Get Lit! Festival 2026: Full Schedule

10:30am PDT

Friday April 17, 2026 10:30am - 12:30pm PDT

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...
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Authors

Keetje Kuipers

Keetje Kuipers fourth collection of poetry, Lonely Women Make Good Lovers, won the Isabella Gardner Award, received a starred review from Publishers Weekly, and was recommended by Ron Charles for the Washington Post Book Club. Her poetry and prose have appeared in BOMB, the New Y... Read More →

Friday April 17, 2026 10:30am - 12:30pm PDT
Spokane Central Library: Events A

Ticketed

11:00am PDT

A Reading and Conversation with Willy Vlautin

Friday April 17, 2026 11:00am - 12:00pm PDT

Emerge CDA

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...
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Authors

Willy Vlautin

Willy Vlautin is the author of eight novels: The Left and the Lucky, The Horse, The Night Always Comes, Don’t Skip Out on Me, The Free, Lean on Pete, Northline, and The Motel Life. He is the recipient of the 2025 Joyce Carol Oates Prize and has been inducted into the Nevada Writers Hall of Fame and the Oregon Music Hall of Fame. His novels have won three Oregon Book Awards, The Nevada Silver Pen Award, and been included on the Library of Congress’s “Great... Read More →

Friday April 17, 2026 11:00am - 12:00pm PDT
Emerge CDA 119 N 2nd St, Coeur d'Alene, ID 83814

Free

11:00am PDT

Record Your Own Poetry Moment with Spokane Public Radio

Friday April 17, 2026 11:00am - 12:00pm PDT

Spokane Central Library: Podcasting Studio

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...
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Friday April 17, 2026 11:00am - 12:00pm PDT
Spokane Central Library: Podcasting Studio

Free

12:00pm PDT

Table Reads: A No-Mic Open Mic

Friday April 17, 2026 12:00pm - 1:00pm PDT

Spokane Central Library: Conference B

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...
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Authors

Ren Cedar Fuller

Ren Cedar Fuller's debut book Bigger: Essays won the Autumn House Press Nonfiction Prize and was a finalist for the Iron Horse Prize and the Santa Fe Writers Project Literary Awards Program. It was named a “Most Anticipated Fall 2025 Book” by The Millions. Ren’s essays ha... Read More →

Friday April 17, 2026 12:00pm - 1:00pm PDT
Spokane Central Library: Conference B

Free

1:00pm PDT

Craft Class: Nonfiction with Tessa Hulls

Friday April 17, 2026 1:00pm - 3:00pm PDT

Spokane Central Library: Events A

Into the Body, Out of the MindWriting 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...
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Authors

Tessa Hulls

Tessa Hulls is an artist, writer, and adventurer who is equally likely to disappear into the wilderness or a research library. Her debut graphic memoir, Feeding Ghosts, won the Pulitzer Prize, National Book Critics Circle John Leonard Prize, Eisner Award, Anisfield-Wolf Award, Washington... Read More →

Friday April 17, 2026 1:00pm - 3:00pm PDT
Spokane Central Library: Events A

Ticketed

2:00pm PDT

Daring to Debut: The Journey to Publication

Friday April 17, 2026 2:00pm - 3:00pm PDT

Spokane Central Library: Conference B

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...
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Authors

Ally Ang

Ally Ang is the author of Let the Moon Wobble (Alice James Books 2025). A National Endowment for the Arts fellow and MacDowell fellow, Ally’s work has appeared in The Rumpus, The Academy of American Poets' Poem-a-Day, The Seattle Met, and elsewhere. They co-host Other People’... Read More →

Lauren Westerfield

Lauren W. Westerfield is the author of Woman House: Essays and Assemblages, winner of the 2025 Juniper Prize in Creative Nonfiction and forthcoming in March 2026 from the University of Massachusetts Press. Her first book, Depth Control, a collection of genre-bending essays, was p... Read More →

Friday April 17, 2026 2:00pm - 3:00pm PDT
Spokane Central Library: Conference B

Free

3:00pm PDT

Saranac Art Projects Gallery Show and Author's Reception

Friday April 17, 2026 3:00pm - 5:00pm PDT

Saranac Art Projects

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...
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Friday April 17, 2026 3:00pm - 5:00pm PDT
Saranac Art Projects

Free

3:30pm PDT

Craft Class: Fiction with Willy Vlautin

Friday April 17, 2026 3:30pm - 5:30pm PDT

Spokane Central Library: Events A

Dialogue, Dialogue, Dialogue: A Fiction Craft Class with Willy VlautinHow 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...
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Authors

Willy Vlautin

Friday April 17, 2026 3:30pm - 5:30pm PDT
Spokane Central Library: Events A

Ticketed

5:00pm PDT

Book Fair Preview Party!

