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Thursday, April 21
 

9:00am PDT

Conversations Over Coffee: Virtual/Live
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 via Zoom for Conversations Over Coffee! This session (inspired by an Unconference format) offers participant-driven conversations that cover a range of topics--essentially anything you’d like to talk with others about! Join us, bring your expertise and your hopes to connect on any question or topic, and we'll create in-the-moment Zoom breakout rooms so that people can talk about their interests with others. Please review these instructions in order to attend: 

1.) This event is free but you must first register here with Eventbrite. 
2.) After you register, you will receive an email from Eventbrite (make sure to check Spam/Promotions folders and add Eventbrite to your Safe Senders list) and you will need to click "View Event" in that email in order to get to the Zoom registration link. 
3.) When you follow that link to register via Zoom, you will receive the final link you need to attend the Zoom meeting. 

Please email getlit@ewu.edu with any questions. 

Please help us by filling out a festival survey! 
Speakers
avatar for Erin Popelka

Erin Popelka

Erin Popelka is a reader, writer, and the founder of Must Read Fiction. Her short stories and essays have appeared in The Threepenny Review, Puerto del Sol, The Los Angeles Review, and Berkeley Fiction Review, among others. As founder of Must Read Fiction, she facilitates an online... Read More →


Thursday April 21, 2022 9:00am - 10:30am PDT
Zoom
  Virtual Event, Participant-driven

9:30am PDT

Evergreen Poets Session 1
Join us on the beautiful Spokane Falls Community College campus in the Palek Auditorium (building 24)  for a conversation on poetry to celebrate the latest anthology from Scablands Books, Evergreen: Grim Tales and Verses from the Gloomy Northwest. This panel features three poets, Taneum Bambrick, Emma Noyes, and Margot Kahn, whose work is informed by the landscapes of our region. The conversation will be moderated by poet and professor Laura Read.This event is free and open to the public. 

Click here to view this event on Facebook, and click here to purchase this event's book(s) from Auntie’s. Please help us by filling out a festival survey! 
Sponsors
avatar for Laura Read

Laura Read

Laura Read is the author of Dresses from the Old Country (BOA, 2018), Instructions for My Mother’s Funeral (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2012), and The Chewbacca on Hollywood Boulevard Reminds Me of You (Floating Bridge Press, 2011). She served as poet laureate for Spokane... Read More →

Speakers
avatar for Taneum Bambrick

Taneum Bambrick

Taneum Bambrick is the author of Intimacies, Received (Copper Canyon Press 2022) and Vantage, which was selected by Sharon Olds for the 2019 American Poetry Review/Honickman first book award (APR 2019). Her chapbook, Reservoir, was selected by Ocean Vuong for the 2017 Yemassee Chapbook... Read More →
avatar for Emma Noyes

Emma Noyes

Emma Noyes (Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation) is an artist and author transfixed with the geography of story. She is committed to creating a visual and written universe of tribal plateau indigeneity and dedicated to creating a future where Native peoples thrive and... Read More →
avatar for Margot Kahn

Margot Kahn

Margot Kahn is the author of the biography Horses That Buck, winner of the High Plains Book Award, and A Quiet Day with the West on Fire, finalist for the 2021 Floating Bridge Press chapbook award. She is co-editor of two anthologies: This Is the Place, a New York Times Book Review... Read More →


Thursday April 21, 2022 9:30am - 10:15am PDT
Spokane Falls Community College 3410 W Whistalks Wy, Spokane, WA 99224, USA
  Panel Discussion

10:30am PDT

Evergreen Poets Session 2
Join us on the beautiful Spokane Falls Community College campus in the Palek Auditorium (building 24) for a conversation on poetry to celebrate the latest anthology from Scablands Books, Evergreen: Grim Tales and Verses from the Gloomy Northwest. This panel features three poets, Taneum Bambrick, Emma Noyes, and Margot Kahn, whose work is informed by the landscapes of our region. The conversation will be moderated by poet and professor Laura Read. This event is free and open to the public. Click here to view this event on Facebook, and click here to purchase this event's book(s)s from Auntie’s. Please help us by filling out a festival survey! 
Sponsors
avatar for Laura Read

Laura Read

Laura Read is the author of Dresses from the Old Country (BOA, 2018), Instructions for My Mother’s Funeral (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2012), and The Chewbacca on Hollywood Boulevard Reminds Me of You (Floating Bridge Press, 2011). She served as poet laureate for Spokane... Read More →

Speakers
avatar for Taneum Bambrick

Taneum Bambrick

Taneum Bambrick is the author of Intimacies, Received (Copper Canyon Press 2022) and Vantage, which was selected by Sharon Olds for the 2019 American Poetry Review/Honickman first book award (APR 2019). Her chapbook, Reservoir, was selected by Ocean Vuong for the 2017 Yemassee Chapbook... Read More →
avatar for Emma Noyes

Emma Noyes

Emma Noyes (Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation) is an artist and author transfixed with the geography of story. She is committed to creating a visual and written universe of tribal plateau indigeneity and dedicated to creating a future where Native peoples thrive and... Read More →
avatar for Margot Kahn

Margot Kahn

Margot Kahn is the author of the biography Horses That Buck, winner of the High Plains Book Award, and A Quiet Day with the West on Fire, finalist for the 2021 Floating Bridge Press chapbook award. She is co-editor of two anthologies: This Is the Place, a New York Times Book Review... Read More →


Thursday April 21, 2022 10:30am - 11:30am PDT
Spokane Falls Community College 3410 W Whistalks Wy, Spokane, WA 99224, USA
  Panel Discussion

2:00pm PDT

Poetry and Prose
Join us via YouTube for a free reading and conversation with writers Sayantani Dasgupta and Rajiv Mohabir. Dasgupta, the author of the short story collection Women Who Misbehave, and Mohabir, author of Antiman, a poetic memoir, use their own experiences and the experiences of their characters to approach questions of cultural heritage, sexuality, and identity. Both writers will share their work and engage in a conversation about using their work to redefine roles and boundaries typically put around women, immigrants, and other underrepresented groups.

Click here to view this event on Facebook, and click here to purchase this event's book(s) from Auntie’s. Please help us by filling out a festival survey!

*Virtual events listed on our schedule will be available to watch at their scheduled time, and will remain available to watch on our YouTube channel indefinitely. 

Speakers
avatar for Rajiv Mohabir

Rajiv Mohabir

Rajiv Mohabir’s memoir ANTIMAN (Restless Books 2021) received the 2019 Restless Books’ New Immigrant Writing Prize. He is also the author of three books of poetry including Cutlish (Four Way Books 2021), The Cowherd’s Son (Tupelo Press 2017, winner of the 2015 Kundiman Prize... Read More →
avatar for Sayantani Dasgupta

Sayantani Dasgupta

Born in Calcutta and raised in New Delhi, Sayantani Dasgupta is an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington. She is the author of Women Who Misbehave (Penguin Random House), Fire Girl: Essays On India, America, & The In-Between (Two... Read More →


Thursday April 21, 2022 2:00pm - 3:00pm PDT
YouTube
  Virtual Event

3:30pm PDT

Many Roads to Publication
*This event is free and open to the public*

Join us for a fun and interactive panel discussion exploring the many different roads to publication. The panelists represent a number of diverse forms of publishing from local boutique presses to self-printing and publishing. Big publishing houses don’t have to be the dream anymore—alternative options include self-publishing, creating your own press, publishing with smaller indie outlets, or even making your own chapbook. Panelists include Karen Vielle who self-published a memoir about travel and walking, Diana Hochman, who has made her dream of writing spy novels a reality through self-publishing, Dorian Karahalios from Spokane Print and Publishing Center who has knowledge of do-it-yourself creations, and fiction writer Sharma Shields who founded Spokane’s Scablands Books, a fledgling boutique press. The panel is moderarted by Knox Gardener, publisher and editor-in chief of Entre Rios Books, a queer-run indie press from Seattle. This venue has a free parking lot.

Click here to view this event on Facebook, and click here to purchase this event's book(s) from Auntie’s. Please help us by filling out a festival survey! 
Speakers
avatar for Knox Gardner

Knox Gardner

Knox Gardner is the publisher of Entre Ríos Books, a poetry press based in Seattle focusing on Northwest writers in collaboration and translation. When he finds the time, he also writes poems. His debut collection, Woodland, with music by Aaron Otheim, was a CLMP Firecracker Award... Read More →
avatar for Dorian Karahalios

Dorian Karahalios

Dorian holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Eastern Washington University and is one of several Owner-Members at Spokane Print & Publishing Center, a non-profit organization dedicated to providing an immersive learning space for print, publishing, and creative play. There, he teaches... Read More →
avatar for Karen Vielle

Karen Vielle

Karen Vielle grew up in Eastern Washington and has lived, played, and worked in the Spokane area for 33 years. She has a lifelong love of walking and hiking in nature. After a career in public education, Karen teaches yoga and started a home organizing business. She and her husband... Read More →
avatar for Sharma Shields

Sharma Shields

Sharma Shields is the author of a short story collection, Favorite Monster, and two novels, The Sasquatch Hunter’s Almanac and The Cassandra. Sharma’s short stories and essays have appeared in The New York Times, Electric Lit, Catapult, Slice, Slate, Fairy Tale Review, Kenyon... Read More →


Thursday April 21, 2022 3:30pm - 4:30pm PDT
The Hive - A Spokane Public Library
  Panel Discussion

5:00pm PDT

Your Name in Lights: Writing for Film and Television
*This event is free and open to the public!*

Join us for a lively conversation on what it’s like to be a writer in the television and film industry. From writers and directors of local film and theater projects to producers and directors of feature films and television, this event will have it all! Our panelists include Ken Kwapis, an award-winning motion picture and televisions director, who has worked on uplifting and comedic projects such as The Sisterhood of Traveling Pants, He’s Just Not That Into You, and The Office; Karl Schaefer, award-winning writer/producer/showrunner with hundreds of television credits for many shows that he created or produced himself, including Spokane’s own Z-Nation; Eric Horsted, who grew up watching hours of television and has now written/directed/produced even more hours including episodes of Futurama, The Simpsons, Black-ish, and more; Rebecca Cook, who’s active in the Washington film community with her own short films, as well as working on feature films and TV such as Z Nation; Misty Shipman, an Indigenous writer and director whose work has appeared in multiple festivals; and Delondra Mesa, who’s a Latina film, television, and playwright living in Los Angeles, which includes her acclaimed play Skeleton Stories. This venue has a free parking lot.

