COVER STORY

Bees, Boys and Getting By

Spokane native Eileen Garvin arrives at Get Lit! with her first novel and a whole lot of buzz

BY DAN NAILEN

The Music of Bees is Spokane native Eileen Garvin’s first novel, but its initial inspiration is rooted in her adopted home in Oregon.

A few years ago Garvin, a beekeeping hobbyist, bought a package of bees from a local farmer to replace her hive that died the previous year. It was around dusk, and Garvin was tooling along a small road in the small town to pick up the bees when she passed a striking image. And that picture immediately turned into the first line of the book, slated for release at the end of April.

“Jacob Stevenson had the tallest mohawk in the history of Hood River Valley High School.”

Garvin’s dog had just undergone ACL surgery and was stuck, inactive, in a pen for the next 12 weeks. Garvin had three months of down time ahead while she cared for the pup, time that would be spent tending her hives, too. But that short drive changed everything.

“I passed this young guy in a wheelchair with a mohawk who was going the other direction,” Garvin recalls of that scene from 2016. “I’m in a small town, but I don’t know who this person is. And the first line just popped in my head. I pulled over, like we writer nerds do, and jotted it down, and then went and picked up my bees and brought them home. The next morning, I got up, installed my hive, sat down with my dog in her little pen and I started writing the story.”

That forced confinement was a blessing for Garvin. It’d been years since her nonfiction first book, How To Be A Sister, made a critical and commercial splash as Garvin recounted reconnecting with her autistic older sister after returning to the Pacific Northwest after years away. Fiction was always on her mind, and 12 weeks stuck at home with an ailing dog, and that lucky encounter with a wheelchaired punk rocker, led to a situation where “the story just came” and Garvin “just let it happen.”

That might make writing sound a lot easier than the reality, and Garvin worked for years to put herself in position to write a book like The Music of Bees. The 50-year-old has wanted to be a writer since she was a kid in Spokane, where she was born at Deaconess and attended Cataldo Catholic School (her Irish greatgrandfather helped build the place) and Gonzaga Prep before leaving for college and adventures around the West and beyond before landing in Hood River 15 years ago. Like so many aspiring authors, though, she was always driven to choose a “more practical” career.

“I ended up doing everything you can possibly do around writing, without writing, before I fell into it,” Garvin says. “I worked in marketing for small presses. I taught English as a second language. And in between my master’s and a PhD program that I abandoned, I started working for a newspaper and I realized, ‘Oh, this is really what I want to do.’

“I don’t have an MFA. I’ve never had a writing group. I’ve always felt like sort of an outsider. But when I finally wrote How To Be A Sister, it felt so right.”

16 INLANDER APRIL 8, 2021

The massively mohawked Jacob Stevenson is just one of the winning protagonists of Garvin’s new book, and he meets one of the others, Alice Holtzman, after she nearly hits his speeding wheelchair as she returns to her small rural home outside town with a new batch of bees. The near-accident spawns an unlikely friendship between the teenage Jake and the widowed Alice, one that also welcomes a friendly 24-year-old drifter named Harry who applies to work on Alice’s hives when he hits town.

The development of the trio’s relationship, each of them traumatized by events in their recent and not-so-recent past, is genuinely uplifting, and the arrival of a bee-threatening pesticide company in town raises the stakes in Garvin’s story beyond overcoming their individual challenges.

The choice to make Alice a beekeeper obviously touches on Garvin’s own life around hives, an outlet that, like this book, has roots in dog care. Garvin started tending bees when another elderly dog of hers couldn’t move around much anymore, so she sought out something she could do while the dog enjoyed its last days in the sun. As she learned more about bees and how hives function, she realized how well they could work in a book, both metaphorically and as a device for her characters.

“I’ve always liked books where the characters are doing something, because it gives you the chance as a reader to learn, and also gives the characters a chance to do something together,” Garvin says. “They’re not just operating next to each other and having their emotional experiences. There’s a physical thing for them to be doing. It makes it a little more believable and more interesting.”

The Music of Bees arrives officially on April 27, but Garvin will be starting her virtual book tour early, including an online stop at the Get Lit! Festival. When her last book came out in 2010, she planned her own book tour and did 20 or 30 events around the West, an experience she recalls as “really fun, but really exhausting.” Her novel is coming out from a bigger publisher (Dutton, a division of Penguin Random House), but the pandemic has pushed promotion largely online.

