First Night to include readings by authors
First Night, Spokane’s New Year’s Eve celebration of the arts, will offer a special literary presence this year.
And Eastern Washington University Press, which puts on the annual literary festival Get Lit!, is using the spotlight as a promotional tool for its 2007 event.
Several of the authors who will appear at the next Get Lit!, which will be held April 19-21, are scheduled to read during First Night, next Sunday in downtown Spokane.
All readings will take place on the skywalk level of the Crescent Court, 707 W. Main Ave.
The schedule is as follows:
7 p.m.: Susan Cowger
7:30: Sam Ligon
8: Laurie Lamon
8:30: Gregory Spatz
9: Shannon Amidon
9:30: Tod Marshall
10: Grace Danborn
10:30: a “mystery reader”
11: Christopher Howell
For further information, call the EWU Press office at (509) 623-4262. For more information about Get Lit! 2007, go online at www.ewu.edu/getlit.
S-R reading
As we enter 2007, it’s worth looking back at what we read in 2006. One way to do that is to review the books that were on The Spokesman-Review Book Club’s reading list:
“January, “In the Deep Midwinter,” by Robert Clark
“February, “A Little Too Much is Enough,” by Kathleen Tyau
“March, “Vision Quest,” by Terry Davis
“April, “The God Project,” by John Saul
“May, “Homestead,” by Annick Smith
“June, “A River Runs Through It,” by Norman Maclean
“July, “Spirits of the Ordinary,” by Kathleen Alcala
“August, “I Sing the Body Electronic: A Year With Microsoft on the Multimedia Frontier,” by Fred Moody
“September, “Panda Diaries,” by Alex Kuo
“October, “The Gifts of the Body,” by Rebecca Brown
“November, “The Deep Dark,” by Gregg Olsen
“December, “Riding the Demon: On the Road in West Africa,” by Peter Chilson
That’s quite a list. I’d be curious to see which were reader favorites. You can e-mail me at danw@spokesman.com with your nominee.
Looking ahead, we’ll start off the year with “My Russian,” by Montana author Deirdre McNamer. We’ll follow in February with “The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic and Madness at the Fair That Changed America” by Seattle author Erik Larson, in March with Portland author Ursula K. LeGuin’s science-fiction classic “The Left Hand of Darkness,” and in April with an as-yet-unnamed book to go along with Spokane’s Japan Week celebration.
One suggestion: “Tree: A Life Story” (Greyston Books, 200 pages, $16.95 paper) by Vancouver author/ecologist David Suzuki.
Rural readers
The Whitman County Library system is featured in this month’s cover article of Alki, the journal of the Washington Library Association.
The article, which was written by Sabrina Jones, a Friend of the Whitman County Library, focuses on the system’s creation in 1944 and its progress through the years. The issue also features other rural Washington library systems.
To read Jones’ article, go online at www.whitco.lib.wa.us.
Calling all writers
Write On the Beach, a writer’s conference sponsored by the Associated Arts of Ocean Shores, will be held Jan. 26-28 at the Shilo Inn in Ocean Shores, Wash.
Jeff Burlingame, author of “Kurt Cobain: Oh, Well, Whatever, Nevermind!” (Enslow Publishing, 160 pages, $27.93), will teach how to write biographies.
Jessica Morrell, author of “Between the Lines: Mastering the Subtle Elements of Fiction Writing” (Writers Digest Books, 304 pages, $16.99 paper), will teach classes on writing and marketing.
The two-day conference costs $175 ($50 for students). For further information, go online at www.oswotb.com or call (360) 289-3232.
Book talk
“Auntie’s Youth Book Group (“Mr. Popper’s Penguins,” by Richard Atwater, Florence Atwater), 2 p.m. Saturday, Auntie’s Bookstore, Main and Washington. Call (509) 838-0206.