Click here to view this event on Facebook, and click here to purchase this event's book(s) from Auntie’s. Please help us by filling out a festival survey! 
Speakers
avatar for Ken Kwapis

Ken Kwapis

Ken Kwapis is an award-winning director of motion pictures and television. He has directed eleven feature films, among them A Walk In The Woods, based on Bill Bryson’s acclaimed comedic memoir; He’s Just Not That Into You, inspired by the New York Times bestselling advice book... Read More →
avatar for Karl Schaefer

Karl Schaefer

Karl Schaefer is an award winning writer-producer-showrunner with over 250 television writing credits for episodes of shows he created or executive produced, including 5 seasons of Spokane's own Z-Nation. Other shows he created include; TV101 for CBS (for which he won a WGA award... Read More →
avatar for Eric Horsted

Eric Horsted

Eric Horsted grew up in the rough and tumble suburbs of Houston, where his passions included sitting near an air conditioner and watching television. Later he attended the University of Texas in Austin, where he focused on filmmaking and minored in watching television. After graduation... Read More →
avatar for Rebecca Cook

Rebecca Cook

An active member of the Washington film community, Rebecca Cook got her AAS in Radio Broadcasting at SFCC and her BA in Theatre from EWU. She has worked as an actress, director, costumer, make-up artist, accountant, producer, and director throughout the region. For the last several... Read More →
avatar for Misty Grace

Misty Grace

Misty Grace is an Indigenous writer and director from the Shoalwater Bay Tribe of Indians. Her work has been shown in One Heart Native Arts and Film Festival and the Chewelah Film Festival, respectively. Misty is a frequent film festival panelist, a member of Spokane Film Project... Read More →
avatar for Delondra Mesa

Delondra Mesa

Delondra Mesa is a Latina film, television, and playwright living in Los Angeles. Her critically-acclaimed play Skeleton Stories, a multi-media romp through Day of the Dead, sold out its runs in Hollywood and Sacramento; the play was published by Stage Rights and is currently available... Read More →


Thursday April 21, 2022 5:00pm - 6:00pm PDT
The Hive - A Spokane Public Library
  Panel Discussion

6:30pm PDT

Community Open Mic
*This event is free and open to the public*

Please join us and consider sharing your own work at a Community Open Mic hosted by Broken Mic, and featuring WA State Poet Laureate Rena Priest. This event is a celebration of our talented local writing community—you are invited to participate as this is a free open-mic style reading for all genres including singer-songwriters. Signups are first-come-first-served while space is available, and writers will each have 1-5 minutes to perform. WA State’s Poet Laureate Rena Priest will be our featured headliner! This venue has a free parking lot.

We would like to thank Humanities Washington and ArtsWA for helping us present events featuring Rena Priest, our state Poet Laureate. We would also like to thank The Fig Tree and Broken Mic for their co-sponsorship of this event. Thank you as well to The Hive for hosting us.

Click here to view this event on Facebook. Please help us by filling out a festival survey! 
Sponsors
avatar for Broken Mic

Broken Mic

Broken Mic is an all ages weekly poetry open mic at in Spokane, Washington, held 6:30 P.M. every Wednesday at Neato Burrito (827 W. 1st)Where: Neato Burrito (827 W. 1st Spokane, WA)When: 6:30 to 9:00 Why: Awesomeness Who: All ages and free, anyone can sign up to read What: Poetry... Read More →

Speakers
avatar for Rena Priest

Rena Priest

Rena Priest is a Poet and an enrolled member of the Lhaq’temish (Lummi) Nation. She has been appointed to serve as the Washington State Poet Laureate for the term of April 2021-2023.  She is a Vadon Foundation Fellow, and recipient of an Allied Arts Foundation Professional Poets... Read More →


Thursday April 21, 2022 6:30pm - 7:30pm PDT
The Hive - A Spokane Public Library
  Reading, Open Mic
 
Friday, April 22
 

TBA

Private Author's Reception
*This is a private event for festival authors only. It is not open to the public. We thank Gander & Ryegrass for hosting us, and we encourage you to visit them another day! 
Friday April 22, 2022 TBA
Gander & Ryegrass
  Private

9:00am PDT

Creating Tension in Fiction: A Craft Class with Brandon Hobson
The elements of tension are important to think about as we create fiction. What are the stakes and are they high enough? How much motivation does a character need to work through a conflict, and why is this important? We will look at examples of tension and its importance. After looking at many examples of fiction that is skillfully employing techniques for creating tension, attendees will be given time to try to mimic these techniques in their own writing. You will come away from this class with inspiration and many starting points for your own work. While this class will focus on fiction, many of the techniques discussed can be used in nonfiction and poetry as well. This event is held in room 303, on the third floor of the Catalyst Building.  

Tickets available for purchase here. 
Click here to view this event on Facebook. Make sure to sign up for our mailing list for future festival announcements. Parking is free on Sprague Avenue (recommended) or you can pay by mobile app.

Please help us by filling out a festival survey!
Speakers
avatar for Brandon Hobson

Brandon Hobson

Dr. Brandon Hobson received his PhD from Oklahoma State University. He is the author of four books, including the recent novel, The Removed. His novel, Where the Dead Sit Talking, was a finalist for the National Book Award, winner of the Reading the West Award, and longlisted for... Read More →

Friday April 22, 2022 9:00am - 11:00am PDT
Catalyst 303 601 E Riverside Ave, Spokane, WA 99202
  Craft Class, Participant-driven

9:00am PDT

Writing the Bizarre: A Craft Class with Rajiv Mohabir
Are you a fan of the strange, the unusual, and the uncanny? The French Modernist poet Charles Baudelaire said “Le beau est toujours bizarre.” (The beautiful is always bizarre.) Like this quote indicates, the strange and uncanny in lines of poetry surprise, add mystery, and add an air of spontaneity to any poem. But how does the poet craft works that live up to this axiom? In this poetry and nonfiction workshop you will be encouraged to approach writing to lead your readers into the unexpected. We will be looking at various strategies to invigorate our poetry with the unexpected, the strange, and the weird.

We will read texts that employ erasures, excavations, stream of consciousness, and “found” language. Together we will use these methods to texture our language and to push our own capabilities as poets and writers to the brink of our imaginations and then some. The goal is for the student to create new works that excite and reflect the bizarre nature of the process. This event will be held in room 309, on the third floor of the Catalyst Building.

Tickets available for purchase here. 
Click here to view this event on Facebook. Make sure to sign up for our mailing list for future festival announcements. Parking is free on Sprague Avenue (recommended) or you can pay by mobile app.

Please help us by filling out a festival survey! 
Speakers
avatar for Rajiv Mohabir

Rajiv Mohabir

Rajiv Mohabir’s memoir ANTIMAN (Restless Books 2021) received the 2019 Restless Books’ New Immigrant Writing Prize. He is also the author of three books of poetry including Cutlish (Four Way Books 2021), The Cowherd’s Son (Tupelo Press 2017, winner of the 2015 Kundiman Prize... Read More →

Friday April 22, 2022 9:00am - 11:00am PDT
Catalyst 309 601 E Riverside Ave, Spokane, WA 99202
  Craft Class, Participant-driven

11:30am PDT

On Beginning (Again): A Craft Class with Chen Chen
How did you come to writing? Or, how did writing come to you? And why do you continue to write? During this time of great collective uncertainty and upheaval, it may be difficult to know what role writing has, for those of us starting out on this path as well as for those of us who have been writers for many years. In this generative session, we’ll explore some ways to re-entangle with our boldest, unruliest writing dreams / hungers / questions. Work by Jennifer S. Cheng, Aracelis Girmay, Hélène Cixous, Sean Thomas Dougherty, and Bhanu Kapil will be our guides as we dive into short experiments in language and aliveness. Though our examples will mainly be poetry, all genres are welcome. This event will be held in room 309, on the third floor of the Catalyst Building.

Tickets available for purchase here. 
Click here to view this event on Facebook. Make sure to sign up for our mailing list for future festival announcements. Parking is free on Sprague Avenue (recommended) or you can pay by mobile app.

Please help us by filling out a festival survey! 
Speakers
avatar for Chen Chen

Chen Chen

Chen Chen is the author of When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities, which was longlisted for the National Book Award and won the A. Poulin, Jr. Poetry Prize, the GLCA New Writers Award, and the Thom Gunn Award for Gay Poetry. The collection was also a finalist... Read More →

Friday April 22, 2022 11:30am - 1:30pm PDT
Catalyst 309 601 E Riverside Ave, Spokane, WA 99202
  Craft Class, Participant-driven

11:30am PDT

Writing the Macabre—Horror in Creative Nonfiction: A Craft Class with Sayantani Dasgupta
Horror, as a literary theme, exists in every writing genre, be it supernatural, science
fiction, fairy tales, folk lore, environmental nonfiction, and even memoir and dark
comedy. Consuming horror can be an escapist and cathartic experience but writing it can
be challenging given the weight of our daily, complex lives more so in light of the Covid-
19 pandemic. This craft talk/workshop will study techniques used by authors as diverse
as Ludmilla Petrushevskaya (fairy tales), Nathaniel Philbrick (narrative nonfiction), and
Sonali Deraniyagala (memoir) to see how they incorporate horror within their writing.
There will be writing prompts to help us dig into our own minds and memories so we
may write true stories about even our most ordinary experiences that will still challenge
the reader’s sense of the Self and the world. This event will be held in room 303, on the 
third floor of the Catalyst Building.

Tickets available for purchase here. 
Click here to view this event on Facebook. Make sure to sign up for our mailing list for future festival announcements. Parking is free on Sprague Avenue (recommended) or you can pay by mobile app.