Garvin has enjoyed Get Lit! in the past as an audience member, and even though she won’t be attending in person this year now that she’s one of the featured guests, she still gets to Spokane regularly. Her mom and two siblings are still residents, and Garvin’s seen Spokane grow up from afar.

“To see the festival grow and just get so many high-quality authors to Spokane is really great. Spokane is such a great town, with the arts and culture and public radio and Auntie’s Bookstore,” Garvin says. “I didn’t appreciate it when I was younger, and it wasn’t until I was living in a small town that I realized how much cool stuff you have going on there.” n

Eileen Garvin will be in conversation with poet Bill Cardy in “Poetry and Prose” on Thu, April 15, at 2 pm via YouTube. She will also be part of the Must Read Fiction Presents: Conversation with Festival Authors on Sun, April 18, at 3:30 pm via Zoom. Visit getlitfestival2021.sched.com for more details.

Cultural Tours & Events

Create & Paint with Sidney Black Eagle

SUNDAY, APRIL 18TH 12 PM - 2 PM $40 PER PERSON

Join the talented artist Sidney Black Eagle in a class designed to explore different and fun painting techniques. Learn how to mix and create colors to complement each other and use art as an outlet for creativity.

Lifeways Workshop “Make Your Own”

UPCYCLED PLATEAU BASKET

SUNDAY, APRIL 25TH 10 AM - 4 PM $55 PER PERSON

This workshop blends the celebration of modern movement towards environmental protection with centuries-old techniques of basket making. This 6-hour tribal-guided workshop will focus on creating an “upcycled” Plateau Basket out of plastic bags retrieved from a landfill.

Visit cdacasino.com for tickets or more information and to see all available events.

WELCOME HOME.

CASINO | HOTEL | DINING SPA | CHAMPIONSHIP GOLF

37914 SOUTH NUKWALQW • WORLEY, IDAHO 83876 1 800-523-2464 • CDACASINO.COM

FROM LEFT: Tiffany Midge, Elissa Washuta, Jake Sheets and D.A. Novoti will be on the We The Indigenous panel.

MARK YOUR CALENDAR

There’s a ton of great things happening with the virtual Get Lit! Festival — here’s what caught our attention

BY SPENCER BROWN AND NATALIE RIETH

Even in this unusual year, when the Get Lit! Festival will be delivered to our homes via the internet instead of filling venues throughout Spokane, there is a pretty incredible array of opportunities to hear from amazing poets and authors about their work. You can find the entire slate for this year at getlitfestival2021.sched.com, including which events are on YouTube, which require registration for a Zoom session, and which require tickets or book purchases to take part.

Here are a few of this year’s highlights we found while perusing the schedule.

UNMAKING THE PATRIARCHY OF THE MIND

Mon, April 12, 5:30 pm, free

Patriarchal values exist in the minds of many without realizing, so it’s important to discuss and unlearn them. At this Get Lit! event, five women writers will share their work while discussing how they write against patriarchal expectations overtly and implicitly. The panel includes Brooke Matson (Spokane writer, educator and founding executive director of Spark Central), Sonora Jh (a journalist in Mumbai and Bangalore before moving to the U.S.), Alexandra Teague (University of Idaho professor who recently published the poetry book Or What We’ll Call Desire), Kristen Millares Young (author of the novel Subduction) and former Spokane poet laureate Laura Read (author of Dresses from the Old Country). (SPENCER BROWN)

WE THE INDIGENOUS

from poetic prose to personal essays. Featured authors Tiffany Midge, Elissa Washuta, Jake Skeets and D.A. Navoti are all from the Pacific Northwest and Southwest. Midge, citizen of Standing Rock Sioux Nation, was a 2020 Washington State Book Award finalist for her book Bury My Heart at Chuck E. Cheese’s. Washuta is a nonfiction writer and member of the Cowlitz tribe, whose book White Magic will be published in April. Skeets, member of the Navajo Nation, is the winner of the National Poetry Series and author of Eyes Bottle Dark with a Mouthful of Flowers. The final speaker, Navoti, is the original founder of We the Indigenous and a creative nonfiction and poetry prose writer. They’ll each read from their own work, followed by a discussion led by Navoti. (NATALIE RIETH)

