EWU’s Get Lit! Festival Begins April 10

Eastern Washington University’s Get Lit!, the longest running literary festival in Washington, is back for its 27th year. 

Housed within EWU’s College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, Get Lit! will be held April 10-13 at various venues in both downtown Spokane and Cheney. Attendees can enjoy readings, craft classes and open-mic events featuring both highly sought-after authors and local literary talent. 

This year’s Get Lit! headliners include three nationally acclaimed authors, bestselling nonfiction writer Maggie Smith and award-winning poets Li-Young Lee and Danez Smith. 

“Maggie was one of our headliners in 2018,” says Kate Peterson, director of Get Lit! programs. “We’re thrilled to be bringing her back this year after she’s had so much success in the writing world since then.”

Smith is the author of seven books of poetry and prose including her most recent craft book, Dear Writer. Her memoir, You Could Make This Place Beautiful, was a New York Times bestseller. 

She will take the stage on Saturday, April 12 for a conversation on the art of writing with Danez Smith, author of four award-winning poetry collections including Bluff and Homie. Together, they will talk creativity and craft, read from their own work and participate in a Q&A. This event will be held at Spokane’s Bing Crosby Theater from 7-8:30 p.m. Tickets are available now. 

A day earlier, Li-Young Lee, author of six critically-acclaimed books of poetry, will take part in his own “craft conversation” at the Bing. He will be joined onstage by Jonathan Johnson, a beloved Inland Northwest poet and EWU professor of creative writing. Each will read from their own books, offering insight on writing and the themes of fatherhood, heritage and grief they both explore in their work. Tickets for the April 11 event, to be held at 7-8:30 p.m., are available online. 

“We think these will be really inspiring events and conversations,” says Peterson. 

In addition to these craft conversations, each of the headliners will teach their own writing class. Danez Smith and Li-Young Lee will offer back-to-back poetry classes on Friday, April 11 at the Central Library in Spokane. Maggie Smith will teach a non-fiction class the same day, and a craft class in fiction will be taught by Debra Magpie Earling, winner of the Montana Book Award. Each of these classes are priced at $35. For tickets and more information visit here. 

This year’s Book Fair, a festival favorite, will host more than 20 local and regional booksellers, small presses, nonprofits and other literary organizations. It is scheduled for Saturday, April 12 at the Montvale Event Center.

“The Book Fair is going to be really exciting this year, and packed with even more events and bookish organizations than usual,” says Peterson. 

A $25 Book Fair pass offers access to panel discussions and more than 12 events held throughout the all-day event. Free coffee will be offered starting at 9 a.m, and the Book Fair pass allows you to come and go until the event ends at 5 p.m.

“One new and exciting change relating to the Book Fair is that we’re partnering with SpokAnimal on a few events,” says Peterson. “We’re going to have an optional quiet space for people to decompress and hang out with adoptable cats and kittens, along with an adoptable dog.”

An animal-inspired open mic gathering will also take place, hosted by Jessica E. Johnson, whose work sheds light on the bond between animals and humans. 

Johnson’s open mic event is just one of many similar opportunities to attend sessions focused on audience engagement. Get Lit! organizers say they have made a point of providing, due to popular demand, even more open mic opportunities this year.

Two such events will take place on Thursday, April 10. One will be held on EWU’s Cheney campus in celebration of Pride, and the other will take place at Spokane’s Spark Central. Both of these events are free and open to the public. 

For more free events around town, check out Get Lit!’s full schedule of events. 

“We’re very proud of our virtual lineup this year, too,” says Peterson, adding that after three days of in-person events, the festival will conclude with a completely virtual schedule on Sunday, April 13. 

“We have a mix of events from festival staples like the Regional MFA Reading to events on fatherhood and nationhood, how to write middle grade novels, mothering and writing during the climate crisis,” says Peterson. “We’re even getting a sneak peek into the literary scene in Australia.”

All virtual events are free and will be held on Get Lit!’s YouTube channel. 

“Get Lit! is a community tradition in Spokane,” says Peterson. “It’s such a joyful weekend celebrating books and writers and being in community with each other. It’s always been important for Get Lit!, in each of its last 27 years, to celebrate the power of the written word. But it’s even more important now.”

For more information about the schedule, events and headliners, and how to purchase tickets, head to the Get Lit! Festival website.

Story written by Avery Knochel.