Please help us by filling out a festival survey! 
Speakers
avatar for Sayantani Dasgupta

Sayantani Dasgupta

Born in Calcutta and raised in New Delhi, Sayantani Dasgupta is an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington. She is the author of Women Who Misbehave (Penguin Random House), Fire Girl: Essays On India, America, & The In-Between (Two... Read More →

Friday April 22, 2022 11:30am - 1:30pm PDT
Catalyst 303 601 E Riverside Ave, Spokane, WA 99202
  Craft Class, Participant-driven

12:00pm PDT

Private MFA Visiting Writer Workshop
This is a private workshop for MFA candidates in Eastern Washington University's creative writing program, taught by Lesley Nneka Arimah. We thank the MFA program for their co-sponsorship of this event as part of the 2021-2022 Visiting Writers Series.  
Speakers
avatar for Lesley Nneka Arimah

Lesley Nneka Arimah

Lesley Nneka Arimah is the author of What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky (Riverhead, 2017). Evocative, wrenching, and subversive, this dazzlingly accomplished collection explores the times that bind us - parents and children, husbands and wives, lovers and friends - to one... Read More →

Friday April 22, 2022 12:00pm - 2:00pm PDT
  Private

2:00pm PDT

Fiery New Prose by EWU Alumni

Join us on YouTube for a free reading celebrating two talented local writers and Eastern Washington University alums who have books recently published or forthcoming in 2022. Kacy Tellessen is a Marine Corps veteran whose memoir Freaks of a Feather looks at Tellessen’s experience serving in Iraq in two tours from 2005-2009. He explores the stark contrast of the expectation of war and serving one's country versus the reality of war and the toll it takes on a soldier’s mental health. Since the publication of Leyna Krow’s collection I’m Fine But You Appear To Be Sinking, her stories have gained critical acclaim and one story, "Sinkhole," will soon be adapted for the screen. Krow’s first novel Fire Season (coming this summer from Viking) tells the story of three scheming opportunists whose lives collide in the wake of a devastating fire in Spokane Falls in 1889.  Fire Season freshly imagines the greed and misogyny of the American West to tell a rollicking, bewitching story about finding purpose in the face of injustice. Both Leyna Krow and Kacy Tellessen are alumni of Eastern Washington University, and they will answer a few questions about their experience at EWU and how it shaped their writing careers.

Click here to view this event on Facebook, and click here to purchase this event's book(s) from Auntie’s. Please help us by filling out a festival survey! 
Speakers
avatar for Kacy Tellessen

Kacy Tellessen

Kacy was born in Spokane and raised in Spangle, Washington--a small farming community that clings to the edge of the Palouse. Kacy joined the Marine Corps infantry directly out of high school and deployed twice to Iraq as an Infantry machine gunner with the Second Battalion, Third... Read More →
avatar for Leyna Krow

Leyna Krow

Leyna Krow is the author of the short story collection I'm Fine, But You Appear To Be Sinking (Featherproof Books 2017) and the forthcoming novel Fire Season (Viking 2022). She lives in Spokane, WA with her husband and two children. 


Friday April 22, 2022 2:00pm - 3:00pm PDT
YouTube
  Virtual Event, Reading & discussion

5:30pm PDT

Writing Sex Scenes: The Art of Intimate Prose
Join us for this free event via YouTube for a talk about writing sex scenes, one of the most difficult challenges an author faces. The panel will feature five debut authors whose novels were published in 2020. Amanda Brainerd, the author of Age of Consent (nominated for "Best Sex Scene" by the Zibby Awards) will moderate the conversation with Leah Konen, the author of All the Broken People, Ellen Birkett Morris, the author of Lost Girls, Liv Arnold, the author of erotic rom com Stepping Stone, and Eliza Nellums, the author of All That’s Bright and Gone. The panel will discuss the awkward, fun, strange, and basic part of being human that sex is, and how to capture its awkwardness, pleasure, and sexiness in a believable manner. This will include short readings as well as topics such as the struggles of writing a sex scene, character interaction, whether sex scenes should be “hot”, and what should be omitted. All of these wonderful authors will bring fresh perspective to a typically off-limits topic.

Click here to view this event on Facebook.

*Note that virtual events listed on our schedule will be available to watch at their scheduled time, and will remain available to watch on our YouTube channel indefinitely.

Please help us by filling out a festival survey! 
Speakers
avatar for Ellen Birkett Morris

Ellen Birkett Morris

Ellen Birkett Morris is the author of Lost Girls, a collection of short stories called "a varied set of tales from a skilled practitioner of the short form" by Kirkus Reviews. Her fiction has appeared in Shenandoah, Antioch Review, Notre Dame Review, South Carolina Review, and Santa... Read More →
avatar for Amanda Brainerd

Amanda Brainerd

Amanda Brainerd is a New York City real estate broker, wife and mother of three. She graduated from Harvard College and earned a Master of Architecture from Columbia University after being expelled from Choate Rosemary Hall boarding school in the 10th grade. AGE OF CONSENT, (Viking... Read More →
avatar for Liv Arnold

Liv Arnold

Liv Arnold has worked as a copywriter for several global companies and now runs her own freelance business. She grew up in Melbourne, Australia, and lives with her husband and their spoiled dog, who only eats freshly cooked meals. When she’s not writing, Liv’s avoiding the gym... Read More →
avatar for Eliza Nellums

Eliza Nellums

Raised in the Detroit suburbs, Eliza Nellums now lives with her cat in Washington DC. She is a member of Bethesda Writer's Center as well as the Metro Writers, a weekly critique group that meets in Dupont Circle. ALL THAT'S BRIGHT AND GONE is her debut novel.
avatar for Leah Konen

Leah Konen

Leah Konen is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she studied journalism and English literature. She is the author of the forthcoming thriller, The Perfect Escape. Her debut thriller, All the Broken People, was a Rolling Stone, Marie Claire, She Reads... Read More →


Friday April 22, 2022 5:30pm - 6:30pm PDT
YouTube
  Virtual Event

7:00pm PDT

A Reading and Conversation with Lesley Nneka Arimah at North Idaho College
Lesley Nneka Arimah will be reading on the campus of North Idaho College and will be in conversation with creative writing faculty member Jonathan Frey. This event is free and open to the public! Click here to view this event on Facebook. Please help us by filling out a festival survey!

This event will be held in Todd Lecture Hall, Molstead 101 on the North Idaho College campus.


Speakers
avatar for Lesley Nneka Arimah

Lesley Nneka Arimah

Lesley Nneka Arimah is the author of What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky (Riverhead, 2017). Evocative, wrenching, and subversive, this dazzlingly accomplished collection explores the times that bind us - parents and children, husbands and wives, lovers and friends - to one... Read More →

Friday April 22, 2022 7:00pm - 8:00pm PDT
North Idaho College

7:00pm PDT

An Evening of Queer Poetry featuring Chen Chen
Please join us for a reading and discussion featuring three highly talented poets Chen Chen, Tobias Wray, and Rajiv Mohabir. The writers will read from their collections and discuss the state of queer poetry today, showing us how they fit within this ever-growing poetic landscape. These three poets all write with themes of masculinity, family, identity, and queerness using their distinct personal experiences to craft poignant poems that leave a lasting impact on their readers. You will not want to miss this evening of poetry!
We would like to thank the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture for hosting us for this event.

Tickets for this event are available for purchase here.
Click here to view this event on Facebook, and click here to purchase this event's book(s) from Auntie’s. There will be free street parking.

Please help us by filling out a festival survey!
Speakers
avatar for Chen Chen

Chen Chen

Chen Chen is the author of When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities, which was longlisted for the National Book Award and won the A. Poulin, Jr. Poetry Prize, the GLCA New Writers Award, and the Thom Gunn Award for Gay Poetry. The collection was also a finalist... Read More →
avatar for Rajiv Mohabir

Rajiv Mohabir

Rajiv Mohabir’s memoir ANTIMAN (Restless Books 2021) received the 2019 Restless Books’ New Immigrant Writing Prize. He is also the author of three books of poetry including Cutlish (Four Way Books 2021), The Cowherd’s Son (Tupelo Press 2017, winner of the 2015 Kundiman Prize... Read More →
avatar for Tobias Wray

Tobias Wray

Tobias Wray’s debut collection, No Doubt I Will Return a Different Man (CSU Poetry Center, 2021), won the 2020 Lighthouse Poetry Series Competition. Poems and other writing have found homes in Blackbird, Bellingham Review, The Adroit Journal, Meridian, The Georgia Review, and in... Read More →


Friday April 22, 2022 7:00pm - 8:00pm PDT
Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture 2316 W 1st Ave, Spokane, WA 99201, USA
  Reading, Reading & discussion
 
Saturday, April 23
 

9:00am PDT

Book Fair
This year we are hosting 20+ bookish organizations including literary journals, booksellers, local nonprofits, and much more at our annual book fair at the Montvale Event Center! Feast World Kitchen will be on hand selling a limited number of lunches, (click this link to reserve your lunch!) DOMA will be pouring free coffee each morning, and there will even be ice cream from The Scoop on Sunday! Don't miss this dynamic two-day book fair on the main floor of the Montvale Event Center. 15+ events will be taking place on the second and third floor both Saturday and Sunday. In order to attend the book fair and all daytime events, you will need to purchase a weekend pass. There will be metered parking or paid downtown lots.

Please help us by filling out a festival survey!
Saturday April 23, 2022 9:00am - 4:00pm PDT
Montvale Event Center 1019 W 1st Ave, Spokane, WA 99201, USA
  Book Fair

9:30am PDT

Conversations Over Coffee
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 in-person Conversations Over Coffee. This session (inspired by an Unconference format) offers participant-driven conversations that cover a range of topics--essentially anything you’d like to talk with others about! Join us, bring your expertise and your hopes to connect on any question or topic, and we'll create in-the-moment conversation groups so that people can talk face-to-face about their interests with others. Click here to view this event on Facebook. Please help us by filling out a festival survey!