KINK WITH R.O. KWAN

Wed, April 14, 7 pm, free

What goes on in the bedroom has long been a taboo subject. Now the world of kinks are being discussed in ways unseen before. Published in February, Kink is an anthology of literary fiction that brings the often unspoken topics of love, desire and BDSM to the forefront. The anthology was edited by R.O. Kwon and Garth Greenwell, and features works from writers such as Roxane Gay, Carmen Maria Machado and Zeyn Joukhadar. While power play is a large part of the kink community, the real power of Kink’s stories are the revelations drawn from examining what goes on in the private sphere. For this discussion, Kwon (author of The Incendiaries) will be joined by intersex trans fem author Vanessa Clark, artist and writer Larissa Pham, and trans writer and editor Callum Angus. (SB)

HOW TO GET LIT!

SO, HOW DOES THIS online-only version of Get Lit! work, exactly?

As with any festival, it starts with the schedule, which you can find at getlitfestival2021. sched.com. You’ll want to create a free account through Sched, the virtual event app, and as you scroll through the list and find events that interest you, you’ll be able to register and save them to an online planner.

Most readings and author roundtables are prerecorded and free to attend, and they will be preserved on the Get Lit! YouTube channel after the festival. Live post-reading Q&As will be streamed through YouTube Live — if you register for these events, you will receive an access link — and attendees can ask their questions through the site’s chat function.

For a more interactive experience, check out the “Conversations Over Coffee” series hosted by Erin Popelka, which will occur Monday through Thursday at 9 am and allows festivalgoers to drop in for casual conversations about the festival, or about what they’ve been reading lately.

There are a few events that require a paid admission. To attend “Pie School” with Kate Lebo (April 14), you’ll need to purchase a copy of Lebo’s new collection, The Book of Difficult Fruit. You’ll also have your choice of participating in four different craft classes — two on Friday, two on Saturday — that will cost you $35 (see details at inside.ewu. edu/getlit/festival). These events have a capacity of 25 people, so get your tickets now. — NATHAN WEINBENDER

“MARK YOUR CALENDAR,” CONTINUED...

PIE SCHOOL/PIE, PANDEMIC, WHISKEY & TEARS

Pie School Wed, April 14 at 5 pm, entrance requires purchase of Kate Lebo’s new book, Difficult Fruit, from Auntie’s (auntiesbooks.com/pie-school-kate-lebo); Pie & Whiskey Thu, April 15 at 8 pm, free

Technically speaking, you could go to either of these events on their own and be a happy camper, but learning how to make your own killer pie from author/pie lady Kate Lebo at Pie School that you can then serve to your household for this year’s virtual version of Pie & Whiskey seems so much cooler. You’ll note the new name for Get Lit!’s traditional Thursday night affair of slices, shots and stories, a reflection of the strange year we’ve had since last March. Even with added doses of pandemic and tears, though, you can bet the tales coming your way via YouTube from the likes of Jess Walter, Tiffany Midge, Inlander columnist CMarie Fuhrman, Steve Almond, Melissa Huggins, Gary Copeland Lilley, Phong Nguyen, and Pie & Whiskey co-founders Lebo and Samuel Ligon will hit the spot. (DAN NAILEN)

