Fish-Woman Haunts Lake Coeur D’Alene

With Halloween coming up, we thought you’d want to know the places around the area that are haunted.

According to a new book, “Haunted Places: Ghostly abodes, sacred sites, UFO landings and other supernatural locations” by Dennis William Hauck, you are safe everywhere in Eastern Washington.

Or, given the fact the author lists 13 haunted sites in Seattle alone and others throughout the West Side, perhaps we are keeping our ghosts a secret?

In any case, the closest site in Washington is the Yakima Indian Reservation, which is not haunted, but does have UFOs.

However, Lake Coeur d’Alene is haunted. According to the book, what the Indians called “water mysteries” are said to inhabit this lake. “Unexplainable noises and the figure of a fish-woman have been reported near a large, pointed rock here. A mysterious wind sometimes churns up the lake, and a huge horned creature is said to lift boats out of the water.”

Spirit Lake and Waha Lake (near Lewiston) are haunted by Indian maidens.

One view of Spokane

The latest edition of the literary magazine Glimmer Train contains an interview with Spokane’s most-celebrated poet, Carolyn Kizer.

The first question: Was Spokane a provincial backwater for you? Or was it as useful a place as any for a young poet?

Kizer: Well, it certainly was a provincial backwater. I think almost every good poet I know came from another provincial backwater, usually in the Midwest. In other words, I think part of what prompted us to write poetry was the need to entertain ourselves because we were bored silly. No inland city, no matter of what size, has the degree of sophistication of even a small town on the ocean or on a major river. There’s something about the international intercourse and the flow of people to and from other countries. It gives a sophistication that no inland city has. Spokane was, and is, extremely provincial. I have a friend there named James McAuley who runs the Eastern Washington University Press. He always introduces me by quoting a line from a poem of mine called “Running Away from Home,” which is, “After Spokane, what horrors lurk in Hell?”

Raised in Spokane, Kizer lives in Sonoma, 40 miles north of San Francisco.

An annual literary weekend

Just a reminder: Northwest Bookfest will be held Oct. 25-26 at Pier 48 in Seattle. The event draws most of the region’s literary talent and national authors such as Joyce Carol Oates, James Kincaid and Tobias Wolf to do readings.

In its third year, NW Bookfest will have more than 200 booths, and presentations will run throughout the weekend on eight stages. Admission is free but a donation at the door of $5 is requested to benefit the region’s literary programs.

Parking is very limited, especially Sunday when the Seahawks will be playing at the nearby Kingdome.

For a schedule of appearances at Bookfest, and for shuttle information, call the Bookfest Hotline, (206) 575-7157.

Just a thought

From the wire services: “In the future, the act of printing words on paper will be as common as writing in stone is today.” - Nicholas Negroponte

Reader board

Ladd Hamilton will sign copies of his new book “Snowbound” Tuesday from 5 to 7 p.m. at Bookpeople, 512 S. Main in Moscow, Idaho. Hamilton is a retired senior editor and columnist at the Lewiston Morning Tribune and now teaches journalism at Lewis-Clark State College.

A slide-lecture about “The Newspaper in Art” will be given by the book’s co-authors, Shaun Higgins and Colleen Striegel, Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. at Auntie’s Bookstore, Main and Washington. The book focuses on the great artists - from Norman Rockwell to Vincent Van Gogh - who used newspapers in their art. Higgins and Striegel are employed at The Spokesman-Review; they wrote the book with Garry Apgar.

Ken Waldman will play his fiddle and read poems from his book “Plane Crash Bend” Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. at Laura’s Tea and Treasures in Moscow. Admission is $2.

Patrick McManus will sign copies of his new book “Into the Twilight, Endlessly Grousing” Thursday from 6 to 7 p.m. at Book & Game Company at Silver Lake Mall in Coeur d’Alene. The appearance is in conjunction with the Writer’s Harvest Program; donations of non-perishable food items will go to local food banks.

Jack Whyte will read from his latest book “The Eagle’s Brood” Friday at 7:30 p.m. at Auntie’s Bookstore.

Musicians David Dutton and Glenn Jacobson will perform selections from their new CD “Dvorak: Songs, Sonatas and Silhouettes” Friday at 7 p.m. at Auntie’s Bookstore. The recital is free. Jacobson, a New York pianist, is a Spokane native and founding member of the New York Camerata; Dutton is co-artistic director of Allegro, a Spokane-based series of baroque music.

, DataTimes