In order to attend this event, you must purchase a Weekend Pass. One pass ($15 + fees) covers entry into ALL events on Saturday and Sunday at The Montvale Event Center. There will be metered parking or paid downtown lots. Make sure to join our mailing list for future festival announcements.
Speakers
avatar for Erin Popelka

Erin Popelka

Erin Popelka is a reader, writer, and the founder of Must Read Fiction. Her short stories and essays have appeared in The Threepenny Review, Puerto del Sol, The Los Angeles Review, and Berkeley Fiction Review, among others. As founder of Must Read Fiction, she facilitates an online... Read More →


Saturday April 23, 2022 9:30am - 10:30am PDT
Montvale Event Center: Classroom C2 1019 W 1st Ave, Spokane, WA 99201
  Unconference, Participant-driven

10:00am PDT

2020 * The Year of the Asterisk
2020 was a year that none of us will ever forget—University of Hell Press has made sure of that by creating a fantastic collection of work that helps us make sense of the chaos that was 2020, in an effort to move forward with fresh eyes. Join us to celebrate that anthology with readings from contributors Kimberly Sheridan, Joseph Haeger, Sean Davis, and Wryly T. McCutchen. This reading will be hosted by University of Hell Press founder and publisher Greg Gerding.

In order to attend this event, you must purchase a Weekend Pass. One pass ($15 + fees) covers entry into ALL events on Saturday and Sunday at The Montvale Event Center. There will be metered parking or paid downtown lots. Make sure to join our mailing list for future festival announcements.

Click here to view this event on Facebook, and click here to purchase this event's book(s) from University of Hell. Please help us by filling out a festival survey! 
Speakers
avatar for Kimberly Sheridan

Kimberly Sheridan

Kimberly Sheridan's work appears in Entropy and in University of Hell’s essay collection, 2020* The Year of the Asterisk. She writes a column Tattoo Ink for The Big Smoke which explores the world of tattoos. Kimberly holds an MFA in creative nonfiction from Eastern Washington University... Read More →
avatar for Joseph Haeger

Joseph Haeger

Joseph Edwin Haeger is the author of the experimental memoir Learn to Swim (University of Hell Press). His writing has appeared at Vol. 1 Brooklyn, HAD, X-R-A-Y, Drunk Monkeys, The Inlander, and others. He reviews books at The Big Smoke and The Poetry Question. As a litmus test... Read More →
avatar for Sean Davis

Sean Davis

Sean Davis is the author of The Wax Bullet War and a Purple Heart Iraq War veteran. His latest stories, essays, and articles have appeared in various magazines and media sources such as HUMAN the Movie, the international fashion magazine Flaunt, the Ted Talk book Misfit's Man... Read More →
avatar for Wryly T. McCutchen

Wryly T. McCutchen

Wryly T. McCutchen is a multi-genre writer, interdisciplinary performer, community educator, & 2018 LAMBDA Fellow in poetry. Their work has appeared in 2020* The Year of the Asterisk. Foglifter, Papeachu Review, and Nat. Brut. Wryly earned a dual genre MFA in creative nonfiction... Read More →


Saturday April 23, 2022 10:00am - 11:00am PDT
Montvale Event Center: Ella's Theater
  Reading

10:45am PDT

Submissions 101: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Rejection
This session explores the details, logistics, challenges, and rewards of submitting your writing for publication. Participants will explore their reasons for submitting their work, prioritize which markets would be a good fit, receive resources for researching publications, learn what to expect in regards to acceptance rates and turnaround time, and review ways to stay organized with their submissions. While the session is tailored for writers of poetry and short prose of any genre, the lessons can be tailored for book-length work. This session will be hands-on; participants are encouraged to bring their own internet-connected device to start their own research and create a submission plan. Click here to view this event on Facebook. Please help us by filling out a festival survey!

In order to attend this event, you must purchase a Weekend Pass. One pass ($15 + fees) covers entry into ALL events on Saturday and Sunday at The Montvale Event Center. There will be metered parking or paid downtown lots. Make sure to join our mailing list for future festival announcements. 
Speakers
avatar for Erin Popelka

Erin Popelka

Erin Popelka is a reader, writer, and the founder of Must Read Fiction. Her short stories and essays have appeared in The Threepenny Review, Puerto del Sol, The Los Angeles Review, and Berkeley Fiction Review, among others. As founder of Must Read Fiction, she facilitates an online... Read More →


Saturday April 23, 2022 10:45am - 11:45am PDT
Montvale Event Center: Classroom C2 1019 W 1st Ave, Spokane, WA 99201
  Talk, Participant-driven

11:30am PDT

Turning Tables and Bending Villains: The Life of a Game Writer
Join us for a panel discussion on the intricacies of life as a game writer from some of the most acclaimed writers in this unique and growing genre. We will be joined by Beth The Bard, author of She is the Ancient: A Genderbent Curse of Strahd, and Jay Casual, Professional TTRPG Storyteller and creator of Deep Breadth RPG - a tabletop roleplaying game that meshes the conventions of anime storytelling with urban fantasy, who will talk about the trials and triumphs of writing for Role-Playing Games as well as the experience of collective storytelling through RPGs. This conversation will be moderated by Dr. Terrance MacMullan, Eastern Washington University Professor of Philosophy, Chair of the Department of English and Philosophy and D&D enthusiast who keeps rolling paladins and multi-class bards.

In order to attend this event, you must purchase a Weekend Pass. One pass ($15 + fees) covers entry into ALL events on Saturday and Sunday at The Montvale Event Center. There will be metered parking or paid downtown lots. Make sure to join our mailing list for future festival announcements.

Click here to view this event on Facebook, and click here to purchase this event's book(s) from Auntie’s. Please help us by filling out a festival survey!
Speakers
avatar for Beth the Bard

Beth the Bard

Beth the Bard is a best-selling TTRPG writer and professional Dungeons & Dragons game master. Her work focuses heavily around horror, feminism, and neurodivergent accessibility in the tabletop gaming community.
avatar for Jay Casual

Jay Casual

Jay Casual is a professional actor, wordsmith, and creator of Deep Breadth RPG - a tabletop roleplaying game that meshes the conventions of anime storytelling with urban fantasy.
avatar for Terrance MacMullan

Terrance MacMullan

Terrance MacMullan is an award-winning educator and author who has loved teaching Philosophy classes at EWU since 2002. Originally from Santurce, Puerto Rico, he is the author of Habits of Whiteness: A Pragmatist Reconstruction (Indiana UP) as well as publications on Latin American... Read More →

Saturday April 23, 2022 11:30am - 12:30pm PDT
Montvale Event Center: Third Floor Ballroom
  Panel Discussion

12:00pm PDT

Drop In & Write with Spark Central
Aspiring writers unite! You're invited to be a part of Spark Central’s supportive writers' community. If you found yourself struck by inspiration during a festival event, desperately jotting down notes for your own work, look no further than this uninterrupted hour of focused writing time! You are also encouraged to bring works in progress to share, or get inspired with creative prompts. Hosted by local writer and Spark central volunteer, Jenny Davis. Click here to view this even on Facebook. Please help us by filling out a festival survey!

In order to attend this event, you must purchase a Weekend Pass. One pass ($15 + fees) covers entry into ALL events on Saturday and Sunday at The Montvale Event Center. Make sure to join our mailing list for future festival announcements. There will be metered parking or paid downtown lots.
Saturday April 23, 2022 12:00pm - 1:00pm PDT
Montvale Event Center: Classroom A
  Unstructured Writing Time

12:00pm PDT

An Activity for Young Writers
****We are so sorry to report that due to some mechanical issues, the book bus will not be able to join us this year! We hope you'll check out the CCBA in their new space!****

The Center for Children's Book Arts will have their Book Bus parked outside of the Montvale Event Center. Books can be purchased, and there will be a fun hands-on activity available for children. Click here to view this event on Facebook. There will be metered parking or paid downtown lots.

The CCBA is a nonprofit organization that celebrates the positive impact of art and literacy on the lives of families. It is both a bookstore, carrying heirloom-quality, illustrated texts from around the world, and a workshop for perpetuating the art of the book.  Our mission is to make beautiful home libraries and art experiences accessible to all families in our community. 

Please help us by filling out a festival survey! 
Speakers
avatar for The Center for Children's Book Arts

The Center for Children's Book Arts

The CCBA is a nonprofit organization that celebrates the positive impact of art and literacy on the lives of families. It is both a bookstore, carrying heirloom-quality, illustrated texts from around the world, and a workshop for perpetuating the art of the book.  Our mission is... Read More →

Saturday April 23, 2022 12:00pm - 4:00pm PDT
Montvale Event Center 1019 W 1st Ave, Spokane, WA 99201, USA
  Activity for children, Participant-driven

1:00pm PDT

Poetry Salon
Join us for an afternoon discussion centered on the power of poetry and its place in the world. Each poet brings a unique perspective and vast experience to the table, and every year we are stunned at the magic that takes place when five poets sit down to discuss their craft. Don’t miss this opportunity to learn from some of today’s most talented poets from our region and beyond! We would like to thank Humanities Washington and ArtsWA for helping us present events featuring Rena Priest, our state Poet Laureate.

In order to attend this event, you must purchase a Weekend Pass. One pass ($15 + fees) covers entry into ALL events on Saturday and Sunday at The Montvale Event Center. There will be metered parking or paid downtown lots. Make sure to join our mailing list for future festival announcements.