GRAPHIC NOVELS: LIFE ILLUSTRATED

Thurs, April 15, 5:30 pm, free

The five graphic novelists on this panel intertwine writing and visual art to embody themes of friendship, LGBTQ+ coming of age stories, race, gentrification, the prison system, World War II-era Japanese internment camps, and navigating life through fairy tales. Trung Le Nguyen, Sloane Leong, Kiku Hughes, Mike Curato and Ben Passmore will discuss what it takes to write a vibrant graphic novel, and how to engage with artists’ illustrations. Nguyen, also known as Trungles, is a Vietnamese-American comic book artist born in a Philippines refugee camp. Leong, a self-taught artist who’s been self-publishing her own comics since 16, is an artist and writer of Hawaiian, Mexican, Native American and European ancestries. Hughes is a Seattle-based cartoonist and illustrator whose first graphic novel, Displacement, was published in 2020. Curato’s 2014 debut Little Elliot, Big City, has been translated to over 10 languages and won multiple awards. The final panel guest, Passmore, is the author of DAYGLOAYHOLE, Goodbye and Your Black Friend. (NR) and how they can best thrive on stage. Kleber-Diggs is a poet, essayist and literary critic whose writing has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. Additionally, he is a past winner of the Loft Mentor Series in Poetry, a past fellow with the Givens Foundation for African-America Literature and the former poet laureate of Anoka County libraries in Blaine, Minnesota. Kleber-Diggs’ poetry collection Worldly Things that will be published by Milkweed Editions in June 2021 won the Max Ritvo Poetry Prize. The workshop will also cover how performance of poetry can lead to career opportunities, successful performance techniques, and ways it is a useful tool in the poetry editing process. The class will be ticketed and limited to 25 participants; tickets can be purchased through the event listing the Get Lit! schedule website. (NR)

THE PERFORMANCE OF POETRY

Fri, April 16, 11:30 am, $35

Michael Kleber-Diggs (pictured) will discuss the role of the performance of poetry for modern-day poets,

TRANSFORMATIVE JUSTICE: UNCAGING CREATIVITY

Fri, April 16th, 2 pm, free

Get Lit! and the Magic Lantern theater are offering a screening of 16 Bars, which portrays the lives of four inmates who take part in a unique rehabilitation effort that involves writing and recording their own music. Todd Thomas, better known as group leader Speech from hiphop crew Arrested Development, is featured in the film and will be at Get Lit! He’ll be joined by criminal justice advocate Marlon Peterson, author of Bird Uncaged, an abolitionist memoir with a new vision of justice. After a reading from Bird Uncaged, Speech and Peterson will be in conversation about transformative justice with Dr. Martín Meráz García, Chicana/o/x Studies professor at Eastern Washington University. (SB) n

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Not NCUA/NCUSIF Insured Not Credit Union Guaranteed Not Obligations of BECU May Lose Value

APRIL 8, 2021 INLANDER 21

ESCAPE TO SUMMER CAMP

While things are looking much brighter compared to 2020 upon the publication of this year’s Inlander Summer Camp Guide, “normal” is still a far off reality.

The good news is that many of the region’s largest summer camp organizations have set dates and are already accepting registrations for fun-filled overnight escapes on the scenic shores of Lake Coeur d’Alene, Loon Lake, Davis Lake, Hayden Lake and others. One year into the pandemic, we know a lot more about how to keep everyone safe and healthy, and practices like face masks and social distancing are still expected to remain in place during this year’s camp operations.

Unfortunately, organizers for many summer camps in the Inland Northwest have decided again to postpone gatherings with the hope that next year programs can resume. That includes many of those local sports-centric camps hosted by athletes and coaching staff from our regional universities.

As your family plans its summer, also keep in mind that several camps we reached out to were unsure of their plans as of our publication deadline, so be sure to check back directly with them if you don’t see your favorite theater, arts, sports or general day camp listed in this year’s guide.

Stay safe, well, and have a happy summer 2021!

— CHEY SCOTT, Summer Camp Guide editor

RESIDENT

CAMP CROSS A faith-based sleepaway camp hosted by the Episcopal Diocese of Spokane on Lake Coeur d’Alene offering team-building exercises, arts and crafts, swimming, wakeboarding/ tubing, hiking, campfires, worship and more. June 18-20 (Leaders in Training, ages 15+) June 20-25 (Wilderness Quest; ages 13-18), July 11-16 (grades 4-6), July 25-30 (grades 7-9) and Aug. 1-7 (grades 10-13). Also includes mini-camp July 8-10 (grades 2-3) and arts camp July 18-23 (grades 4-9). $162-$450. campcross.org 509-624-3191

ROSS POINT BAPTIST CAMP A Christian camp on the Spokane River offering traditional camp activities, worship, Bible studies, games, singing, prayer and more. Grades K-12. Sessions offered June 20-23 (grades 2-4); June 20-25 (grades 4-6); June 25-26 (grades 2 and below with a parent; $32-$42); June 27July 2 (grades 9-12); July 25-31 (family YMCA of the Inland Northwest is hosting Camp Reed sessions starting in early July.