Friday April 17, 2026 5:00pm - 7:00pm PDT

Montvale Event Center: Montvale Hall

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...
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Friday April 17, 2026 5:00pm - 7:00pm PDT
Montvale Event Center: Montvale Hall

Ticketed

7:00pm PDT

The Writer’s Memoir

Friday April 17, 2026 7:00pm - 8:30pm PDT

Montvale Event Center: Ella's Theater

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...
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Authors

Lauren Westerfield

Margaret Albaugh

Margaret Albaugh is a Chinese-American award-winning photographer, freelance photojournalist, and visual artist. Her work has been in The New York Times, Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Politico, and The Guardian. She also is a poet and writer and enjoys the way words and... Read More →

Maya Jewell Zeller

Maya Jewell Zeller is a multi-genre author of several books and collaborations, most recently Raised by Ferns, a memoir-in-essays just out from Porphyry Press, and The Wonder of Mushrooms (AdventureKEEN, fall 2025); as well as out takes/ glove box, selected by Eduardo Corral as winner... Read More →

Mita Mahato

Mita Mahato is a comix artist and poet whose work joins fragments of used and discarded materials in poetic experiments that dramatize ecosystemic survival against capitalism. Her books are Arctic Play (The 3rd Thing 2024) and In Between (Pleiades 2017), and her poetry comix have... Read More →

Tessa Hulls

Friday April 17, 2026 7:00pm - 8:30pm PDT
Montvale Event Center: Ella's Theater

Ticketed

9:00am PDT

Book Fair

Saturday April 18, 2026 9:00am - 5:00pm PDT

Montvale Event Center: Montvale Hall

Join us for our annual Book Fair at the Montvale Event Center, which includes access to more than a dozen festival events featuring festival authors Keetje Kuipers, Ally Ang, Maya Jewell Zeller, Prageeta Sharma, Joe Wilkins, Laura Read, Lindsey Drager, and many others! Events include readings, panel discussions, reading and writing sessions, an exciting rooftop reading and open mic with Foray for...
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Saturday April 18, 2026 9:00am - 5:00pm PDT
Montvale Event Center: Montvale Hall

Free

9:30am PDT

Conversations Over Coffee

Saturday April 18, 2026 9:30am - 10:30am PDT

Montvale Event Center: Second Floor Lounge

Are you a novelist looking for a critique group? A poet looking for other poets to share prompts and inspiration? Are you a reader and want to talk about the books you can't get out of your head? Join us for our fourth-annual Conversations Over Coffee! This event (inspired by an Unconference format) offers participant-driven conversations that cover a range of topics--essentially anything you’d...
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Authors

Erin Popelka

Erin Popelka is a reader, writer, and mental health counselor. Her short stories and essays have appeared in The Threepenny Review, Puerto del Sol, The Los Angeles Review, and Berkeley Fiction Review, among others. She also founded Must Read Fiction, an online community of readers, which includes author interviews, book recommendations, and free book giveaways. Her facilitated session, Conversations Over Coffee, celebrates its 5th year at the Get Lit! Festival in 2026... Read More →

Saturday April 18, 2026 9:30am - 10:30am PDT
Montvale Event Center: Second Floor Lounge

Free

10:00am PDT

InRoads Launch Party

Saturday April 18, 2026 10:00am - 11:00am PDT

Montvale Event Center: Third Floor Ballroom

Join us in celebrating the release of this year’s InRoads, an annual anthology of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry published by EWU's Writers in the Community program (WITC). WITC is a non-profit practicum housed within Eastern Washington University’s Master of Fine Arts program that has been active for nearly three decades. During the academic year, MFA students volunteer as creative writing...
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Saturday April 18, 2026 10:00am - 11:00am PDT
Montvale Event Center: Third Floor Ballroom

Free

10:30am PDT

Parents Who Write: Making It Up As We Go

Saturday April 18, 2026 10:30am - 11:30am PDT

Montvale Event Center: Ella's Theater

Writing and parenting are often viewed as incompatible endeavors, but these parents are here to put that idea to bed. In this open-hearted conversation, writers Ren Cedar Fuller, Uma Kukathas, Beth Alvarado, Lisa Laughlin, and Joe Wilkins will discuss drawing inspiration from their children, parenting from the heart, and the ways these two roles enhance, rather than inhibit, one another. Joe...
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Authors

Joe Wilkins

Joe Wilkins is the author of two novels, The Entire Sky and Fall Back Down When I Die, both of which have garnered wide critical acclaim. Wilkins is also the author of a memoir, The Mountain and the Fathers, and five collections of poetry, including Pastoral, 1994 and When We Wer... Read More →

Beth Alvarado

Beth Alvarado is the author of Anxious Attachments, which won the 2020 Oregon Book Award for Creative Nonfiction and was longlisted for the Pen Art of the Essay Award. She has written extensively about marrying, as a young white woman, into her late husband’s Mexican American f... Read More →

