Get Lit! Festival 2026

Writing a poem is always a vulnerable undertaking, but it becomes an even more delicate and dangerous act when we as people rather than as poets are implicated in the act. The Latin root of the word humility, “humus,” means "of the earth." So to humble ourselves inside the poem—to attempt to answer the question of what we’ve sometimes gotten painfully, harmfully wrong as we’ve moved through the world—is work that requires getting a little muddy. What might it be like for our poems to get down in the dirt, to put ourselves and our poems at worm level? In this class, we will concentrate on writing towards the places in our poems where humility manifests itself as a clarity of vision of ourselves in relation to the world. We’ll accomplish this through reading, drafting, and revision that asks each of us to create a poetics of humility that yields not a poem of regret but of wonder—at change, at realization, at the endless, humble prospect of still-to-be-seen possibility.

This is a ticketed event. Tickets ($35 + fees) are on sale now!

Purchase Keetje Kuiper's books via our official festival bookseller Auntie's Bookstore!

Survey feedback is crucial to our program in many ways, including helping us obtain critical grant funding. Please take a few minutes to complete our official festival survey after you've attended any of our events! Feel free to also leave us feedback here on Sched on individual events, but it really helps us immensely when people fill out our official survey!

Please join us at Emerge CDA, an arts nonprofit in Couer d'Alene, Idaho, for a reading and conversation with novelist and songwriter, Willy Vlautin. Willy will be in conversation with faculty member Jonathan Frey from North Idaho College. Willy Vlautin's bestselling novel, The Horse, explores regret, addiction, and loneliness through the lens of a grizzled, aging musician. It won the Joyce Carol Oates prize and is regarded as one of his most personal works to date. His new novel The Left and the Lucky examines how circumstances shape our lives, and how unexpected friendship can save lives. Thank you to EWU MFA Alum, Jonathan Frey, for putting this event together. This event is free and open to the public.

Thank you to North Idaho College for their partnership!

Purchase Willy Vlautin's books via our official festival bookseller Auntie's Bookstore!

Survey feedback is crucial to our program in many ways, including helping us obtain critical grant funding. Please take a few minutes to complete our official festival survey after you've attended any of our events! Feel free to also leave us feedback here on Sched on individual events, but it really helps us immensely when people fill out our official survey!

Have you ever dreamed of being on the radio? Do you crave an audience for your poetry, or do you have a favorite poem that you wish the whole world had read? Look no further, because we are thrilled to continue our partnership with Spokane Public Radio’s Poetry Moment! You may have heard SPR’s Poetry Moment on SPR Classical (KSFC 91.9), which airs every weekday at 9am and provides an outlet for the creatives of Spokane, and a daily dose of poetry for all listeners. We’re offering all festivalgoers a chance to record their own Poetry Moment in the Central Library’s podcasting studio! Poetry Moment readers will be welcome to share a poem by their favorite poet, or read their own work. Readers will be chosen on a first-come-first-served basis, so we encourage you to show up early to form a line. Please make sure to read the guidelines here before you arrive. Don’t miss the chance to share a Poetry Moment on the airwaves! 

To check out an example, here are five poems read for the Poetry Moment by festival author Laura Read, including one of her own.

This event is free and open to the public, no tickets are required, but participation is first-come-first-served. Folks will sign up with a volunteer outside the studio to record. 

Thank you to Spokane Public Radio and the Spokane Public Library for their partnership!

Survey feedback is crucial to our program in many ways, including helping us obtain critical grant funding. Please take a few minutes to complete our official festival survey after you've attended any of our events! Feel free to also leave us feedback here on Sched on individual events, but it really helps us immensely when people fill out our official survey!

Have you always wanted to participate in an open mic but maybe you’ve been intimidated by reading in front of a large crowd? Maybe microphones send shivers down your spine? We have created the perfect opportunity to build your confidence and let you test the public reading waters in a safe and supportive space. Readers will be seated around a table, and you’ll have the opportunity to read 1-5 minutes of your own work, standing up or sitting down—it’s up to you! This event is perfect for first-time readers, but all are welcome. With festival author Ren Cedar Fuller as the host, this event will be welcoming to authors looking for an encouraging and intimate setting to share their original poetry or prose. Capacity will be low, so make sure to arrive early to take advantage of this unique low-stakes open mic!

This event is free and open to the public, but capacity is limited (20) and attendees should arrive early to guarantee a seat.  

Thank you to the Spokane Public Library for their partnership on this event!

