Street readings will advance Get Lit! 2006

If you happen to see people reading verse on the streets of Spokane late Monday afternoon, don’t be afraid.

Unless, of course, you’re afraid of poetry.

The readers are the advance guard of Get Lit! 2006, the annual celebration of all things literary that is sponsored by the Eastern Washington University Press. It begins its official four-day run April 19 with a 7 p.m. reading by essayist bell hooks at The Met.

Not only will readers of poetry – all EWU creative writing students – be on the street between 4:45 and 6 p.m. on Monday, they’ll return Thursday at the same time. They’re expected to show up at various spots downtown, including the corner of First and Howard.

The students will be reading from the work of the festival’s major speakers, including hooks, novelists Marilynne Robinson and Alexander McCall Smith and poet Yusef Komunyakaa.

Other advance Get Lit! events include a 7 p.m. reading on April 17 at the Empyrean Coffee House, 154 S. Madison St., featuring EWU graduate students reading their own work.

For a full schedule, go online at www.ewu.edu/getlit. Tickets can be purchased at all TicketsWest outlets ((325-SEAT, 800-325-SEAT, www.ticketswest.com).

Shhhhhhhhh!!!!

Not many librarians have their own action figure. Nancy Pearl does.

The former director of Seattle’s Center for the Book and author of two collections of must-reads – “Book Lust” and “More Book Lust” – will read as part of Get Lit! on April 20 at 7 p.m. at The Met.

At some point she’ll no doubt share the action figure for which she modeled. Put out by the Seattle company Archie McPhee, the doll features Pearl dressed in a conservative suit, with a mobile right arm suitable for shushing.

Not all librarians were amused by what they saw as the perpetuation of a stereotype (instead of taking it as the ironic joke that it was meant to be). As Pearl said, “There are nine librarians in the country without a sense of humor, and I heard from all of them.”

She also will speak on April 19 at 11:30 a.m. at Spokane Falls Community College (434-5150).

Kizer is wiser

Carolyn Kizer, the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet who was born in Spokane in 1925, has been given a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Washington Poets Association.

Kizer is expected to accept the award in person at the association’s annual conference, Burning Word, on April 29 on Whidbey Island. She won the Pulitzer Prize in 1985 for “Yin.”

For more information on Burning Word, go online to www.washingtonpoets.org.

Nearly there

“Fiddler’s Dream,” the long-expected second novel by Gregory Spatz, is expected to be on bookshelves by the time the author gives a reading May 26 at Auntie’s Bookstore.

Spatz, former chair of the creative writing department at Eastern Washington University, is the author of the 1995 novel “No One But Us” and a 2002 collection of stories, “Wonderful Tricks.”

Calling all writers

Would-be writers (and writers for real) might be interested in a daylong conference for aspiring writers on April 22 in St. Maries.

The conference, which is a fund-raising event for the Plummer(Idaho) Public Library, begins at 8:30 a.m. at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, 10th and College. It will feature several workshops, including poetry, manuscript submission, common writing mistakes and agent information.

Nikki Arana, author of “In the Shade of Jacaranda,” will deliver the keynote lunch speech.

Cost of the conference is $40, which includes all workshops and lunch. For more information, call Patrice Lee at (208) 686-0627.

Unless otherwise noted, all events are free and open to the public.

Book talk

•Poetry Reading Group (230-0950), 3 p.m. today, Auntie’s Bookstore, Main and Washington (838-0206).

•Mootsy’s Open Mike Poetry Reading, 6 p.m. today, Mootsy’s Tavern, 406 W. Sprague Ave. (838-1570). Note: Prospective readers should show up 15 minutes early.

•Auntie’s Morning Book Group (“In Praise of Slowness: How a Worldwide Movement is Challenging the Cult of Speed,” by Carl Honore), 11 a.m. Tuesday, Auntie’s Bookstore.

•Auntie’s Evening Book Group (“Gilead,” by Marilynne Robinson), 7 p.m. Tuesday, Auntie’s Bookstore.

The reader board

•John Soennichsen (“Live! From Death Valley: Dispatches from America’s Low Point”), reading, 7 p.m. Tuesday, Cheney Public Library, 610 First St., Cheney (893-8280); 2 p.m. Saturday, Moran Prairie Library, 893-8340.

•Patrick F. McManus (“The Blight Way”), 7:30 p.m. Friday, Auntie’s Bookstore.