Lisa Laughlin

Lisa Laughlin is the managing editor of Out There Outdoors magazine and has an MFA in Creative Nonfiction from the MFA at EWU. Her literary work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and has appeared in High Desert Journal, Orion, River Teeth, Flyway, Hippocampus Magazine and e... Read More →

Ren Cedar Fuller

Uma Kukathas

Uma Kukathas lives in Seattle, where she works as a writer for a nonprofit advocating and supporting unionized care workers. In her spare time, she writes creative nonfiction about four generations of her Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora family, who left their homeland during the British... Read More →

Saturday April 18, 2026 10:30am - 11:30am PDT
Montvale Event Center: Ella's Theater

Free

11:00am PDT

Silent Reading Party

Saturday April 18, 2026 11:00am - 12:00pm PDT

Montvale Event Center: Second Floor Lounge

In the mood to be around other people but not interact? Do you need a few minutes in the middle of the festival to take a few quiet moments to regroup? Join Silent Reading Party host Kathie McAuliffe to sit together and enjoy some quiet book time! If this appeals to you, you’re in luck - there are two Silent Book Club Chapters in Spokane right now, and we’re offering a chance to sit in on a...
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Saturday April 18, 2026 11:00am - 12:00pm PDT
Montvale Event Center: Second Floor Lounge

Free

11:30am PDT

So You Think You Want to Write a YA Novel

Saturday April 18, 2026 11:30am - 12:30pm PDT

Montvale Event Center: Third Floor Ballroom

In the last few decades, YA novels have made an undeniable impact on the literary world, encouraging young readers and adults alike to love reading. But what is a YA novel? What makes it different from adult fiction? Is it simply having a young protagonist and a simplified language profile? In this panel, we will be exploring what the YA novel is and discuss the distinct challenges presented by...
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Authors

Eliot Treichel

Eliot Treichel is a writer, trail runner, and river rat. His work includes the young adult novel A Series of Small Maneuvers and the story collection Close Is Fine. He is the recipient of the Reading the West Award, the Oregon Book Awards Readers’ Choice Award, and the Wisconsin Library Association Literary Award. Originally from Northern Wisconsin, he now lives in La Grande, Oregon, where he is an Assistant Professor of English/Writing at... Read More →

M.L. Smoker

M.L. Smoker is Nakoda, Dakota and Lakota, a citizen of the Fort Peck Tribes. She served as Montana poet laureate from 2019-2021 with Melissa Kwasny. She received an MFA from the University of Montana. In 2019 she was recognized as an alumna of the year and received an honorary doctorate... Read More →

Saturday April 18, 2026 11:30am - 12:30pm PDT
Montvale Event Center: Third Floor Ballroom

Free

12:00pm PDT

Spirituality & Friendship Across Genres

Saturday April 18, 2026 12:00pm - 1:00pm PDT

Montvale Event Center: Ella's Theater

As writers, our relationships with each other have a way of deepening our understanding of our work and our careers over time. This panel, featuring Prageeta Sharma, Teresa Carmody, Maya Jewell Zeller, and Laura Read, will explore how writers sustain creative lives through chosen bonds, and how friendship shapes the ethical and imaginative dimensions of their varied genres and forms. They find...
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Authors

Teresa Carmody

Teresa Carmody (she/they) is a writer of fiction, creative nonfiction, inter-arts collaborations, and hybrid forms. Her books include A Healthy Interest in the Lives of Others (Autofocus, 2025), The Reconception of Marie (Spuyten Duyvil, 2020), Maison Femme: a fiction (Bon Aire... Read More →

Laura Read

Laura Read is the author of The Serious World, But She Is Also Jane, Dresses from the Old Country, Instructions for my Mother’s Funeral, and The Chewbacca on Hollywood Boulevard Reminds Me of You. She teaches at Spokane Falls Community College and in the MFA program at Eastern Washington University... Read More →

Prageeta Sharma

Prageeta Sharma is the author of six collections of poetry; her most recent collection is Onement Won, out from Wave Books. She is the founder of the conference Thinking Its Presence: An Interdisciplinary Conference on Race, Creative Writing, and Artistic and Aesthetic Practices, a recent recipient of the 2025 NEA Creative Writing Fellowship, and is currently the Henry G. Lee ’37 profe... Read More →

Maya Jewell Zeller

Saturday April 18, 2026 12:00pm - 1:00pm PDT
Montvale Event Center: Ella's Theater

Free

12:00pm PDT

Foray for the Arts: Festival Features and Open Mic

Saturday April 18, 2026 12:00pm - 3:00pm PDT

Montvale Event Center: Rooftop

Foray for The Arts is a Spokane-based traveling multidisciplinary event founded by Greg Bem and Sarah Rooney. The event is intended to provide a place for local artists of all kinds to perform with each other in order to collaborate, network, and gain experience. The first two hours will celebrate local writers solicited by Foray, and the final hour will be open mic. Writers interested in reading...
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Authors

Ciara Totton

Ciara Totton was born and raised in Spokane. Her curiosity and her love of the written word was fostered from a young age.