camp; $220-$388/person). $212-$309. rosspoint.org 208-773-1655

CAMP FOUR ECHOES (GRADES 1-3) This year’s programs at Camp Four Echoes include Mermaid Friends, Movin’ and Groovin’ (new), Splish Splash, Outdoor Artist, Fairy Friends (full), Camp Peeps, Splashing Around and Outdoors & S’mores. Girls entering grades 1-3. Week-long sessions offered June 21-Aug. 8; see website for session breakdown and details. $365$425. gsewni.org 800-827-9478

CAMP FOUR ECHOES (GRADES 4-5) Themed camp sessions include Mad Scientist, Art on the Lake, I’m All A-boat It and more. Camp offers traditional activities including swimming, arts and crafts, hiking and games. Girls entering grades 4-5. Sessions offered weekly from June 20-Aug. 8; see website for session details. $365-$425. gsewni.org 800-827-9478

CAMP FOUR ECHOES (GRADES 7-10) Two-week programs this year include On the Loose, Shipwrecked, and Jump on Board. See session details online. Girls entering grades 7-10. Offered June 20-25, June 27-July 2, July 18-23 and Aug. 8-12. $290-$425. gsewni.org 800-827-9478

CAMP FOUR ECHOES LEADERSHIP SESSIONS Teen girls learn skills in leadership, the outdoors and working with children that are necessarily to become future camp counselors. Girls entering grades 9-12. Adventures in Leadership (grades 9-12) is July 4-16; CIT sessions (grades 10-12) are June 20-July 2, July 25-20, Aug. 1-6 and Aug. 8-12. $525$580. gsewni.org 800-827-9478

LUTHERHAVEN: CASTAWAY VILLAGE A special version of the 4th-6th grade summer camp program. Learn basic outdoor living skills, gather with other villages for evening activities and help your counselor cook breakfasts and dinners over a camp stove or fire. During the day, Castaway campers join main site camp for lunch (and sometimes dinner). Grades 4-6. Sessions offered June 20-Aug. 13. $415. lutherhaven.com 866-729-8372

LUTHERHAVEN: SHOSHONE CREEK RANCH The perfect week for youth who love horses and riding — or who have no horse experience but want to. Develop your horse skills in the arena and on trails at Shoshone Creek Ranch, Lutherhaven’s rustic mountain guest ranch in a gorgeous creek-side setting. Includes daily horse time, plus popular camp activities like splashing in the swimmin’ hole, the 40-foot natural climbing wall, tubing the river, crafts, campfire cooking, worship and Bible study. Grades 5-10; all skill levels. Sessions for girls only offered weekly June 20-July 30; coed sessions Aug. 1-6 and Aug. 8-13. At Shoshone Mountain Retreat. $500-$550. lutherhaven.com 866-729-8372

LUTHERHAVEN: TREEHOUSE VILLAGE The treehouse camp experience includes sleeping on mattresses in open air tree houses, helping with chores and learning basic outdoor living skills, plus gathering with other villages for evening activities. Campers have the opportunity to help cook their breakfasts and some dinners over a fire. During the day, they join main site camp for lunch (and sometimes dinner). Grades 4-6. Sessions offered June 20-Aug. 13. $415. lutherhaven.com 866729-8372

CAMP LUTHERHAVEN A faith-based resident camp on Lake Coeur d’Alene that’s been operating for more than 75 years, offering traditional camp activities including ropes courses, campouts, water sports, Bible study, archery and more. Three-day and six-day sessions for grades K-12 are offered from June 20-Aug. 13; see website for complete details. Junior camp staff opportunities for grades 10-12 also available. $300-$400; financial assistance available. lutherhaven.com 866-729-8372

CAMP FOUR ECHOES (GRADES 6-8) Themed sessions include Where’s Your

Ca Weekly Riding Lessons too!mp with

June 21-25 July 12-16 July 26-30 Aug 16-20

See our Covid19 Safety Protocols

JAN, THE TOY LADY, HAS NOTICED MORE PEOPLE GETTING OUT OF THEIR HOUSES TO SAFELY RECLAIM FUN:

Time to shift into a new gear!