Click here to view this event on Facebook, and click here to purchase this event's book(s) from Auntie’s. Please help us by filling out a festival survey!
Speakers
avatar for Taneum Bambrick

Taneum Bambrick

Taneum Bambrick is the author of Intimacies, Received (Copper Canyon Press 2022) and Vantage, which was selected by Sharon Olds for the 2019 American Poetry Review/Honickman first book award (APR 2019). Her chapbook, Reservoir, was selected by Ocean Vuong for the 2017 Yemassee Chapbook... Read More →
avatar for Chen Chen

Chen Chen

Chen Chen is the author of When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities, which was longlisted for the National Book Award and won the A. Poulin, Jr. Poetry Prize, the GLCA New Writers Award, and the Thom Gunn Award for Gay Poetry. The collection was also a finalist... Read More →
avatar for Wryly T. McCutchen

Wryly T. McCutchen

Wryly T. McCutchen is a multi-genre writer, interdisciplinary performer, community educator, & 2018 LAMBDA Fellow in poetry. Their work has appeared in 2020* The Year of the Asterisk. Foglifter, Papeachu Review, and Nat. Brut. Wryly earned a dual genre MFA in creative nonfiction... Read More →
avatar for Rena Priest

Rena Priest

Rena Priest is a Poet and an enrolled member of the Lhaq’temish (Lummi) Nation. She has been appointed to serve as the Washington State Poet Laureate for the term of April 2021-2023.  She is a Vadon Foundation Fellow, and recipient of an Allied Arts Foundation Professional Poets... Read More →
avatar for Nance Van Winckel

Nance Van Winckel

Nance Van Winckel is the author of nine books of poetry, most recently The Many Beds of Martha Washington (Pacific Northwest Poetry Series, 2021), Our Foreigner, winner of the Pacific Coast Poetry Prize (Beyond Baroque Press, 2017), and Book of No Ledge (Pleiades Press Visual Poetry... Read More →

Saturday April 23, 2022 1:00pm - 2:00pm PDT
Montvale Event Center: Ella's Theater
  Panel Discussion

2:30pm PDT

Celebrating the Short Story
Join us for a panel discussion celebrating the magic of the short story form, featuring Brandon Hobson, Lesley Nneka Arimah, Beth Piatote, Joseph Holt, and Sayantani Dasgupta. This is a star-studded panel of writers from a variety of backgrounds and experiences, who are all masters of the short story. The writers will discuss the craft of storytelling and the road to publication for individual short stories as well as collections.

This event is sponsored in part by Must Read Fiction. Must Read Fiction began because reader and writer Erin Popelka believes that her life is better when she’s got a novel in hand. In 2017, she started Must Read Fiction, a social media community to meet other readers who feel the same way. The result: a vibrant place for readers to connect to their next great read, hear the story behind the story with author interviews, and receive free books!

In order to attend this event, you must purchase a Weekend Pass. One pass ($15 + fees) covers entry into ALL events on Saturday and Sunday at The Montvale Event Center. There will be metered parking or paid downtown lots. Make sure to join our mailing list for future festival announcements.

Click here to view this event on Facebook, and click here to purchase this event's book(s) from Auntie’s. Please help us by filling out a festival survey!
Speakers
avatar for Lesley Nneka Arimah

Lesley Nneka Arimah

Lesley Nneka Arimah is the author of What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky (Riverhead, 2017). Evocative, wrenching, and subversive, this dazzlingly accomplished collection explores the times that bind us - parents and children, husbands and wives, lovers and friends - to one... Read More →
avatar for Sayantani Dasgupta

Sayantani Dasgupta

Born in Calcutta and raised in New Delhi, Sayantani Dasgupta is an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington. She is the author of Women Who Misbehave (Penguin Random House), Fire Girl: Essays On India, America, & The In-Between (Two... Read More →
avatar for Brandon Hobson

Brandon Hobson

Dr. Brandon Hobson received his PhD from Oklahoma State University. He is the author of four books, including the recent novel, The Removed. His novel, Where the Dead Sit Talking, was a finalist for the National Book Award, winner of the Reading the West Award, and longlisted for... Read More →
avatar for Joseph Holt

Joseph Holt

Joseph Holt is author of the story collection Golden Heart Parade (Santa Fe Writers Project, 2021). His writing has appeared in The Sun, Prairie Schooner, and J Journal: New Writing on Justice. Holt graduated from the Center for Writers at the University of Southern Mississippi, and... Read More →
avatar for Beth Piatote

Beth Piatote

Beth Piatote is a Nez Perce poet, playwright, fiction writer, and scholar. She is author of two books, including The Beadworkers: Stories (Counterpoint 2019) which was longlisted for the PEN/Bingham prize for Debut Short Story Collection and the Aspen Words Literary Prize, and shortlisted... Read More →

Saturday April 23, 2022 2:30pm - 3:30pm PDT
Montvale Event Center: Third Floor Ballroom
  Panel Discussion

3:00pm PDT

Split/Lip Press Presents: Why We Depart: Genre Bending Across Nonfiction Lines
Join us via YouTube for the free event “Split/Lip Press Presents: Why We Depart: Genre Bending Across Nonfiction Lines” with Lauren W. Westerfield, Athena Dixon, Calvin Walds, and Jeannine Ouellete as they use their experiences to delve into why genre-bending motivates, fascinates, and continues to grow, opening the conversation around nonfiction with continued examination of the tools we as writers have at our disposal.

*Note that virtual events listed on our schedule will be available to watch at their scheduled time, and will remain available to watch on our YouTube channel indefinitely.

Click here to view this event on Facebook. Please help us by filling out a festival survey! 
Speakers
avatar for Lauren W. Westerfield

Lauren W. Westerfield

Lauren W. Westerfield's essays and poetry have most recently appeared or are forthcoming in Seneca Review, Willow Springs, Denver Quarterly, Indiana Review, Ninth Letter, and Third Coast. She teaches in the English department at Washington State University, where she is the Editing... Read More →
avatar for Athena Dixon

Athena Dixon

Athena Dixon is a poet and essayist born and raised in NE Ohio. She is the author of the chapbook No God in This Room and a debut collection of personal essays titled The Incredible Shrinking Woman. Her work has been anthologized and is included in The Breakbeat Poets Vol. 2: Black... Read More →
avatar for Calvin Walds

Calvin Walds

Calvin Walds is a writer, educator, and abolitionist/image-maker/nomad originally from Detroit, Michigan. His poems and texts have been published widely and are forthcoming in DIAGRAM and Black Warrior Review. As an educator, he has taught in Sunflower County, in the Mississippi... Read More →
avatar for Jeannine Ouellete

Jeannine Ouellete

Jeannine Ouellette's stories and essays have appeared in many journals including North American Review and Narrative and several anthologies including Women’s Lives: Multicultural Perspectives. Her work has been recognized in numerous contests including those sponsored by Iowa... Read More →

Saturday April 23, 2022 3:00pm - 4:00pm PDT
YouTube
  Virtual Event

4:00pm PDT

Evergreen Anthology Reading
Join us in the historic Ella’s Theater to celebrate Evergreen, the latest anthology from Scablands Books. In this rich, shadowy, glittering anthology edited by Sharma Shields and Maya Jewell Zeller, 56 Northwest writers share their singular stories, essays, and poems that center what Shields calls "the literature of despair." This event will feature readings from contributors Beth Piatote, Taneum Bambrick, Inga Laurent, Emma Noyes, and Margot Kahn, whose work confronts what is difficult in life with extraordinary precision and grace. As Zeller writes in the book's introduction, this ambitious anthology pushes us to "learn, memorize, and recite the songs sung by these regional voices, mapping us into a communal root system of evergreen selves." Please join us to celebrate these talented writers and Spokane’s own Scablands Books.

In order to attend this event, you must purchase a Weekend Pass. One pass ($15 + fees) covers entry into ALL events on Saturday and Sunday at The Montvale Event Center. There will be metered parking or paid downtown lots. Make sure to join our mailing list for future festival announcements.

Click here to view this event on Facebook, and click here to purchase this event's book(s) from Auntie’s. Please help us by filling out a festival survey!
Speakers
avatar for Taneum Bambrick

Taneum Bambrick

Taneum Bambrick is the author of Intimacies, Received (Copper Canyon Press 2022) and Vantage, which was selected by Sharon Olds for the 2019 American Poetry Review/Honickman first book award (APR 2019). Her chapbook, Reservoir, was selected by Ocean Vuong for the 2017 Yemassee Chapbook... Read More →
avatar for Emma Noyes

Emma Noyes

Emma Noyes (Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation) is an artist and author transfixed with the geography of story. She is committed to creating a visual and written universe of tribal plateau indigeneity and dedicated to creating a future where Native peoples thrive and... Read More →
avatar for Margot Kahn

Margot Kahn

Margot Kahn is the author of the biography Horses That Buck, winner of the High Plains Book Award, and A Quiet Day with the West on Fire, finalist for the 2021 Floating Bridge Press chapbook award. She is co-editor of two anthologies: This Is the Place, a New York Times Book Review... Read More →
avatar for Beth Piatote

Beth Piatote

Beth Piatote is a Nez Perce poet, playwright, fiction writer, and scholar. She is author of two books, including The Beadworkers: Stories (Counterpoint 2019) which was longlisted for the PEN/Bingham prize for Debut Short Story Collection and the Aspen Words Literary Prize, and shortlisted... Read More →
avatar for Inga Laurent

Inga Laurent

Inga N. Laurent is a Professor of Law at Gonzaga University, School of Law. Her main area of focus centers on analyzing and re-imagining our current criminal legal system. She returned to the faculty in Fall of 2017 after spending nine months researching restorative justice in Kingston... Read More →

Saturday April 23, 2022 4:00pm - 5:00pm PDT
Montvale Event Center: Ella's Theater
  Reading

5:30pm PDT

New Women Poets from Empty Bowl Press
Join us for this free event via YouTube to celebrate new poetry by the women of Empty Bowl Press, Holly J. Hughes, Shin Yu Pai, and Ann Spiers. Their poems define what is fragile, threatened, and all in all, widely spiritual in our natural environment. Shin Yu Pai’s Virga offers Buddhist thought from lived experience; Ann Spiers’ Rain Violent captures climate crisis in quatrains linked with weather symbols; and Holly J. Hughes’ Hold Fast celebrates the “ten thousand sorrows and ten thousand joys” she invites us all to hold fast. Empty Bowl Press’s mission is to publish writers dedicated to the love and preservation of human communities in wild places. As poets of Empty Bowl Press, they believe the climate crisis affects all living beings…people, animals, plants, natural systems. They find it urgent as poets to join other writers at Get Lit! to speak about these effects.