She studied in Southern California at Azusa Pacific University and graduated with a Political Science degree. She taught English for three years in a rural town in South Korea and moved to New Zealand in 2020 where she lived nearly three years, balancing her time between writing... Read More →

Robert Jenson

Robert John Jenson has published two novels and two collections of short stories, mostly in the science fiction, urban fantasy and horror genres. He has, at his advanced age, taken up poetry, and while he most definitely has no clue what he is doing in this endeavor, he forges ahead... Read More →

Joe Williams

Joseph A. Williams was born and raised in Washington state. Never living outside of the Pacific Northwest, he now resides in the city of Spokane. Ley Lines is his first poetry collection. You can find him on Substack at joesarchives.substack.com... Read More →

Alyus Vasquez

Christina Momono

Christina Mitma Monono is an adventurous artist - little poetry- prose- videography. She received her Bachelors of Arts in Creative Writing at Eastern Washington University and attained a teaching degree from Gonzaga University. She teaches English as a world language in higher ed... Read More →

Saturday April 18, 2026 12:00pm - 3:00pm PDT
Montvale Event Center: Rooftop

Free

12:30pm PDT

Drop In and Write

Saturday April 18, 2026 12:30pm - 1:30pm PDT

Montvale Event Center: Second Floor Lounge

One hazard of the festival is that you can be struck by inspiration at any moment. You may find yourself desperately seeking a quiet corner to jot down notes for your own work, but we’ve got you! Look no further than this uninterrupted hour of focused writing time with our friends from Spark Central! Drop In and Write is a regular program at Spark, and we’re thrilled that they have been...
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Saturday April 18, 2026 12:30pm - 1:30pm PDT
Montvale Event Center: Second Floor Lounge

Free

1:00pm PDT

Flourishing Where You Are: Creating a Resilient and Authentic Writer’s Life

Saturday April 18, 2026 1:00pm - 2:00pm PDT

Montvale Event Center: Third Floor Ballroom

Join us for a candid conversation about the emotional and structural challenges writers face when traditional support systems–such as MFA programs, literary communities, or familial and cultural networks–are absent or inaccessible. Karina Agbisit, a publishing professional and nonfiction writer, will be joined by Nicole Zdeb, author of the award-winning Field of Saints, and Erin Popelka,...
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Authors

Erin Popelka

Nicole Zdeb

Nicole Alston Zdeb is a writer based in the PNW and an editor at Airlie Press. She holds an MFA from Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Bedouin Press published her chapbook, The Friction of Distance. Recently, she’s had poems, photographs, and short stories accepted by Driftwood Press... Read More →

Karina Agbisit

Karina L. Agbisit is a Latina writer based in the Pacific Northwest. She currently works as the marketing associate for Airlie Press. Her previous roles include editorial assistant for Portland Review, arts and culture writer for The Vanguard, developmental editor for the writing program Book Creators, project manager for Ooligan Press, and format editor for Portland State University. Professionally, she holds an MFA in Creative Writing, MA in Book Publishing, and a certificate in Independent Publishing. Personally, he... Read More →

Saturday April 18, 2026 1:00pm - 2:00pm PDT
Montvale Event Center: Third Floor Ballroom

Free

1:30pm PDT

An Afternoon of Poetry

Saturday April 18, 2026 1:30pm - 2:30pm PDT

Montvale Event Center: Ella's Theater

For 2026’s headlining poetry event, three prize winning authors - Keetje Kuipers, Ally Ang, and Laura Read - will read from their most recent collections. Keetje Kuipers’ Lonely Women Make Good Lovers has received critical acclaim for its daring and complicated evocation of love, including a starred review from Publishers Weekly, who called it “wickedly erotic and ingenious.” Keetje is the...
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Authors

Ally Ang

Keetje Kuipers

Laura Read

Saturday April 18, 2026 1:30pm - 2:30pm PDT
Montvale Event Center: Ella's Theater

Free

2:00pm PDT

EWU MFA Publisher's Roundtable

Saturday April 18, 2026 2:00pm - 4:00pm PDT

Montvale Event Center: Second Floor Lounge

Have you ever wondered how an indie press or magazine gets started? Have you ever been curious about the practical skills needed to create your own anthologies or zines? Please join us for a talk/Q&A with current MFA students and graduates of Eastern Washington University’s creative writing program on the ins and outs of independent publishing; the discussion will include both getting your own...
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Authors

