Highlights and must-attend events from EWU's 2025 Get Lit! festival

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Get Lit! headliners Danez Smith, Maggie Smith and Li-Young Lee.

With over 40 events to choose from and three headliners instead of the usual one, this year's Get Lit! Festival is gonna be one for the books.

The packed schedule features events like the annual staple Pie & Whiskey, craft classes hosted by this year's headliners Maggie Smith, Danez Smith and Li-Young Lee, and plenty of panels full of esteemed local and guest authors alike. Head over to the book fair, grab a new read and soak in the weekend full of literary excellence.

We've compiled a list of standout events that are definitely worth catching, but you can find the entire Get Lit! schedule plus more information about participating authors, panelists, tickets and more at getlitfestival.org.

PIE & WHISKEY
A favorite for lovers of the written word, pie and (obviously) whiskey, this always-packed Get Lit! event makes its return to downtown's historic Washington Cracker Co. Building. Tickets are $10 at the door, and there's usually quite the line before the venue even opens, so plan ahead.

Created and still hosted by Spokane writing power couple Sam Ligon and Kate Lebo, Pie & Whiskey invites 11 local authors to write and share original short fiction, nonfiction and poetry inspired by the event's titular subjects: pie and whiskey. As usual, there's also homemade pie (in a variety of mouthwatering flavors) and Dry Fly Distilling whiskey for all attendees to enjoy. (DOMA Coffee, too.) This year's featured writers include Spokane's current Poet Laureate, Mery Smith, and our very own Mayor Lisa Brown, as well as plenty more esteemed wordsmiths. Attendees can also buy a limited-edition chapbook ($10) of this year's works. (CHEY SCOTT)

Thu, April 10 at 8 pm, $10, ages 21+, Washington Cracker Co. Building

RECORD YOUR OWN POETRY MOMENT WITH SPOKANE PUBLIC RADIO
Since 2018, Spokane Public Radio has produced a five-minute "Poetry Moment" segment, which gives local poets and poetry lovers an outlet for their creativity. Participants usually read a mix of their own poetry and other published works. In turn, KPBX listeners get their daily dose of poetry for just a few minutes each weekday at 9 am.

As a part of this year's Get Lit! celebrations, fans of "Poetry Moment" can make their way to the Central Library's recording studio to read their own work or some of their favorite poems for future airing. Recordings cannot be longer than 3 minutes and folks who plan to read another person's poem will need written permission from the author or publisher unless it was written before 1925. This free event is first-come-first-served, so ensure you arrive early for the best chance to be recorded. (COLTON RASANEN)

Fri, April 11 from 11 am-noon, free, Central Library

THE ART & CRAFT OF WRITING MYSTERIES
Writing a crime or mystery novel can seem like, well, a mystery, but it doesn't have to be that way. Two Spokane-based mystery writers, Chris Bieker and Elena Hartwell Taylor, host this talk at the Central Library to decode the craft of writing mysteriously.

Bieker is known for her series of Spokane-based mystery novels including Murder at Manito, Blood on Bloomsday and High Stakes at Hoopfest. Hartwell Taylor has published two mystery series including the Eddie Shoes and the Sheriff Bet Rivers series. Both authors hope to teach attendees how to write smartly about crime and how to sustain a mystery over the course of multiple books. (CR)

Fri, April 11 at noon, free, Central Library

THE WEST AS A CHARACTER: USING RESEARCH TO BUILD AUTHENTIC NARRATIVES
As a highly respected Western journalist recently told me, place is as important a character in a story as its protagonists. That's the theme of this workshop featuring two other incredibly skilled writers based in and whose work is rooted in the American West: CMarie Fuhrman and Betsy Gaines Quammen. Fuhrman, who's won awards for her monthly Inlander columns, has a brand-new essay collection, released last month, Salmon Weather: Writing from the Land of No Return. Gaines Quamman's most recent book, True West: Myth and Mending on the Far Side of America, examines how misperceptions about the West can distort reality and deepen harmful ideological polarization.

The pair come together in the Spokane Central Library's Inland Northwest Special Collections Room to discuss their work and chat with fellow author Sharma Shields about how vital it is to really know a place so as to write authentically. Also during the event, library staff showcase the rich trove of historical documents and resources that can be accessed in the collection. Seating is limited due to space, so plan accordingly. (CS)

Fri, April 11 at 3 pm, free, Central Library

AN EVENING OF POETRY WITH JONATHAN JOHNSON AND LI-YOUNG LEE
Acclaimed poets Jonathan Johnson and Li-Young Lee come together for a conversation moderated by Jonathan Frey, an EWU MFA alum and professor of English at North Idaho College. They'll also read from their collections, which engage with similar themes of fatherhood, family heritage and grief.

