March 7, 2010 in Features

Get Lit! readings put fatherhood in focus

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We have some more details about the live taping of Public Radio International’s “Selected Shorts,” on April 16 at the Bing Crosby Theater as part of the Get Lit! festivities.

Mellow-voiced host Isaiah Sheffer will preside over readings of short stories by the late Pulitzer winner John Updike, acclaimed fiction writer Maxine Swann and the late, great children’s author Roald Dahl.

All three stories will share a fitting theme: fatherhood. The show will be a celebration of the 100th anniversary in June of Father’s Day, a concept dreamed up in Spokane by Sonora Louise Smart Dodd.

The readers have impeccable credentials. One will be James Naughton, the winner of Tony Awards for “City of Angels” in 1990 and for “Chicago” in 1996.

San Diego actress Susanna Thompson has been in “NYPD Blue,” “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” “The Book of Daniel” and other TV shows and films.

Sheffer, artistic director of Symphony Space in New York (where the show is usually taped), will be the third reader.

“Selected Shorts” airs on KPBX-FM (Spokane Public Radio, 91.1) on Saturdays at 4 p.m. and on its sister station, KSFC-FM (91.9), on Sundays at 9 p.m.

The Get Lit! taping begins at 7 p.m. Tickets are $25, through TicketsWest outlets (800-325-SEAT, www.ticketswest.com).

Delayed debut

It’s remarkable enough for any first-time novelist to get published. It’s especially remarkable when the novelist is 86.

Virginia Woods Meyer of Spokane has just published her first fiction effort, “Call Me Katherine” (Norlights Press.com, $15.95).

It’s about an empty-nester mom who embarks on “an emotional journey that threatens her home, her marriage and her self-worth.”

Meyer is new to fiction, but she is no writing novice. She is the author of two nonfiction books, “Peaceful Valley: The Story of Kamiah’s Early Years” and “Uphill Both Ways,” a travel memoir about a bicycle trek.

She’ll read from “Call Me Katherine” on Thursday, 7 p.m. at Auntie’s Bookstore, 402 W. Main Ave.

Another local author, Karen Estes, also will read from her novel, “Plane of Ecliptic.”

A hockey novel

Right on the heels of the Olympic hockey excitement, Spokane author Frank Scalise will read from his new hockey-centered novel, “All That Counts” (Gray Dog Press. $14.95).

The main character is a middle-aged recreational hockey player who decides to follow his dream and become a goaltender.

Scalise will read from the book on Wednesday, 7 p.m. at Auntie’s Bookstore.

Beacon Hill series

Four local authors will give a reading Wednesday, 6:30 p.m. at Spokane Community College’s Hagan Foundation Center for the Humanities (Building 16, library, second floor), as part of the Beacon Hill Reading Series.

They are Gonzaga University poet Jeffrey Dodd, Eastern Oregon University poet David Axelrod, fiction writer Christine Nicolai and poet and writer Sarah Conover.

The event is free and refreshments will follow.

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