Maki Thiersch

Rook Rainsdowne

Rook Rainsdowne is a poet, artist, and zine maker living in Spokane. They are a graduate of EWU's creative writing MFA program and have had work published in many journals such as ANMLY, The Baltimore Review, and The Quarter(ly) Journal. They are a co-founding editor of two publications, COOP and Croak, which are lit mags themed around chickens and frogs respectively. If you visit Splat, Spokane's new Zine Co-op store, you will find many of Rook's zines and may even find Rook themselves coordinating and planning Splat... Read More →

Kurtis Ebeling

Kurtis Ebeling is a teacher and poet living in Spokane, WA. He's an MFA in Creative Writing and MA in English graduate from EWU, and an editor for Croak, an independent literary magazine dedicated to publishing frog writing and artwork. His poetry has been published with a numb... Read More →

Aimee Brooks

Aimee Brooks is a writer and visual artist living in Spokane, Washington. She holds an MFA in fiction from Eastern Washington University and serves as the editor-in-chief of Banana Slug Books. She is currently serving on Spokane’s Arts Commission. Find her previously published or... Read More →

Dylan Cooper

Dylan Cooper is a writer, teacher, and amateur birder from Providence, Rhode Island. They earned an MFA in fiction from Eastern Washington University, and are an editor for Banana Slug Books. Their work observes landscapes and subcultures of New England, and has been supported by... Read More →

Katy Shedlock

Katy Shedlock is an Episcopal priest, poet, and church planter in Spokane, WA. A 2024 graduate of the MFA at EWU in poetry, as a student she was poetry editor for Willow Springs Books and now enjoys being an editor for Banana Slug Books with her classmates from the program. Katy's... Read More →

Saturday April 18, 2026 2:00pm - 4:00pm PDT
Montvale Event Center: Second Floor Lounge

Free

2:30pm PDT

Writing the Prairie

Saturday April 18, 2026 2:30pm - 3:30pm PDT

Montvale Event Center: Third Floor Ballroom

Join former Montana Poets Laureate M.L. Smoker, Melissa Kwasny, and Tami Haaland for a reading and discussion exploring themes of time, landscapes, environmental change, and the important role of Indigenous people in our region’s future. With writing that acts as both rich tapestries of natural beauty and as documents for posterity’s sake, all three authors weave essential reflections on...
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Authors

M.L. Smoker

Melissa Kwasny

Melissa Kwasny is the author of seven books of poetry, including The Cloud Path (Milkweed Editions, 2024), Pictograph, and Where Outside the Body is the Soul Today, as well as a collection of essays Earth Recitals: Essays on Image and Vision. She is also the editor of two antholo... Read More →

Tami Haaland

Tami Haaland is the author of four poetry collections, most recently If I Had Said Beauty (Lost Horse Press, 2025, and a limited-edition chapbook, Bright Flower (Bear Scratch Press, 2025). Her poems have appeared in Fugue, Cutthroat, The American Journal of Poetry, december, The Ecopoetry... Read More →

Saturday April 18, 2026 2:30pm - 3:30pm PDT
Montvale Event Center: Third Floor Ballroom

Free

3:00pm PDT

Worlds Beyond: A Reading and Discussion on Speculative Fiction

Saturday April 18, 2026 3:00pm - 4:00pm PDT

Montvale Event Center: Ella's Theater

We are delighted to present three incredible fiction writers who will each read from their fantastical works and discuss craft moves they utilize to create distinctive speculative worlds and expand the imagination into the possible. Leyna Krow, the winner of the 2026 PNBA award for her collection, Sinkhole, and Other Inexplicable Voids, will lead a discussion with TJ Fuller, author of Some Stupid...
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Authors

Leyna Krow

Leyna Krow is the author of the novel FIRE SEASON, and the short story collections SINKHOLE AND OTHER INEXPLICABLE VOIDS and I'M FINE, BUT YOU APPEAR TO BE SINKING. She teaches creative writing at Eastern Washington University and lives in Spokane with her husband, two kids, and a... Read More →

Lindsey Drager

Lindsey Drager is the author of four books of speculative fiction: The Sorrow Proper (2015); The Lost Daughter Collective (2017); The Archive of Alternate Endings (2019); and The Avian Hourglass (2024). These books have won a Shirley Jackson Award, been finalists for two Lambda Literary... Read More →

TJ Fuller

TJ Fuller writes and teaches in Portland, Oregon. His writing has appeared in Columbia Journal, Volume 1 Brooklyn, HAD, and elsewhere. He is the author of the short story collection Some Stupid Glow from Featherproof Books.

