Building community, one conversation at a time
Northwest Passages is The Spokesman-Review’s wildly popular book club and community forum, bringing thousands of readers together at live events throughout the year.
Master Storytellers
With five universities and colleges and a long history of grassroots support for the local arts scene, Spokane is a literary town that embraces authors and community discussions in a big way. Northwest Passages hosts such bestselling authors and newsmakers as Jess Walter, Tara Westover, Anne McClain, Craig Johnson, Shelby Van Pelt, Timothy Egan, Eli Saslow, Jamie Ford, Nancy Pearl, Sharma Shields, Luis Alberto Urrea and Dean Koontz. Northwest Passages events are crafted to be engaging, interactive, one-of-a-kind experiences that entertain, inform and help readers make sense of the world.
Community Connection
Northwest Passages’ reach and community engagements goes far beyond our signature book club nights. We also host forums to explain what’s on the local election ballot, produce lively movie and sports nights, offer a robust podcast lineup, and lead regular tours of the Spokesman-Review’s historic building to show readers how a community newspaper works. Readers tell us they savor our unforgettable Northwest Passages events and enjoy arriving early to connect with authors and fellow readers over a glass of wine or local brew.
Journalism That Matters
Spokane’s support of Northwest Passages has brought our community together on a regular basis and built the foundation of the newspaper’s reader engagement and grants programs at a time when many U.S. newspapers have closed their doors. The success of the Northwest Passages Book Club and Forum has funded 30 percent of the newsroom’s payroll in recent years. That funding covers in-depth staff reporting on health care, and allows the Spokesman-Review to continue as the smallest newspaper in the country with a Washington D.C. bureau. Northwest Passages has built a sturdy foundation that has made the newspaper’s transition to the nonprofit Comma Community Journalism Lab possible in 2026.
By supporting Northwest Passages and Comma, you are strengthening the work that educates, enriches and connects our region.
How It Started
The Northwest Passages Book Club began in the fall of 2017 as a series of author talks in a makeshift space at the newspaper’s downtown headquarters. The outpouring of community support was immediate, with standing-room-only crowds.
Since then we’ve grown into one of the most-trusted literary and civic forums in the region and the nation. If you’ve ever attended a Northwest Passages evening, you’ve seen what this Pacific Northwest community values: thoughtful conversation, civil discourse, fresh ideas, curiosity and imagination, and, of course, great storytelling. Those same values guide our newsroom every day.
Get Involved
Here are four ways to support Northwest Passages, The Spokesman-Review, the Comma Community Journalism Lab and the future of community journalism in the Inland Northwest.
- Get Tickets Attend a Northwest Passages event. Bring a friend.
- Be an advocate We are building “The People’s Paper” to keep local journalism alive and we need your help to spread the word. Stay involved. Sign up for the Northwest Passages newsletter.
- Contribute Please make a tax-deductable contribution in any amount or sign on as a Northwest Passages sponsor. Donate today.
- Join the First Amendment Club Make a tax-deductible donation and become a member of the First Amendment Club, a group for those who understand the importance of the amendment our nation's founders purposely chose to list first. In appreciation, we offer a personal tour of The Spokesman-Review newsroom and the iconic Review Tower building, led by newspaper editor Rob Curley. Donate online.