world and in a different war, Brian Turner collected his own weighty memories while he served seven years with the U.S. Army, including a year each in BosniaHerzegovina and Iraq. Equipped with a BA in English and an MFA in poetry, he used his skills to capture the voices of these complicated experiences in two books of poetry, Phantom Noise and Here, Bullet, both hailed by critics. After returning, Turner was also featured in Operation Homecoming, a PBS documentary that gives a first-hand glimpse into the stories of American servicemen and women.

Turner encapsulates what is—or maybe what should be—on the hearts and minds of Americans today. For him, and for so many others, even when the clamoring of the experience dies down, the ghost of its ringing continues to echo.

Turner exposes the gravity of our nation’s wars through lines of his poignant, unforgettable poems. The result is an extraordinary mixture: honest fear, graceful struggle, hard-edged realism and empathetic imagination. His writing shows that nothing is simple, yet everything is worth expressing.

Phantom Noise There is this ringing hum this bullet-borne language ringing shell-fall and static this late-night ringing of threadwork and carpet ringing hiss and steam this wingbeat of rotors and tanks these broken bodies ringing in steel humming these voices of dust these years ringing rifles in Babylon rifles in Sumer ringing these children their gravestones and candy their limbs gone missing their static-borne television their ringing this eardrum this rifled symphonic this ringing of midnight in oil and gunpowder this brake-pad gone useless this muzzle-flash singing this threading of bullets in muscle and bone this ringing hum this ringing hum this ringing

IN CONVERSATION WITH

MATTHEW DICKMAN Sunday, April 17 — 11:30 am The Lincoln Center $15 (students free with ID) All-American Poet [awl uh-mer-i-kuh n poh-it] Matthew Dickman. Proper noun. 1. A talented writer of poetry born in Portland, Oregon, USA, along with his twin brother Michael, also a poet. Dickman has been published widely, most notably in The New Yorker and Tin House. He is the author of two chapbooks, Amigos and Something about a Black Scarf, and an award-winning collection of poems, All-American Poem. 2. An individual who weaves language into lines like “Heaven is a cup of teeth, / it shines” and “When grief comes to you as a purple gorilla / you must count yourself lucky.” 3. A man who has adopted Larry Levis’ motto “Out here I can say anything.” Dickman likes what it says about freedom overall; we are truly free when making art.

All-American Poem [awl uh-mer-i-kuh n poh-uh m] Noun. 1. A poem that is American in nature. 2. A collection of poems by Matthew Dickman, chosen by Tony Hoagland for the APR/Honnickman First Book Prize and winner of the 2009 Oregon Book Award for Poetry. 3. A poem that can effortlessly namedrop Peter Parker, 7-11, Marlboro Light, Canasta, “Jailhouse Rock,” Biggie Smalls, Bach, McDonalds, and the Little Mermaid over the course of 72 lines. 4. A collection, often referential to pop-culture, that pontificates about grief, Texas, or drugs and can celebrate, mourn, mystify, or provoke. 5. An all-American poem can be anything because, after all, it is American.

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As an added treat, the 2011 regional winner of Poetry Out Loud’s national recitation contest will open with their performance from the regional finals.

Many thanks to the Selinger-Shone Foundation for sponsoring this event.

MFA &

Regional MFA Reading

Sunday, April 17 — 2 – 4 pm Barrister Winery Graduate students from University of Idaho, University of Montana, and Eastern Washington University including: Alice Bolin, Jayme Feary, Laura Scott, Emma Törzs, Molly Schultz, Chelsia Rice, Steve Heim, Abby Blank, Timothy Greenup, Sam Edmonds, and Laura Ender will come together to share their creative writing. Representing a variety of genres and styles, this reading promises to be lively and absorbing.

EWU Faculty Reading Sunday, April 17 — 4:30 – 6:30 pm Barrister Winery

Samuel Ligon is the author of the novel, Safe in Heaven Dead, and a collection of complex and precise short stories titled Drift and Swerve. He is also the recipient of a 2005 Artists Trust/Washington State Arts Commission Fellowship.

Faculty of the Inland Northwest Center for Writers at Eastern Washington University will be reading from their works of poetry and prose.

EWU FACULTY READINGS

Christopher Howell is the author of eight volumes of poetry, including the recent Dreamless and Possible. He is the recipient of two NEA fellowships, two Washington State Book Awards and three Pushcart Prizes.

Jonathan Johnson’s most recent collection of poems, In the Land We Imagined Ourselves, reveals him to be a generous pathologist of the human heart. He is the author of two books of poetry and one work of nonfiction.

Gregory Spatz brings his musical experience to writing by showcasing surefingered rhythms in such novels as Fiddler’s Dream and No One but Us. He is the recipient of several fellowships and a Washington John Keeble is the versatile author of four State Book Award. novels, a collection of short stories, one Rachel Toor writes creative nonfiction and nonfiction exposé, and an award-winning her latest, Personal Record: A Love Affair with documentary script. His novel, Broken Ground, Running, offers an inside, often humorous was reissued by University of Washington look at the running life. She’s also a columnist Press last year. for The Chronicle of Higher Education and Running Times.