Saturday April 18, 2026 3:00pm - 4:00pm PDT
Montvale Event Center: Ella's Theater

Free

7:00pm PDT

An Evening with Jess Walter and Willy Vlautin presented by Northwest Passages

Saturday April 18, 2026 7:00pm - 8:30pm PDT

The Bing Crosby Theater

In partnership with Northwest Passages, the Spokesman Review’s book club and conversation series, we are thrilled to present this headlining event featuring two legends of the Pacific Northwest. Jess Walter is a beloved Spokane writer and the New York Times bestselling author of eight novels, several short story collections, as well as Ruby Ridge: The Truth and Tragedy of the Randy Weaver...
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Authors

Jess Walter

Jess Walter is the author of eleven books, most recently the acclaimed, best-selling novel So Far Gone. His other novels include the #1 New York Times bestseller Beautiful Ruins and the NEA Big Read, The Cold Millions; The Zero, finalist for the National Book Award; and Citizen... Read More →

Willy Vlautin

Saturday April 18, 2026 7:00pm - 8:30pm PDT
The Bing Crosby Theater

Ticketed

9:00am PDT

Magic for Memoirists: Using Flash Prose, Fiction Craft, Poetry, and Hybrid Forms to Shape—and Complete!—Your Memoir

Sunday April 19, 2026 9:00am - 10:00am PDT

YouTube

Focusing on lively short forms, a panel of accomplished writers and educators will present fresh approaches to memoir-writing. By using writing techniques from different genres, memoirists can find new energy, inspiration, and a practical vision to complete their projects. Learn to plot your memoir to hook your readers, and discover how the unusual lenses of poetry reveal truths overlooked by...
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Authors

Amanda Williamsen

Amanda Williamsen’s work has appeared in New Ohio Review, Mezzo Cammin, Valparaiso Poetry Review, Baltimore Review, Midwestern Gothic, and other journals. A graduate of The Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University, she has been an educator for thirty years for young people and adults. She is also a Pushcart Prize nominee and a past poet laureate of Cupertino, California. Currently she’s working on a poetry... Read More →

Lita Kurth

Lita Kurth, MFA- Rainier Writers Workshop (PLU) is the author of One Creative Writing Prompt a Day... (Callisto Press) and the forthcoming Writing Memoir in Flashes (Thinking Ink Press). She has received multiple Pushcart and Best of the Net nominations for fiction and creative nonfiction and has taught creative writing at De Anza College, CreatorSchoolCA.com, and elsewhere to students aged 8 to 80, from jail residents to professional writers... Read More →

Keiko O'Leary

Keiko O’Leary helps writers see the big picture while taking meaningful action today. She is the author of Your Writing Matters: 34 Quick Essays to Get Unstuck and Stay Inspired. Keiko teaches workshops, speaks at events, and is a former Cupertino Poet Laureate. She loves to send... Read More →

Sunday April 19, 2026 9:00am - 10:00am PDT
YouTube Channel: EWU's Get Lit! Programs

Virtual

10:00am PDT

Authors of Alaska

Sunday April 19, 2026 10:00am - 11:00am PDT

YouTube

This panel of celebrated Alaskan writers - Annie Wenstrup, Erica Watson, Jeremy Pataky, John Messick, and Susanna Mishler - will explore how the state has shaped and defined their work. From drawing upon dramatic natural environments to representing local communities across the country’s largest state, these authors sketch portraits of a wild and wonderful Alaska in their writing. Join us for...
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Authors

Erica Watson

Erica Watson’s writing explores ideas of community, self, political action, and climate change at the intersection of the human and nonhuman worlds, and draws from experience living in lifelong intimacy with designated public lands. Her writing has received support from Fishtrap... Read More →

John Messick

John Messick is a writer, teacher, husband, and father. He currently serves as an Assistant Professor of Writing at Alaska Pacific University, where he teaches composition and creative writing. He has also worked building hiking trails, fighting wildland fire, and shoveling snow in... Read More →

Annie Wenstrup

Annie Wenstrup (Dena’ina) is the author of The Museum of Unnatural Histories and a 2025 Whiting Award recipient. She held a Museum Sovereignty Fellowship with the Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center (Alaska office) supported through a Journey to What Matters grant from the CIRI Foundation, and was an Indigenous Nations Poets Fellow in 2022 and 2023. Her poems... Read More →

Jeremy Pataky

Jeremy Pataky is a poet, writer, and publisher. The author of Overwinter (University of Alaska Press, 2015), his poetry and essays have appeared in Colorado Review, Black Warrior Review, The Southeast Review, Cirque, Camas, Ice Floe, Chatter Marks, and many others. He’s contrib... Read More →

Susanna J. Mishler

Susanna J. Mishler is the author of Termination Dust (Red Hen/Boreal Books) which was a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award. Her poems have appeared in Alaska Quarterly Review, The Iowa Review, Kenyon Review Online, Ploughshares, and elsewhere. Her work has been supported by The Rasmusson Foundation, The Alaska State Council on the Arts, and the Kenyon Review Writers Workshop. She is a journey-level electrician and teaches her trade to local union apprentices in Anchorage, Alaska... Read More →