Click here to view this event on Facebook, and click here to purchase this event's book(s) from Auntie’s. Please help us by filling out a festival survey!
Speakers
avatar for Holly J. Hughes

Holly J. Hughes

Holly J. Hughes is the author of HOLD FAST, Passings, and Sailing by Ravens, co-author of The Pen and The Bell: Mindful Writing in a Busy World, and editor of the anthology, Beyond Forgetting: Poetry and Prose about Alzheimer's Disease. Her chapbook Passings received an American... Read More →
avatar for Shin Yu Pai

Shin Yu Pai

Shin Yu Pai is a poet, essayist and visual artist. She is the author of several books of poetry, including VIRGA, ENSŌ, SIGHTINGS: SELECTED WORKS (2000-2005), AUX ARCS, Adamantine, and Equivalence. She served as the fourth poet laureate of the city of Redmond. She is a three-time... Read More →
avatar for Ann Spiers

Ann Spiers

Ann Spiers (Spy-ers) lives on Vashon Island, Puget Sound, where she is its inaugural poet laureate, steward of the Poetry Post. Her 2021 publications are Rain Violent, Back Cut and Harpoon. Her chapbooks include What Rain Does, Bunker Trail, and Long Climb into Grace, The Herodotus... Read More →

Saturday April 23, 2022 5:30pm - 6:30pm PDT
YouTube
  Virtual Event

7:00pm PDT

An Evening with Brandon Hobson and Lesley Nneka Arimah
Tickets for this event, and this event only, are available NOW from TicketsWest. Make sure to join our mailing list for any event updates.

We are thrilled to welcome you back to The Bing Crosby Theater for one of 2022’s headlining events—a reading to celebrate the highly-acclaimed fiction writers Lesley Nneka Arimah and Brandon Hobson. Arimah’s stories have been honored with a National Magazine Award, a Commonwealth Short Story Prize and an O. Henry Award. Her debut collection, What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky won multiple awards and earned her a spot on the National Book Foundation’s 5 Under 35. The collection focuses on the lives and experiences of Nigerian women and how to deal with the heavy burden of grief. Her writing expertly weaves in speculative elements to everyday scenarios. Arimah allows the reader a different lens on important topics like gender norms, colonialism, and immigration. Hobson is the author of The Removed, as well as the novel, Where the Dead Sit Talking, which was a finalist for the 2018 National Book Award, winner of the Reading the West Award, and longlisted for the Dublin International Literary Award. His novels highlight the remnants of ancestral trauma through societal justice systems and norms, connection between the natural and spiritual, and familial loss and grief. The authors will be reading their work and engaging in conversation with Spokane writer Alexis M. Smith.

We would like to thank STCU Best of Broadway for their sponsorship of this event!

Click here to view this event on Facebook, and click here to purchase this event's book(s) from Auntie’s. There will be metered parking or paid downtown lots.

Please help us by filling out a festival survey!
Speakers
avatar for Alexis Smith

Alexis Smith

Alexis Smith is the author of the novels Glaciers, a finalist for the Ken Kesey Award, and Marrow Island, winner of a Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Award and a Lambda Literary Award. Her short fiction, essays, and interviews have appeared in Portland Review, Moss, Tin... Read More →
avatar for Brandon Hobson

Brandon Hobson

Dr. Brandon Hobson received his PhD from Oklahoma State University. He is the author of four books, including the recent novel, The Removed. His novel, Where the Dead Sit Talking, was a finalist for the National Book Award, winner of the Reading the West Award, and longlisted for... Read More →
avatar for Lesley Nneka Arimah

Lesley Nneka Arimah

Lesley Nneka Arimah is the author of What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky (Riverhead, 2017). Evocative, wrenching, and subversive, this dazzlingly accomplished collection explores the times that bind us - parents and children, husbands and wives, lovers and friends - to one... Read More →


Saturday April 23, 2022 7:00pm - 8:00pm PDT
Bing Crosby Theater 901 W Sprague Ave, Spokane, WA 99201, USA
  Reading, Reading & discussion
 
Sunday, April 24
 

9:00am PDT

Book Fair
This year we are hosting 20+ bookish organizations including literary journals, booksellers, local nonprofits, and much more at our annual book fair at the Montvale Event Center! Feast World Kitchen will be on hand selling a limited number of lunches, (reserve yours here!) DOMA will be pouring free coffee each morning, and there will even be ice cream from The Scoop on Sunday! Don't miss this dynamic two-day book fair on the main floor of the Montvale Event Center. 15+ events will be taking place on the second and third floor both Saturday and Sunday. In order to attend the book fair and all daytime events, you will need to purchase a weekend pass. There will be metered parking or paid downtown lots.

Please help us by filling out a festival survey!

Sunday April 24, 2022 9:00am - 4:00pm PDT
Montvale Event Center 1019 W 1st Ave, Spokane, WA 99201, USA
  Book Fair

9:30am PDT

Conversations Over Coffee
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 in-person Conversations Over Coffee. This session (inspired by an Unconference format) offers participant-driven conversations that cover a range of topics--essentially anything you’d like to talk with others about! Join us, bring your expertise and your hopes to connect on any question or topic, and we'll create in-the-moment conversation groups so that people can talk face-to-face about their interests with others. Click here to view this event on Facebook. Please help us by filling out a festival survey!

In order to attend this event, you must purchase a Weekend Pass. One pass ($15 + fees) covers entry into ALL events on Saturday and Sunday at The Montvale Event Center. There will be metered parking or paid downtown lots. Make sure to join our mailing list for future festival announcements. 
Speakers
avatar for Erin Popelka

Erin Popelka

Erin Popelka is a reader, writer, and the founder of Must Read Fiction. Her short stories and essays have appeared in The Threepenny Review, Puerto del Sol, The Los Angeles Review, and Berkeley Fiction Review, among others. As founder of Must Read Fiction, she facilitates an online... Read More →


Sunday April 24, 2022 9:30am - 10:30am PDT
Montvale Event Center: Classroom C2 1019 W 1st Ave, Spokane, WA 99201
  Unconference, Participant-driven

10:00am PDT

Get Crit!: Dungeons and Dragons LIVE
We are very excited to present Get Lit!’s first-ever live RPG event, featuring Dungeon Master Beth the Bard. Players include TTRPG writer Jay Casual and local writers and booksellers from Auntie's Bookstore, Kerry Halls, J.T. Greathouse, and Auntie's Bookstore owner John Waite.

Players will be 1st-year students of Strixhaven University - a fantastical school of magic. Dangers lurk on this campus of the arcane, however. Hijinks and sinister plots compete with the time required to study for tests and practice spell work. The day has arrived as students have collected their books and uniforms to begin their academic careers. We'll explore the campus, decide between five schools of magic, and endure dangerous whimsy to make a name for ourselves as heroes of the university.

In order to attend this event, you must purchase a Weekend Pass. One pass ($15 + fees) covers entry into ALL events on Saturday and Sunday at The Montvale Event Center. There will be metered parking or paid downtown lots. Make sure to join our mailing list for future festival announcements.

Click here to view this event on Facebook, and click here to purchase this event's book(s) from Auntie’s. Please help us by filling out a festival survey!
Speakers
avatar for Kerry Halls
avatar for Beth the Bard

Beth the Bard

Beth the Bard is a best-selling TTRPG writer and professional Dungeons & Dragons game master. Her work focuses heavily around horror, feminism, and neurodivergent accessibility in the tabletop gaming community.
avatar for Jay Casual

Jay Casual

Jay Casual is a professional actor, wordsmith, and creator of Deep Breadth RPG - a tabletop roleplaying game that meshes the conventions of anime storytelling with urban fantasy.
avatar for J.T. Greathouse

J.T. Greathouse

J.T. Greathouse is the author of the PACT & PATTERN trilogy published by Gollancz, which began with THE HAND OF THE SUN KING and continues with THE GARDEN OF EMPIRE in August, 2022. In addition to writing, he has been a student in Beijing, an ESL instructor in Taipei, a bookseller... Read More →
avatar for Terrance MacMullan

Terrance MacMullan

Terrance MacMullan is an award-winning educator and author who has loved teaching Philosophy classes at EWU since 2002. Originally from Santurce, Puerto Rico, he is the author of Habits of Whiteness: A Pragmatist Reconstruction (Indiana UP) as well as publications on Latin American... Read More →
avatar for John Waite

John Waite

John Waite is an Immortal who never ages, and the owner of Aunties Bookstore and Merlyn's Comics and Games. He is a graduate of Eastern Washington University with a degree in humanities and teaching. He has been playing Dungeons and Dragons since 1978. His favorite class is Fighter... Read More →


Sunday April 24, 2022 10:00am - 1:00pm PDT
Montvale Event Center: Ella's Theater
  RPG

10:45am PDT

The Emotions of the Creative Process: Why Is It So Hard to Finish Things?
Writing, like any act of creation, is an emotional process. Characters have emotions. Poems are conduits for feelings. Creative nonfiction is a minefield. But the process itself also follows an emotional arc--and it sometimes gets blocked. This session outlines the emotional journey for creative work, from the excitement of the initial idea to the doubt that comes as we start to create. Learn how to persist, how to forgive yourself, and how to learn to love the thing that is ultimately created. Participants will leave with their own map of the emotions of their creative process, suggestions about what to do when they get stuck, and a path forward to finish their work-in-progress. Click here to view this event on Facebook. Please help us by filling out a festival survey!

In order to attend this event, you must purchase a Weekend Pass. One pass ($15 + fees) covers entry into ALL events on Saturday and Sunday at The Montvale Event Center. There will be metered parking or paid downtown lots. Make sure to join our mailing list for future festival announcements. 
Speakers
avatar for Erin Popelka

Erin Popelka

Erin Popelka is a reader, writer, and the founder of Must Read Fiction. Her short stories and essays have appeared in The Threepenny Review, Puerto del Sol, The Los Angeles Review, and Berkeley Fiction Review, among others. As founder of Must Read Fiction, she facilitates an online... Read More →


Sunday April 24, 2022 10:45am - 11:45am PDT
Montvale Event Center: Classroom C2 1019 W 1st Ave, Spokane, WA 99201
  Talk, Participant-driven

11:00am PDT

One-Block Revolution
Join us to celebrate the anthology One-Block Revolution, edited by Summer Hess and published by Latah Press. One-Block Revolution honors the chorus of diverse changemakers who show up every day to build community in downtown Spokane— specifically the Community Building Campus, a cluster of 6 buildings that public defender and philanthropist Jim Sheehan renovated and repurposed for the public good. This campus serves as an interdisciplinary hub where grassroots leaders run campaigns, build coalitions, host meetings, train activists, and transform their city. Part counterculture manifesto and framework for participatory placemaking, part handbook for nonprofits and social enterprises, this anthology tells one of Spokane’s most essential stories, while providing inspiration and practical guidance for organizations across the world. This panel will feature readings and a discussion with contributors Joe Sheehan, Mariah McKay, and editor Summer Hess.