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COMMUNITY READINGS

Come One, Come All – Community Reading Sunday, April 17 — 1 – 3 pm (registration begins at 12:30 pm) Auntie’s Bookstore This is your chance to grab the microphone and release those words you have been whittling down to perfection. Dust off the pieces you’ve set aside in the drawer or come out and share something you just completed. Writers of all ages are welcome to share up to 10 minutes of work with our enthusiastic audience to showcase the creative talent in our community. Come participate, or just watch and get ready to be entertained! Hosted

by Brooke Matson of RiVerSpeAK, a Spokane artists’ collective.

101-Word Fiction Showdown Sunday, April 17 — 3:30 – 5 pm Auntie’s Bookstore When The Pacific Northwest Inlander held their last flash-fiction contest in 2009, creativity poured forth and splashed across their pages in waves of astounding, abbreviated prose.

A chosen few went on to compete in a live competition at the Get Lit! Festival. Michael Bowen, a senior writer at The Pacific Northwest Inlander, will once again challenge eight of the region’s best writers of micro-fiction to compose 101-word tales related to our festival theme of “Telling the American Story.” These eight challengers will have been preselected by Bowen and other editorial staff from the entries submitted to The Inlander’s website. Join us at Auntie’s Bookstore as the finalists face off in a tournament to determine who will be the Inland Northwest’s ultimate Flash-Fiction Guru.

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ARE YOU A LIT! LOVER? Eastern Washington University’s Get Lit! Programs is made possible by the ongoing support of community partnerships, business sponsorships, foundation grants, as well as individual donations. Your contribution will help us to continue bringing quality literary programs to our community through the annual literary festival and ongoing educational outreach programs. Donations of any amount are appreciated. It is now easy for individuals to donate to Get Lit! online. For more information, visit our website at www.ewu.edu/getlit.

Now in its 13th season, the Get Lit! Festival has grown from a one-day marathon of literary readings into a week-long event, connecting local, new, and nationally-known writers and providing unique opportunities for a wide range of literature lovers. Over the past decade, the Get Lit! Festival has been praised consistently as “one of the best festivals I’ve ever been to” by authors and audiences alike. It has featured authors such as Kurt Vonnegut, Jane Smiley, Richard Russo, Salman Rushdie, Rita Dove, and Sarah Vowell, as well as regional talent like Sherman Alexie, Timothy Egan, and Jess Walter.

Hosted by Eastern Washington University’s College of Arts, Letters, and Education, Get Lit! Programs relies on a range of student talent. The Program Coordinator works with student assistants through internships from various majors, and several classes participate in preparations for the festival. For example, this year’s poster design was selected from a Visual Communication and Design class contest and the festival surveys were created by a marketing class. Get Lit! strives to create an interactive learning environment that connects all members of the community.

2012 Festival

Join us next year, April 11-15, when the Get Lit! Festival focuses on writers who “Capture the World.” Intriguing characters from different cultures get sandwiched between the covers of a book. Villains are chased from word to word and chapter to chapter in a crime novel. Memories stretch like taffy between the lines of a poem. A moment in time is expertly framed inside the margins of an essay. This is the alchemy of an author and the power of a poet. Mark your calendar for the 14th annual festival as we celebrate the role of writers from multiple genres and encourage local writers to use their craft to connect to the world at large.

Can’t wa

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online on our lit h t n o du/get s each m y event t www.ewu.e r a r e t li ar a her Find ot unity calend m m o c

GET LIT! PROGRAMS

Eastern Washington University’s Get Lit! Programs engages members of the Inland Northwest community in a celebration of the written word by encouraging discussion, at all age levels, of literature in its many forms. Our educational outreach programs—Authors Tour, Writersin-Residence, and Poetry Out Loud—reach over 5,000 students annually. And each April the Get Lit! Festival, with as many as 10,000 people attending, has become an integral part of the artistic and cultural landscape of the Inland Northwest.

“Telling the American Story”

MAUDE BARLOW, LOUISE BORDEN TARESS ALEXIS, BRUCE BJORNSTAD, VICTOR CHARLO 2011 MATTHEW DICKMAN, ANI DIFRANCO FESTIVAL JONATHAN EVISON, JANE FRITZ, KATHLEEN FLENNIKEN HARMON, SAM KEAN AUTHORS MICHAEL JEREMY HALINEN, CHRISTOPHER HOWELL, LOWELL JAEGER TIM O’BRIEN, SENA JETER NASLUND MARILYN JAMES, JONATHAN JOHNSON, JOHN KEEBLE, JOHN LAURSEN, SAMUEL LIGON, RUTH MCLAUGHLIN SUZANNE MORGAN WILLIAMS , HEATHER GOLD DANICA NOVGORODOFF, BENJAMIN PERCY, BRENDA PETERSON, SHANN RAY, LAURA READ

KELLY MILNER HALLS, JACK HAMANN, JULIE OTSUKA HEATHER SHARFEDDIN, GREGORY SPATZ, LAURA TOHE, RACHEL TOOR , LARAE WILEY, MAYA JEWELL ZELLER

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