Sunday April 19, 2026 10:00am - 11:00am PDT
YouTube Channel: EWU's Get Lit! Programs

Virtual

11:30am PDT

The Art of Writing a Picture Book

Sunday April 19, 2026 11:30am - 12:30pm PDT

YouTube

Join award-winning authors Annie Bailey, Laurel Neme, Annette Bay Pimentel, and Melissa Seron Richardson for a virtual event exploring their picture book writing processes. These authors’ works span a wide range of topics, including biographies, the natural world, and cultural literacy. The authors will discuss how they find topics and themes that resonate with young readers and how they...
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Authors

Annie Bailey

Annie Bailey is an award-winning children’s author whose lyrical books delight young readers and the adults who read with them. Her published and upcoming works include the popular 10 Little Vehicles board book series (Penguin Random House), with 10 Little Monster Trucks and 10... Read More →

Laurel Neme

Laurel Neme is a journalist and author who writes about wildlife and wild places. As a young girl, she wanted to be a large animal veterinarian and talk to the animals like Dr. Dolittle. Later, she dreamed of being an animal scientist like Jane Goodall. Eventually, she decided to... Read More →

Annette Bay Pimentel

Annette Pimentel writes books for kids about the people and ideas that have shaped our world. Her most recent is How a Bear Became a Book: The Collaboration that Created Winnie-the-Pooh. When she’s not writing at her treadmill desk, she helps administer her public library as an... Read More →

Melissa Seron Richardson

Melissa Seron Richardson is an award-winning Latina children’s book author and motivational speaker deeply passionate about bridging language, culture, and paradigm gaps in literature and education. Using easy-to-understand bilingual text, Melissa spreads messages of empowerment... Read More →

Sunday April 19, 2026 11:30am - 12:30pm PDT
YouTube Channel: EWU's Get Lit! Programs

Virtual

1:00pm PDT

This Mortal Coil: The Poet in the Clinical Realm

Sunday April 19, 2026 1:00pm - 2:00pm PDT

YouTube

The word “patient” in a medical context originates from the Latin “patiens,” meaning “suffering.” But “patiens” itself is derived from “patior,” meaning “to suffer, endure.” Join us for a reading and conversation with three clinician-poets exploring how poetry can push against the passivity of the “patient” and lean into relationship and commonality. Michele Bombardier,...
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Authors

Jed Myers

Jed Myers’ fourth book of poetry, Can’t Be Far (MoonPath Press, 2026), was a finalist for the press’s Sally Albiso Award. His prior collections are Learning to Hold (2024, winner of the Wandering Aengus Press Editors’ Award), The Marriage of Space and Time (MoonPath Press, 201... Read More →

Michele Bombardier

Michele Bombardier is the author of Don't Ask Me How I Know, runner-up for the Sally Albiso Award from Moonpath Press, and What We Do, finalist for the Washington Book Award. She is the winner of the 2024 NORward Prize in poetry and is the inaugural Poet Laureate of Bainbridge Island... Read More →

Risa Denenberg

Risa Denenberg lives on the Olympic peninsula in Washington state where she works as a nurse practitioner and volunteers with End-of-Life Washington. She is a co-founder of Headmistress Press, publisher of books of poetry by lesbian-identified women, and curator at The Poetry Caf... Read More →

Sunday April 19, 2026 1:00pm - 2:00pm PDT
YouTube Channel: EWU's Get Lit! Programs

Virtual

2:30pm PDT

The Arctic Circle: Reflections on a Residency

Sunday April 19, 2026 2:30pm - 3:30pm PDT

YouTube

Writing residencies are transformative settings for artistic inspiration and development, no matter where they are or what you’re writing. Kathryn Nuernberger and Mita Mahato, both writers with multiple residencies under their belts, will share work made in response to their experiences with The Arctic Circle, a small vessel voyage residency program in the Norwegian Arctic of Svalbard. Their...
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Authors

Kathryn Nuernberger

Kathryn Nuernberger’s latest book is Held: Essays in Belonging, which is about symbiotic mutualisms, climate change, and finding family at the end of the world. She is also the author of The Witch of Eye and the poetry collections, RUE, The End of Pink and Rag & Bone. Her first... Read More →

Margaret Albaugh

Mita Mahato

Sunday April 19, 2026 2:30pm - 3:30pm PDT
YouTube Channel: EWU's Get Lit! Programs

Virtual

4:00pm PDT

Writing the Campus Novel

Sunday April 19, 2026 4:00pm - 5:00pm PDT

YouTube

In an era when the humanities, historical inquiry, and institutions of higher education under direct attack, it’s more important than ever to discuss the limits and joys of higher education and the quest for knowledge. In doing so, it's also important to acknowledge the traditionally Eurocentric and elitist ideals behind campus novels, and how to navigate these issues in fiction. In this event...
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Authors