Purchase Ren Cedar Fuller's books via our official festival bookseller Auntie's Bookstore!

Survey feedback is crucial to our program in many ways, including helping us obtain critical grant funding. Please take a few minutes to complete our official festival survey after you've attended any of our events! Feel free to also leave us feedback here on Sched on individual events, but it really helps us immensely when people fill out our official survey!

Into the Body, Out of the Mind
Writing is a solitary, sedentary act—but how can we harness the wisdom and flow of our bodies to innovate in how we use our words? This generative, multidisciplinary workshop will draw from unexpected sources to encourage us to think about language as a physical force. You need absolutely zero drawing skills for this class, but bring blank (not lined!) paper and a pencil (other materials welcome: bring colored pencils, pens, or watercolors if you have them). Come prepared to explore your senses, move your body, and surprise yourself. Be aware that some of the work samples used in this class will touch on heavy themes.

This is a ticketed event. Tickets ($35 + fees) are on sale now!

Purchase Tessa Hulls' books via our official festival bookseller Auntie's Bookstore!

Survey feedback is crucial to our program in many ways, including helping us obtain critical grant funding. Please take a few minutes to complete our official festival survey after you've attended any of our events! Feel free to also leave us feedback here on Sched on individual events, but it really helps us immensely when people fill out our official survey!

Celebrating the publication of a first book is an exciting milestone in an author’s life, but it’s not always clear how that process happens. Join us for an intimate discussion around a conference table about the ins and outs of publishing your debut! Writers Lauren Westerfield and Ally Ang will lead a casual conversation, telling the story of how their first works came to be and answering any questions you might have about this process. Lauren Westerfield’s first book, Depth Control, a collection of genre-bending essays, was published in 2025 by Unsolicited Press, and Lauren’s debut memoir Woman House was just published this spring. Ally Ang’s Let the Moon Wobble, an honor book for the 2026 Stonewall Book Award, was published by Alice James Books in 2025. This is a great opportunity to learn more about the path to publishing in both poetry and prose! 

Note that this event is free and open to the public, but capacity is limited (20) and attendees should arrive early to guarantee a seat. 

Thank you to the Spokane Public Library for their partnership on this event!

Purchase the authors' books via our official festival bookseller Auntie's Bookstore!

Survey feedback is crucial to our program in many ways, including helping us obtain critical grant funding. Please take a few minutes to complete our official festival survey after you've attended any of our events! Feel free to also leave us feedback here on Sched on individual events, but it really helps us immensely when people fill out our official survey!

For the third year in a row, we are thrilled to partner with Saranac Art Projects, Spokane’s contemporary artist collective and gallery, to present a special exhibition of visual art created by Spokane artists, inspired by our festival authors. A group of Saranac's artists were given a list of all of our 2026 festival authors and they each chose a writer who inspired them to create a visual art piece. The artists worked throughout the winter on the pieces that will be presented at this exhibition. We are inviting festival authors and community members to gather together at the Saranac Art Gallery for a gallery show and author’s reception. This is a chance for festival authors and attendees to mix, mingle and enjoy some light refreshments, courtesy of Get Lit! and Saranac Art Projects. Authors can continue to connect and attendees can have a chance to meet the faces of this year’s festival! We encourage our attendees to use this time to gather in solidarity and enjoy inspired visual art with other creative community members!

Here are this year's participating artists and the festival authors they were inspired by:
Rebekah Wilkins-Pepiton–Lindsey Drager
Hannah Koeske-Rollins–Laura Read
Lena Lopez Schindler–Maya Jewel Zeller & Mita Mahato
Tobe Harvey–Joe Wilkins
Mariah Boyle–Jess Walter
Olivia Evans–Margaret Albaugh

This event is free and open to the public. Thank you to Saranac Art Projects for their partnership!

Survey feedback is crucial to our program in many ways, including helping us obtain critical grant funding. Please take a few minutes to complete our official festival survey after you've attended any of our events! Feel free to also leave us feedback here on Sched on individual events, but it really helps us immensely when people fill out our official survey!

Dialogue, Dialogue, Dialogue: A Fiction Craft Class with Willy Vlautin

How I fell in love with novels is dialogue. As a kid I read all my mom’s John D. MacDonald and John le Carré thrillers and found myself constantly skipping to the dialogue sections. Dialogue was where the drama hid, where the characters sparred, romanced, deceived, and despaired. The more I studied it the more I learned that every writer approached dialogue differently. There was no right or wrong way. The trick was to find your own way, your own style. We’ll look at dialogue masters like Roddy Doyle and Elmore Leonard and we’ll also examine the power of dialogue in film. We’ll discuss a handful of dos and don’ts, and of course we’ll have a dialogue writing prompt at the end, where time permitting, we’ll share what we’ve written.

