Northwest Passages Book Club dives into ‘The Spokane River’

The Spokesman-Review’s Northwest Passages Book Club is reading “The Spokane River,” and tickets are now available for a July 11 community forum.

The book is a collection of stories edited by Paul Lindholdt, an author and English professor at Eastern Washington University. Published by the University of Washington Press, the anthology features local writers exploring their connections to the river, which travels 111 miles through urban and rural landscapes from Lake Coeur d’Alene to the Columbia River.

Contributors include Tod Marshall, the former Washington state poet laureate, and Jess Walter, the best-selling Spokane novelist.

The book is “a beautiful biography of a legendary western river,” says Kathleen Dean Moore, author of “Great Tide Rising.” “Like the best life stories, ‘The Spokane River’ surprises and enthralls, probing into the past and beneath the surface to reveal the complicated personality of a beloved place.”

The newspaper’s Northwest Passages Book Club hosts monthly “Common Read” events and will feature Lindholdt in conversation with reporter Eli Francovich on July 11. Several anthology contributors also will participate in the event, which starts at 7 p.m. at The Spokesman-Review.

The book also includes passages from Sherman Alexie, Bob Bartlett, Tim Connor, Rick Eichstaedt, Don Fels, Guadalupe Flores, Jerry R. Galm, Greg Gordon, Stan Gough, Margo Hill, Chris Kopczynski, Becky Kramer, Beatrice Lackaff, Camille McNeely, Bart Mihailovich, Stan Miller, Barry G. Moses (Sulustu), Carmen A. Nezat, Jack Nisbet, Rachael Paschal Osborn, John Roskelley, Allan T. Scholz, Bishop William S. Skylstad, William Stimson, Julie Titone, Nance Van Winckel, Sara L. Walker, Jerry White, Chad Wriglesworth and J. William T. Youngs.