Charlene Wang

Charlene Wang was born in Beijing and, after immigrating to the US when she was three, has lived in seven different cities from Los Angeles to Rockville to Biloxi. Graduating with a B.A. in English from Dartmouth College and a J.D. from University of Virginia School of Law, she worked... Read More →

Penny Zang

Penny Zang is an English professor and holds an MFA in creative writing from West Virginia University. Her work has appeared in New Ohio Review, Louisville Review, Iron Horse Literary Review, and elsewhere. She is the recipient of the Elizabeth Boatright Coker Fiction Fellowship... Read More →

Zoe B Wallbrook

Zoe B. Wallbrook is a recently tenured professor whose academic research has appeared in outlets such as the New York Times and The New Yorker. She was selected for mentorship by LA Times bestseller Elizabeth Little, and History Lessons, her first novel, was a runner-up for the E... Read More →

Lacey Dunham

Lacey N. Dunham is the author of the novels THE BELLES, a 2025 most anticipated book at Debutiful and Crime Reads, and the forthcoming FALL OF THE HOUSE OF GRAYSTONE, both from Simon & Schuster / Atria. Named one of 2025's Writers to Watch by Poets & Writers Magazine, Dunham has received... Read More →

Sunday April 19, 2026 4:00pm - 5:00pm PDT
YouTube Channel: EWU's Get Lit! Programs

Virtual

5:30pm PDT

Regional MFA Reading

Sunday April 19, 2026 5:30pm - 6:30pm PDT

YouTube

We are thrilled to present one of our most longstanding festival events, our Regional MFA Reading! This event features an exciting lineup of readers from five graduate programs across the Northwest. Each school has sent us one MFA candidate to read their work, and students will be introduced by a creative writing faculty member. We are excited to get to know students and faculty members from these...
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Authors

Ardyn Ford

Ardyn Ford is a first-year nonfiction student at the University of Idaho. Seasonal work has taken her to strange and beautiful corners of the American West. This region, and its beings, inspires her writing. She is a sucker for alliteration, affogatos, and anything uncanny.

Dawn Klinge

Dawn Klinge writes historical and contemporary fiction that centers women’s courage, faith, and overlooked stories. She is the author of the Historic Hotels Collection, which includes Sorrento Girl, Palmer Girl, and Biltmore Girl, a series inspired by her lifelong love of travel and history. Dawn holds a Diploma in Creative Writing from Oxford University and is earning her MFA in Creative Writing with a concentration in genre fiction through Western Colorado University. She lives in central Washington wi... Read More →

James Champion

James Champion is an MFA candidate in poetry at OSU. He is confused about how much poetry should be work and how much it should be intuition, but he works hard to listen to his intuition, that little glass hammer in his mind. He likes coins in parking lots after it rains. He likes... Read More →

Jon Culp

Jon Culp is a second-year MFA student focusing on poetry and creative nonfiction. He writes from the high mountain country of North Central Washington. His poetry, where modern ruralism blends with the natural environment, appears in the Manastash, Arcturus, Backstory, and Perciv... Read More →

Michelle DeLong

Michelle DeLong is a fiction writer who can’t sit still. She grew up wandering and writing in the Great Smoky Mountains and is drawn to gothic, lyrical prose with a strong sense of place. Her work has appeared in Fiction International, Nowhere Magazine, and The New York Times. When... Read More →

Kirsten Van Zee

Kirsten Van Zee is originally from rural Illinois and got her BA from Bradley University. At Eastern Washington, she interns for Get Lit, works for Willow Springs Books, and teaches composition to undergraduate students. Her thesis is a novel that explores women's friendships, belongings... Read More →

Sunday April 19, 2026 5:30pm - 6:30pm PDT
YouTube Channel: EWU's Get Lit! Programs

Virtual

7:00pm PDT

Making Myths, Building Community: How Local Fiction Connects

Sunday April 19, 2026 7:00pm - 9:00pm PDT

YouTube

Join Banana Slug Books for this discussion on their debut publication, Spokane Campfire Stories: A Literary Anthology, which includes a special reading from contributing authors. Sometimes witty, sometimes lyrical, sometimes heartbreaking and tragic, the fiction collection shows every side of its hometown and how it connects us all. The Banana Slug editorial team of Aimee Brooks, Dylan Cooper,...
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Authors

Aimee Brooks

Dylan Cooper

Morganne Elkins

Morganne Elkins is a painter and writer based in Midcoast Maine. She holds a BFA in Painting from Pratt Institute, and an MFA in Creative Writing (Fiction) from Eastern Washington University. She bridges the visual and literary arts wherever she can: in her work for Banana Slug Books... Read More →

Katy Shedlock

Sunday April 19, 2026 7:00pm - 9:00pm PDT
YouTube Channel: EWU's Get Lit! Programs

Virtual

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