Johnson's works are widely published, and his next two books, Pine and The Little Lights of Town, are forthcoming this year. In Pine, Johnson's poetry takes the reader through Michigan's Upper Peninsula, the Scottish Highlands, the Greek isles and the wilderness of the American Northwest in a quest to find meaning in places left behind. In The Little Lights of Town, Michigan's Upper Peninsula makes another appearance, with fictional stories about the small communities among the cold, wild landscape. Johnson is also a professor in EWU's MFA program.

Lee's family settled in the U.S. in 1964, when he was a young child. He later developed his love for poetry at the University of Pittsburgh. Lee's poetry draws from personal experiences as the son of a political exile; he masterfully employs silence to explore spiritual and universal themes. His most recent work, The Invention of Darling, is a poetry collection that grapples with love, grief and divinity. (DORA SCOTT)

Fri, April 11 at 7 pm, $25, Central Library

TRANSGENERATIONAL TRANSGENDER POETICS: A CONVERSATION FOR ALL AGES
Trans people have always been part of the fabric of humanity. But more recently, as so aptly stated in this program's description, "trans and nonbinary folx are languaging themselves into being." Hear from a panel of multigenerational trans writers on how they leverage language to do just this. Featured writers include Subhaga Crystal Bacon, whose work brings needed awareness to the trans experience, including mistreatment and persecution of trans people. Poet Tennison Black also shares, alongside three rising, Spokane-based queer writers: Juno Williams, Gwendolyn Owens and Fig DePaolo. (CS)

Sat, April 12 at 3 pm, $25 Book Fair Pass, Montvale Event Center

FORAY: GET LIT! FESTIVAL EDITION
Greg Bem and Sarah Rooney started Foray for the Arts just over a year ago, and it's already become a Spokane literary scene staple. Foray travels to a variety of local venues, inviting poets, writers, musicians and more to share their creativity with the community.

Now, Foray has made its way to its biggest stage yet: Get Lit! On Saturday, catch festival authors like Lauren Westerfield, Juan Carlos Reyes, Diana Xin and Tiffany Midge as well as local writers Margaret Albaugh, Shraya Singh and Taylor Waring sharing their work with a crowd of hungry lit lovers. Grab a cocktail from Emma Rue's and a delicious creation from People's Waffle and settle in for an evening of empowerment and hear from some world-class wordsmiths. (MADISON PEARSON)

Sat, April 12 at 9 pm, free, Emma Rue's

AN EVENING WITH DANEZ SMITH AND MAGGIE SMITH
It's not every year that Get Lit! has three authors headlining their annual festival. So, this dual panel with Danez Smith and Maggie Smith is a real treat for the poetry lovers out there. Maggie Smith has written seven books of poetry and prose plus a memoir titled You Could Make This Place Beautiful, in which she explores the disintegration of her marriage and her renewed commitment to herself.

Danez Smith has penned four poetry collections and has been featured in The New York Times, The New Yorker, GQ and more. Moderated by Eastern Washington University MFA alumni Aileen Keown Vaux, Danez and Maggie discuss creativity, craft and sign books from Auntie's. This is a rare opportunity to listen to two celebrated voices discuss relevant topics and their personal creative processes. (MP)

Sat, April 12 at 7 pm, $25, Bing Crosby Theater

WOMEN ECOPOETS AS CONDUITS OF SOCIAL CHANGE AND EMPOWERMENT
Sometimes it's difficult to see the real-life impact of writing, but poets and authors Nadia Alexis, Jessica Gigot, Dorsía Smith Silva and Dorinda Wegener illuminate how writing goals can go hand in hand with social and environmental activism in this free virtual event on Get Lit's YouTube channel.

The four poets touch on how their work intersects with climate change and social transformation, also reading select poems. Their approaches to ecopoetry range from writing about Hurricane Maria's impact on Puerto Rico to farming communities in the Pacific Northwest, the displacement and marginalization of urban expansion and spiritual reconnection as a Black female survivor of gender violence. Get inspired by the power of when pen meets paper! (DS)

Sun, April 13 at 9 am, free, virtual event ♦