Get Lit! adds poet Simon Armitage

Eastern Washington University should be proud of itself. Even in a time of budget crunches, when money for art is often so hard to find, the school is forging ahead with an 11th Get Lit! literary festival, which will be held in Cheney and Spokane April 10-19.

Nice to know that literature is still treasured by the local university scene.

As I previously announced, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jane Smiley (“A Thousand Acres”) will headline the festival, which is organized by EWU Press.

More recently, British poet Simon Armitage has been added to the festival’s slate. Author of more than 12 volumes of poetry, Armitage will be featured in a program titled “Coffee, Tea and Poetry with Simon Armitage” on April 19.

The event is tentatively scheduled to be held at the Spokane Athletic Club, 1002 W. Riverside Ave.

Tickets for most Get Lit! events will be available in January. For information about Get Lit! 2009, call the EWU Press office at (509) 368-6590. Or go to the Get Lit! blog, http://getlitprograms.blogspot.com.

Poetry, ooh la la

Alan Rose, professor emeritus at the University of Idaho, e-mailed from Paris where, he said, he attended a Nov. 26 poetry reading conducted by Alex Dickow at the Ecole Normale Superieure.

Dickow, a graduate of Moscow (Idaho) High School, read from his book “Caramboles.”

“The audience were enthusiastic,” Rose wrote, “and it is clear much is expected from this gifted young writer whose editor describes Alex as one of the shining new stars in modern poetry.”

•Spokane author Jim Nelson had his story “I’ll Be Home for Christmas,” from his book “The Way It Was and The Way It Is,” published in the current edition of the magazine Spokane Coeur d’Alene Living.

To order the magazine, call (509) 533-5350.

Back to the West

Clint Eastwood’s Oscar-winning 1992 film “Unforgiven,” based on the original screenplay by David Webb Peoples, will screen at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday at the downtown branch of the Spokane Public Library, 906 W. Main St. Call (509) 444-5300.

By the way, as my colleague Jim Kershner has pointed out, Eastwood has an obscure Spokane tie. His parents lived here for a year in 1932 (Eastwood was born two years before), while his father worked for a local refrigeration business.

Their address: 623 E. 19th Ave.

Book talk

•Auntie’s Morning Book Group (“Julie and Julia,” by Julie Powell), 11 a.m. Tuesday, Auntie’s Bookstore, Main and Washington. Call (509) 838-0206.

•On Sacred Grounds Writers Club, 2 p.m. Tuesday, On Sacred Grounds, 12212 E. Palouse Highway, Valleyford, Wash. Call (509) 747-6294.

•Auntie’s Evening Book Group (“A Sudden Country: A Novel,” by Karen Fisher), 7 p.m. Tuesday, Auntie’s Bookstore.

•Literary Freedom Book Group (“Keeping the House,” by Ellen Baker), 1 p.m. Saturday, Auntie’s Bookstore.

•Renaissance Readers (“The Tree: A Natural History of What Trees Are, How They Live and Why They Matter,” by Colin Tudge), 2 p.m. Saturday, Auntie’s Bookstore.

The reader board

•Tullia Barbanti (“Al Dente”), signing, 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. today, Auntie’s Bookstore.

•Jamie Leigh Hansen (“Cursed”), signing, 1 to 3 p.m. today, Valley Mall Waldenbooks. Call (509) 892-3907.

•Therese Marszalek (“Extraordinary Miracles in the Lives of Ordinary People: Inspiring Stories of Divine Intervention”), signing, 1 to 3 p.m. today, Valley Barnes & Noble, 15310 E. Indiana Ave. Call (509) 922-4104.

•Maureen Doyle McQueery (“Traveler’s Market”), children’s fantasy map workshop, 1 to 3 p.m. today, Auntie’s Bookstore.

•Dale E. Soden (“Historic Photos of Washington State”), signing, 2 to 4 p.m. today, Borders, 9980 N. Newport Highway. Call (509) 466-2231.

•Carol Edgemon Hipperson (“Radioman: An Eyewitness Account of Pearl Harbor & World War II in the Pacific”), signing, 3 p.m. today, East Valley Presbyterian Church, 5305 N. Harvard Road. Call (509) 924-0010.

•Cheryl-Anne Millsap (“Home Planet: A Life in Four Seasons”), reading, 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Auntie’s Bookstore.

•Tom O’Day (“Actions, Disposals, Transitions, Transformations”), signing, 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday, Saranac Art Projects, 25 W. Main St., Suite 110. Call (509) 209-2870.

•Vincenza Scarpaci (“The Journey of Italians in America”), reading/lecture, 6 p.m. Thursday, Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture, 2316 W. First Ave. Call (509) 456-3931.

•Alan Liere (“Fish Tales: A Collection of Humorous Fishing Stories”), reading, 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Auntie’s Bookstore.

•Jim Kershner (“Carl Maxey: A Fighting Life”), signing, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, Auntie’s Bookstore.

•Sarah Conover (“Harmony: A Treasury of Chinese Wisdom for Children and Parents”), reading, 1 p.m. Saturday, Tinman Gallery, 811 W. Garland Ave. Call (509) 325-1500.

•Heidi Jo Lopez (“The Prophet’s Son”), signing, 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday, Auntie’s Bookstore.

•Greg Rowley (“Golf, Naked: The Bare Essentials Revealed”), signing, 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday, Valley Barnes & Noble.

•Steve Samsel (“The Adventures of Johnny Law”), signing, 3 to 6 p.m. Saturday, Shadle Hastings, 1704 W. Wellesley Ave. Call (509) 327-6008.