In order to attend this event, you must purchase a Weekend Pass. One pass ($15 + fees) covers entry into ALL events on Saturday and Sunday at The Montvale Event Center. There will be metered parking or paid downtown lots. Make sure to join our mailing list for future festival announcements.

Click here to view this event via Facebook, and click here to purchase this event's book(s) from Auntie’s. Please help us by filling out a festival survey! 
Speakers
avatar for Joe Sheehan

Joe Sheehan

Joe Sheehan grew up in Spokane. He has a Bachelor's degree in History from the University of Montana and a Master's degree in Psychology from Walden University. As a part of the 20+ years of the One-Block Revolution Project he has been a volunteer, a part of the construction crew... Read More →
avatar for Rebecca Mack

Rebecca Mack

Rebecca Mack has been a member of the CBC team for the last 10 years in a jack-of-all-trades role, helping to nurture and sustain community connections. She also hosted a community affairs talk show on KYRS, led the creation and development of the CBC's first website, and helped address... Read More →
avatar for Mariah McKay

Mariah McKay

Mariah McKay is a serial entrepreneur, sustainable housing professional and public health advocate. She is the Founder and Director of Dynamism at the Spokane Independent Metro Business Alliance (SIMBA) which organizes values-driven business owners and consumer leaders to create a... Read More →
avatar for Summer Hess

Summer Hess

Summer Hess is an author, social impact advisor with Measure Meant, and the editor of One-Block Revolution: 20 Years of Community Building. Previously, Summer was the managing editor for Out There Outdoors magazine, the Inland Northwest's guide to adventure, travel, and outdoor living... Read More →


Sunday April 24, 2022 11:00am - 12:00pm PDT
Montvale Event Center: Third Floor Ballroom
  Reading, Reading & discussion

1:00pm PDT

Amplifying Voices and Visions: Border and Immigrant Perspectives In Children's Literature
Join us via YouTube for this free event where we welcome Alda P. Dobbs, Daniel Aleman, Payal Doshi, Margarita Longoria, and Maria E. Andreu for a virtual reading and conversation on border and immigrant perspectives in writing for children. These authors will all share stories aimed to expand and enrich young readers' views of the world and of themselves while creating empathy and showing how similar we all are in spite of our origins, our histories, and our cultural backgrounds. They will also share ideas for incorporating these books into lessons on teaching immigration, life near the U.S.-Mexico border, and cultures outside the U.S.

*Note that virtual events listed on our schedule will be available to watch at their scheduled time, and will remain available to watch on our YouTube channel indefinitely.

Click here to view this event via Facebook, and click here to purchase this event's book(s) from Auntie’s. Please help us by filling out a festival survey! 
Speakers
avatar for Daniel Aleman

Daniel Aleman

Daniel Aleman was born and raised in Mexico City. A graduate of McGill University, he is passionate about books, coffee, and dogs. After spending time in Montreal and the New York City area, he now lives in Toronto, where he is on a never-ending search for the best tacos in the city... Read More →
avatar for Payal Doshi

Payal Doshi

Payal Doshi has lived in the UK and US where she noticed a lack of Indian protagonists in global children’s fiction and one day wrote the opening paragraph to what would become her first children’s novel. She was born and raised in Mumbai, India, and currently resides in Minneapolis... Read More →
avatar for Margarita Longoria

Margarita Longoria

Margarita Longoria is an award-winning high school librarian in South Texas. She is the founder of Border Book Bash: Celebrating Teens and Tweens of the Rio Grande Valley and served on state reading committees for the Texas Library Association. She is the editor of LIVING BEYOND... Read More →
avatar for Maria E. Andreu

Maria E. Andreu

Maria E. Andreu is the author of Love in English, an Indie Next Pick and Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection, as well as an as-yet untitled book. Her work has appeared in Literary Hub, Teen Vogue, and more. Her debut young adult novel, The Secret Side of Empty is an International... Read More →
avatar for Alda P. Dobbs

Alda P. Dobbs

Alda P. Dobbs is the author of the new novel Barefoot Dreams of Petra Luna. She was born in a small town in northern Mexico but moved to San Antonio, Texas as a child. Alda studied physics and worked as an engineer before pursuing her love of storytelling. She’s as passionate about... Read More →


Sunday April 24, 2022 1:00pm - 2:00pm PDT
YouTube
  Virtual Event

1:30pm PDT

A Children's Book Reading by Lauren Harris
Join us for a free and publicly open reading from children's book writer Lauren R. Harris. Lauren will read from both The Plum Neighbor and her newest children's book, A Place for Harvest: The Story of Kenny Higashi. Both books are historical fiction based on true stories for young readers, about what life was like in America following the bombing of Pearl Harbor, including the Japanese internment camps and World War II. Following the reading, Lauren will also give a talk for parents and educators on how and why we should share difficult yet very important historical subject matter with children, focusing on the legacy of the Japanese American soldiers of WWII. This event is sponsored by the Spokane Chapter of the Japanese American Citizen's League. We thank the JACL for their continued support. We also thank Wishing Tree Books for hosting this event. There will be free street parking.

Click here to view this event via Facebook, and click here to purchase this event's book(s) from Wishing Tree. Please help us by filling out a festival survey! 
Speakers
avatar for Lauren R. Harris

Lauren R. Harris

Lauren R. Harris grew up in a military family that moved all across the United States. As a child, she read just about every book she could find, especially about American history. She became a 5th grade teacher, homeschooled her own children, and worked as a journalist and freelance... Read More →


Sunday April 24, 2022 1:30pm - 2:00pm PDT
Wishing Tree Books
  Reading, Children's books

1:30pm PDT

LHP x CH: A Reading to Celebrate New Books
Join us for a reading that celebrates 25 years of joyful and fruitful collaboration between Lynx House Press and Lost Horse Press. These two long-running literary presses have been collaborating on programing, editing, design, and public events since 1997. During that time between them they have brought into the world more
than 200 volumes of poetry, fiction, translation, and literary nonfiction. The directors of the two presses, Christopher Howell and Christine Holbert, also founded, with Scott Poole, the Get Lit! Festival itself; and have sponsored countless readings and workshops from southern Oregon to Spokane, Sandpoint, and Missoula.
The reading will feature Lost Horse poets Carolyne Wright, Derek Annis, Polly Buckingham, and Kathryn Hunt, and from Lynx House Melissa Kwasny, Nance VanWinckel, and Kathleen Flenniken, all of whom have had volumes in the Pacific Northwest Poets Series, of which Lynx House Press is, as of 2021, publisher.
Books will be for sale on site, and there will be opportunity to meet and talk with the poets at the
conclusion of the reading.

We thank both Christopher Howell and Christine Holbert for their longstanding support. Get Lit! would not exist without these two champions of our local literary landscape.

In order to attend this event, you must purchase a Weekend Pass. One pass ($15 + fees) covers entry into ALL events on Saturday and Sunday at The Montvale Event Center. There will be metered parking or paid downtown lots. Make sure to join our mailing list for future festival announcements.

Click here to view this event via Facebook, and click here to purchase this event's book(s) from Auntie’s. Please help us by filling out a festival survey! 
Speakers
avatar for Derek Annis

Derek Annis

Derek Annis is the author of Neighborhood of Gray Houses (Lost Horse Press), the associate director of Willow Springs Books, and the associate director of Lynx House Press. His poems have appeared in The Account, Colorado Review, Epiphany, The Gettysburg Review, The Missouri Review... Read More →
avatar for Nance Van Winckel

Nance Van Winckel

Nance Van Winckel is the author of nine books of poetry, most recently The Many Beds of Martha Washington (Pacific Northwest Poetry Series, 2021), Our Foreigner, winner of the Pacific Coast Poetry Prize (Beyond Baroque Press, 2017), and Book of No Ledge (Pleiades Press Visual Poetry... Read More →
avatar for Melissa Kwasny

Melissa Kwasny

Melissa Kwasny is the author of six books of poetry, including Where Outside the Body is the Soul Today (University of Washington Press, Pacific Northwest Poetry Series); Pictograph; The Nine Senses; and Reading Novalis in Montana (all from Milkweed Editions), as well as a collection... Read More →
avatar for Kathleen Flenniken

Kathleen Flenniken

Kathleen Flenniken is the author of three poetry collections, most recently Post Romantic (Pacific Northwest Poetry Series, 2020), a finalist for the Washington State Book Award. A poem from that collection, "Married Love," is featured on the podcast Poetry Unbound. Plume (2012... Read More →
avatar for Kathryn Hunt

Kathryn Hunt

Kathryn Hunt lives on the coast of the Salish Sea, on the tribal, ancestral lands of the S’Klallam, Chimacum, Makah, and Suquamish. Her poems have appeared in Orion, Radar, Terrain, Missouri Review, and Narrative, among others. She is author of two poetry collections—Long Way... Read More →
avatar for Carolyne Wright

Carolyne Wright

Carolyne Wright’s new book is Masquerade, a memoir in poetry (Lost Horse Press, 2021). Her previous book is This Dream the World: New & Selected Poems (Lost Horse, 2017), whose title poem won a Pushcart Prize and also appeared in The Best American Poetry 2009. Her ground-break... Read More →
avatar for Polly Buckingham

Polly Buckingham

Polly Buckingham is the author of one book of poetry, The River People (Lost Horse Press 2020), and two books of fiction, The Expense of a View (Katherine Anne Porter Award, UNT Press 2016) and A Year of Silence (Jeanne Leiby Memorial Chapbook Award, Florida Review Press 2015). She's... Read More →


Sunday April 24, 2022 1:30pm - 3:00pm PDT
Montvale Event Center: Ella's Theater
  Reading

2:00pm PDT

Military Memoirs
Join us to celebrate three military Veterans who have written about their varied experiences in the service and beyond. They will sit down with David Millet, director of Eastern Washington University’s Veterans Resource Center, to discuss the process of writing about their time in the military and how they grappled with the ensuing effects of the trauma. Each writer will also read short selections from their books. We would like to thank EWU’s Veterans Resource Center for sponsoring this event, and generously purchasing tickets for students to attend.  


