Carolyn Lamberson

Two Spokane writers, and a Montanan who graduated from Gonzaga University and now lives in Oregon, are among this year’s winners of the prestigious Pushcart Prize. Shawn Vestal, whose story collection “Godforsaken Idaho” won the PEN/Robert W. Bingham award this fall, was honored for the story “Winter Elders,” which originally appeared in the journal Ecotone. The story is about a man whose dealings with two Mormon missionaries take a dark turn. Nance Van Winckel’s poem “Unwilling,” also was honored. She is a previous winner of the Pushcart Prize, which honors poetry, short fiction and essays from small presses. Joe Wilkins, a Gonzaga graduate who teaches at Linfield College in McMinnville, Oregon, won for his story “Stay,” which originally appeared in The Sun Magazine. (He has a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Idaho as well.)

"Too Slim" Langford fighting cancer

When David Bowie, rock music’s original and most enduring chameleon, records a jazz song, the world notices. It’s not like he hasn’t gone there before. In 1984, he recorded the hit single “This Is Not America” with the Pat Metheny Group. His 1993 album “Black Tie/White Noise” featured jazz trumpet great Lester Bowie. In songs such as “Don’t Look Down” from 1984’s “Tonight,” and “Bring Me the Disco King” from 2003’s “Reality,” he played liberally with the jazz vocabulary.

Writer and composer J. Robert Lennon is releasing his second short story collection, “See You in Paradise,” on Tuesday. On Saturday, he’ll read from the book during a visit to Auntie’s Bookstore. Lennon, whose shorter works have been featured in “Best American Short Stories,” “Best American Nonrequired Reading,” Granta, the Paris Review, teaches writing at Cornell University. He also has published seven novels, and his story “The Rememberer” served as the basis for “Unforgettable,” which ran for two seasons on CBS.

A new book just out aims to be what hasn’t existed in many years, if ever: a wide-ranging anthology of Spokane poetry. “We really wanted to show off the diversity and quality of poetry going on in Spokane,” said Thom Caraway, an English professor at Whitworth, Spokane’s poet laureate, and editor (with Jeffrey Dodd) of “Railtown Almanac: A Spokane Poetry Anthology.”

Sleater-Kinney sells quick

Thinking about it, it makes sense that four actor-singers who met while performing the smash hit musical “Jersey Boys” would form an attachment to the music of that era. Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. The Four Tops. Roy Orbison. Elvis Presley. The Beatles. Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers. Etta James.

Thinking about it, it makes sense that four actor-singers who met while performing the smash hit musical “Jersey Boys” would form an attachment to the music of that era. Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. The Four Tops. Roy Orbison. Elvis Presley. The Beatles. Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers. Etta James.

“Z Nation” will live again. The zombie series will be picked for a second season, SyFy and North by Northwest Productions announced on Monday. Rich Cowan, president of North by Northwest, called the decision great news.

Brenda Hillman is, in the words of the Poetry Foundation, one of “contemporary poetry’s most eclectic and formally innovative writers.” As an innovator, she is apt to play with form. Her poems can come in the shape of narrative-style paragraphs, or divided into columns. Her subjects stem from nature, or, in the instance of “Girl Sleuth,” from the pages of a Nancy Drew mystery.

When Ellen Welcker isn’t helping students at Eastern Washington University’s Writers Center, she’s writing poetry and organizing readings of poetry – sometimes in her own living room. Welcker, who has a book of poems and a couple of chapbooks to her credit, is one of three poets who will read Wednesday night as part of the Beacon Hill Reading Series. Joining Welcker will be Spokane poet Kathryn Smith and Shann Ray Ferch, whose book of poetry, “Balefire,” was released earlier this year.

Miranda Lambert books return trip

For 11 years, Mike Brown has become a Blue Man. “I like to think I’ve been a Blue Man my entire life,” Brown said in a recent telephone interview.

For 11 years, Mike Brown has become a Blue Man. “I like to think I’ve been a Blue Man my entire life,” Brown said in a recent telephone interview.

H e thought for sure Anthony Marra was going to win, for his “freaking amazing” book “A Constellation of Vital Phenomena.” “I was not sitting there thinking, ‘I wonder if I’ll win,’ ” said Shawn Vestal, author of “Godforsaken Idaho” and a columnist for The Spokesman-Review. “I was thinking, ‘Yeah, Tony’s getting ready to win.’ ”