This is a ticketed event. Tickets ($35 + fees) are on sale now!

Purchase Willy Vlautin's books via our official festival bookseller Auntie's Bookstore!

Survey feedback is crucial to our program in many ways, including helping us obtain critical grant funding. Please take a few minutes to complete our official festival survey after you've attended any of our events! Feel free to also leave us feedback here on Sched on individual events, but it really helps us immensely when people fill out our official survey!

Join us for an exciting ticketed preview party to get to know our Book Fair vendors the night before our Book Fair officially opens to the public! You’ll have a more intimate opportunity to shop and get to know all of the bookish organizations, local non-profits, booksellers, literary journals, artists, and much more. We have asked all Book Fair vendors to offer something extra fun and exciting for this special preview night. That could be hands-on activities like making collages with Art Salvage or a printmaking demo with SPPC; or, special deals like buy-one-get-one free on titles from Latah Books! We will also have light snacks available for purchase at the venue, along with some special cocktails and mocktails inspired by the festival! We can’t wait to share what else everyone has planned. Don’t miss this exciting way to kick off our 2026 festival Book Fair! 

In addition to the deals and activities, we are thrilled to present an opportunity for authors and attendees alike to get FREE headshots taken by Freeze Frame Visuals! More information on that and how to sign up on the night, coming soon.

Grab your tickets ($10 + fees) here!

We can’t wait to share what else everyone has planned. We will update this listing to include more information on what special activities or deals the vendors have in store as we get closer to April. Don’t miss this exciting way to kick off our 2026 festival Book Fair and support our vibrant bookish community!

Book Fair vendors include: 

Auntie’s Bookstore, Girl Noise Press, Latah Books, Makeout Creek Books, Melanie Hewitt AKA LibroBuch, Airlie Press, Eastern Oregon University, Willow Springs Magazine, Willow Springs Books, Rock & Sling, Range Media, Spokane Print and Publishing Center, Western Colorado University, Poetry Northwest, Spark Central, Spokane Arts, Art Salvage, Banana Slug Books, SpokAnimal, Spokane Public Radio, Foray for the Arts, Carbonation Press, The Fig Tree, Gray Dog Press, Weird Lit, and Wishing Tree Books.

Carbonation Press will be giving away a free poster-sized version of the cover art for the anthology Down River, Deep Root signed by contributors. Join us on Friday night to learn how to win!

This event is ticketed. Tickets will go on sale March 10th and links will be included here and on our website. 

Survey feedback is crucial to our program in many ways, including helping us obtain critical grant funding. Please take a few minutes to complete our official festival survey after you've attended any of our events! Feel free to also leave us feedback here on Sched on individual events, but it really helps us immensely when people fill out our official survey!

Every writer knows there’s never one way to tell a story, which makes the writer’s memoir rich for experimentation. We are thrilled to welcome this panel of award-winners and groundbreakers, Tessa Hulls, Mita Mahato, Maya Jewell Zeller, Lauren Westerfield, and Margaret Albaugh, for our Friday night headlining event celebrating memoirs that defy genre. This panel features writers at varying stages of the memoir writing process from drafting and experimenting with forms, to celebrating their debut, to the Pulitzer Prize. These writers all work in many genres and a vast array of mediums including photography, and they will inspire us all with what hybridity makes possible. Whether it's the intergenerational turmoil of Tessa Hulls’ Pulitzer Prize winning graphic novel Feeding Ghosts, or the shifting landscape of rural American poverty in Maya Jewell Zeller's rhizomatic memoir-in-essays Raised by Ferns—all five of these writers present both their lives and their crafts in genre-defying leaps of literary prowess.

This is a ticketed headlining event ($35 + fees). Tickets are on sale now! 

Purchase the authors' books via our official festival bookseller Auntie's Bookstore!

There will also be a FREE livestream option available for this event! Here's the link to watch live!

Survey feedback is crucial to our program in many ways, including helping us obtain critical grant funding. Please take a few minutes to complete our official festival survey after you've attended any of our events! Feel free to also leave us feedback here on Sched on individual events, but it really helps us immensely when people fill out our official survey!