Time to Get Lit!

Quick: Raise your hand, all who think that Get Lit! is only for brainy types who believe there’s no greater treasure than the written word.

Ignore the inherent truth of the statement. Just judge the rest of it.

Here’s some information to help you make up your mind.

This year’s version of Get Lit!, the Eastern Washington University Press-sponsored event also known as the Northwest Literary Arts Festival, began making noise last week with a pair of street poetry readings in downtown Spokane.

Events begin in earnest Monday night and proceed through next Sunday at various spots around the area, from The Met to Auntie’s Bookstore to Showalter Hall Auditorium on EWU’s Cheney campus.

And, yes, it’s true: Get Lit!, now in its eighth year, is best known for importing a group of famous published authors every year.

In the past, the invitees have included names such as Kurt Vonnegut, Salman Rushdie, David Sedaris, Lynda Barry and Garrison Keillor.

This year’s headliner guests aren’t in that realm of popularity or, in the case of Rushdie and Vonnegut, international renown. But the 2006 group does include two Pulitzer Prize-winners, novelist and Sandpoint native Marilynne Robinson (“Gilead”) and poet Yusef Komunyakaa (“Neon Vernacular”). And Alexander McCall Smith is no slouch himself, being the author of a best-selling series of mystery novels (“No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency”).

For the record, Komunyakaa will be at Showalter Hall at 7 p.m. Friday, Robinson will be at The Met at 7 p.m. Saturday and Smith will be at The Met at 3 p.m. on Sunday.

But headliners aren’t the only things that make a literary festival. Other highlights this year include:

•Nancy Pearl: The former executive director of Seattle’s Washington Center for the Book is an unusual type of librarian. Not only has Pearl written two books (“Book Lust,” “More Book Lust”) but she is the model for an actual toy action figure. She will read at 11:30 a.m. Wednesday at Spokane Community College and at 7 p.m. Thursday at The Met.

•Youth and teen poetry slams: Competitive poetry readings in two age groups – 11 and younger, and 12-19 – will take place beginning at 3:45 p.m. Wednesday at Auntie’s Bookstore.

•Writers in the schools day: On Friday, for the fourth straight year, volunteers will spread throughout Spokane and Spokane Valley on Friday to bring the art of reading into area schools.

•Writing workshops: Poets and fiction writers can study with the likes of Komunyakaa and novelist Domenic Stansberry (“The Confession”) next Saturday at the Ridpath Hotel ($50 for one, $95 for both; $25/$22.50 for students).

•KPBX Kids’ Concert: Jack Prelutsky, author of such favorites as “A Pizza the Size of the Sun” and “The New Kid on the Block,” will perform at 1 p.m. Saturday at The Met. Best news for budget-conscious parents: It’s free.

And that’s hardly all. Get Lit! will include poetry readings by the likes of Robert Wrigley, James Grabill and Melissa Kwasny, fiction by Stansberry and Jess Walter (the Spokane-based author of “Citizen Vince” fame), essays by bell hooks (yes, that’s how she spells her name) and a festival-closing open-mike poetry free-for-all at Mootsy’s Tavern.

So you see, Get Lit! isn’t just for the effete, elitist, “Literature-died-with- Shakespeare” crowd. It’s for children and families and teens and adults, for lovers of verse and prose and most of all thought.

So go ahead. Raise your hand if you want.

But show up at most any of the events and you’re likely to see how wrong you are.