In order to attend this event, you must purchase a Weekend Pass. One pass ($15 + fees) covers entry into ALL events on Saturday and Sunday at The Montvale Event Center. There will be metered parking or paid downtown lots. Make sure to join our mailing list for future festival announcements.

Click here to view this event via Facebook, and click here to purchase this event's book(s) from Auntie’s. Please help us by filling out a festival survey! 
Speakers
avatar for Sean Davis

Sean Davis

Sean Davis is the author of The Wax Bullet War and a Purple Heart Iraq War veteran. His latest stories, essays, and articles have appeared in various magazines and media sources such as HUMAN the Movie, the international fashion magazine Flaunt, the Ted Talk book Misfit's Man... Read More →
avatar for Kacy Tellessen

Kacy Tellessen

Kacy was born in Spokane and raised in Spangle, Washington--a small farming community that clings to the edge of the Palouse. Kacy joined the Marine Corps infantry directly out of high school and deployed twice to Iraq as an Infantry machine gunner with the Second Battalion, Third... Read More →
avatar for Andy Brown

Andy Brown

Andy Brown grew up playing war in the rain-soaked woods of Port Orchard, Washington and joined the military in 1989, shortly after graduating high school. He served in the Air Force for 10 years as a Law Enforcement Specialist and Criminal Investigator, stationed in Idaho, Greece... Read More →


Sunday April 24, 2022 2:00pm - 3:00pm PDT
Montvale Event Center: Third Floor Ballroom
  Panel Discussion

2:15pm PDT

Writing History for Children with Lauren Harris
This free and publicly open talk intends to help parents, educators, and others discuss difficult yet important historical events with young children. Author Lauren R. Harris's historical children's fiction highlights the Japanese American soldiers of WWII, sharing their inspiring examples of bravery to preserve the American spirit of unity and liberty. This event follows a reading from Lauren's children's books. This event is sponsored by the Spokane Chapter of the Japanese American Citizens League. We thank the JACL for their continued support. We also thank Wishing Tree Books for hosting us. There will be free street parking. 

Click here to view this event via Facebook, and click here to purchase this event's book(s) from Wishing Tree. Please help us by filling out a festival survey! 
Speakers
avatar for Lauren R. Harris

Lauren R. Harris

Lauren R. Harris grew up in a military family that moved all across the United States. As a child, she read just about every book she could find, especially about American history. She became a 5th grade teacher, homeschooled her own children, and worked as a journalist and freelance... Read More →


Sunday April 24, 2022 2:15pm - 2:45pm PDT
Wishing Tree Books
  Talk

3:30pm PDT

Poetry, Prose, and Pints
This year we’re ending the festival on an extra sweet note! This event features festival authors reading original poetry and prose inspired by ice-cream flavors from our favorite local ice-cream shop, The Scoop. These inspired pieces were published in the second installment of our Tiny Book Series, created by The Spokane Print and Publishing Center. Tiny Books will be available for sale, and you will have a chance to taste all of the delicious ice-cream flavors, as The Scoop will be selling all inspired flavors on-site. We would like to thank The Scoop for partnering with us on this event, and for providing our authors with inspiration pints!

In order to attend this event, you must purchase a Weekend Pass. One pass ($15 + fees) covers entry into ALL events on Saturday and Sunday at The Montvale Event Center. There will be metered parking or paid downtown lots. Make sure to join our mailing list for future festival announcements.

Click here to view this event via Facebook, and click here to purchase this event's book(s) from Auntie’s. Please help us by filling out a festival survey! 
Speakers
avatar for Erin Popelka

Erin Popelka

Erin Popelka is a reader, writer, and the founder of Must Read Fiction. Her short stories and essays have appeared in The Threepenny Review, Puerto del Sol, The Los Angeles Review, and Berkeley Fiction Review, among others. As founder of Must Read Fiction, she facilitates an online... Read More →
avatar for Wryly T. McCutchen

Wryly T. McCutchen

Wryly T. McCutchen is a multi-genre writer, interdisciplinary performer, community educator, & 2018 LAMBDA Fellow in poetry. Their work has appeared in 2020* The Year of the Asterisk. Foglifter, Papeachu Review, and Nat. Brut. Wryly earned a dual genre MFA in creative nonfiction... Read More →
avatar for Misty Grace

Misty Grace

Misty Grace is an Indigenous writer and director from the Shoalwater Bay Tribe of Indians. Her work has been shown in One Heart Native Arts and Film Festival and the Chewelah Film Festival, respectively. Misty is a frequent film festival panelist, a member of Spokane Film Project... Read More →
avatar for Melissa Kwasny

Melissa Kwasny

Melissa Kwasny is the author of six books of poetry, including Where Outside the Body is the Soul Today (University of Washington Press, Pacific Northwest Poetry Series); Pictograph; The Nine Senses; and Reading Novalis in Montana (all from Milkweed Editions), as well as a collection... Read More →
avatar for Polly Buckingham

Polly Buckingham

Polly Buckingham is the author of one book of poetry, The River People (Lost Horse Press 2020), and two books of fiction, The Expense of a View (Katherine Anne Porter Award, UNT Press 2016) and A Year of Silence (Jeanne Leiby Memorial Chapbook Award, Florida Review Press 2015). She's... Read More →
avatar for Joseph Holt

Joseph Holt

Joseph Holt is author of the story collection Golden Heart Parade (Santa Fe Writers Project, 2021). His writing has appeared in The Sun, Prairie Schooner, and J Journal: New Writing on Justice. Holt graduated from the Center for Writers at the University of Southern Mississippi, and... Read More →
avatar for Summer Hess

Summer Hess

Summer Hess is an author, social impact advisor with Measure Meant, and the editor of One-Block Revolution: 20 Years of Community Building. Previously, Summer was the managing editor for Out There Outdoors magazine, the Inland Northwest's guide to adventure, travel, and outdoor living... Read More →
avatar for Derek Annis

Derek Annis

Derek Annis is the author of Neighborhood of Gray Houses (Lost Horse Press), the associate director of Willow Springs Books, and the associate director of Lynx House Press. His poems have appeared in The Account, Colorado Review, Epiphany, The Gettysburg Review, The Missouri Review... Read More →


Sunday April 24, 2022 3:30pm - 4:30pm PDT
Montvale Event Center: Ella's Theater
  Reading

5:00pm PDT

Regional MFA Reading
Join us on YouTube for this year’s Regional MFA Reading, an event that has been a festival mainstay for many years! This format has allowed us to present a robust lineup of readers from 7 MFA programs across Washington, Idaho, and Oregon. 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 that this format will allow us to get to know students and faculty members from so many different programs—we hope you’ll join us to hear from this region’s rising writing talents!

*This event will be free and available to watch on our YouTube channel. Link coming soon.

Click here to view this event via Facebook. Please help us by filling out a festival survey!
Speakers
avatar for Paige Thomas

Paige Thomas

Oregon State University
Paige Thomas is a current nonfiction candidate at Oregon State University’s MFA Program where she teaches introductory writing courses and works as the blog editor for The Attic Institute of Arts & Letters. She was the recipient of the 2020-2021 Provost’s Distinguished Graduate... Read More →
avatar for Sam Swain

Sam Swain

Eastern Washington University
Sam Swain is a queer disabled writer from the pacific northwest. They have had their short fiction and poetry published in a handful of small magazines but are primarily focused on a long-form fantasy project. When they are not writing, they enjoy painting, baking, and caring for... Read More →
avatar for Chelsey Waters

Chelsey Waters

Eastern Oregon University
Chelsey Waters is an MFA student at Eastern Oregon University where she studies environmental writing and fiction in EOU's Wilderness, Ecology, and Community Program. She was the 2020-2021 Thomas Madden Scholarship recipient, and her fiction has been published in Unearthed and The... Read More →
avatar for Natanya Biskar

Natanya Biskar

Boise State University
Natanya Biskar is an MFA student in fiction at Boise State University, where she has taught writing and serves as Associate Editor for The Idaho Review. She is the recipient of a 2021 Alexa Rose Foundation Grant, and the winner of the 2021 Glenn Balch Award for Fiction. Her work... Read More →
avatar for Rooja Mohassessy

Rooja Mohassessy

Pacific University
Rooja Mohassessy is an Iranian-born poet. She is a 2022 recipient of the MacDowell Fellowship, and a student of the Pacific University MFA program in Oregon. Her first poetry manuscript, When Your Sky Runs Into Mine, was the winner of the 2022 Annual Elixir Poetry Prize and will... Read More →
avatar for Paul Bisagni

Paul Bisagni

University of Idaho
Originally from New York, Paul Bisagni is a lapsed classicist who will soon graduate with his MFA in poetry from the University of Idaho. His work can be found in new sinews, TIMBER, Heavy Feather Review, Guesthouse, Afternoon Visitor, the Action Books blog, and elsewhere. Alternative... Read More →
avatar for Shelby Handler

Shelby Handler

University of Washington, Seattle
Shelby Handler is a writer, organizer and educator living in Seattle on Duwamish land. Recent poems have appeared in Poetry Northwest, PANK Magazine, The Journal, Sugar House Review, Tinderbox Poetry Journal, among others. Shelby was nominated for 2020's Best of the Net and was a... Read More →


Sunday April 24, 2022 5:00pm - 6:00pm PDT
YouTube
  Virtual Event
 
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