Dan Webster

Spokane Is Reading, the annual literary happening that invites people to spend the month of October reading the same book, has made its choice for 2007. It's Spokane author Jess Walter's literary suspense novel "Citizen Vince."

Nineteen years is a long time to hold a writing contest.

Seattle author Jonathan Raban, always the provocateur, is stepping into George Orwell country.

Some of you have been putting some real thought toward the annual Spokesman-Review limerick contest.

It's mid-January, which should have all those interested in clever word play thinking one thing.

The late, great filmmaker Stanley Kubrick made some of his best films by adapting novels: Anthony Burgess' "A Clockwork Orange," for example, and Arthur C. Clarke's "2001: A Space Odyssey."

Deirdre McNamer came onto the Montana writing scene in 1991 when her first novel, "Rima in the Weeds," hit bookstores. Since then, between placing stories and essays in such esteemed publications as The New Yorker and The New York Times Books Review, McNamer – a professor of creative writing at the University of Montana in Missoula – has written two more novels: 1994's "One Sweet Quarrel" and 1999's "My Russian."

Anyone who has an interest in disaster – and, really, who among us does not? – is familiar with the bridge that became known as "Galloping Gertie."

First Night, Spokane's New Year's Eve celebration of the arts, will offer a special literary presence this year. And Eastern Washington University Press, which puts on the annual literary festival Get Lit!, is using the spotlight as a promotional tool for its 2007 event.

Some of us know Steve Oliver as the author of the Spokane-based "Moody" mystery novel series, as in "Moody Gets the Blues," "Moody in Winter" and "Moody Forever." Some of us know him as the former owner of the late-lamented Dark City Mystery Bookstore.

Seems like the coming week will be a kind of old-home day for regional writers. Auntie's Bookstore will host an author's signing roundtable from 2 to 3:30 p.m. Saturday. Led by Patrick F. McManus ("The Blight Way: A Sheriff Bo Tully Mystery"), the group will include Terry Bain ("We Are the Cat: Life Through the Eyes of the Royal Feline"), Kathleen Finley ("Prayers for the Newly Married"), Candace Ann Frasher ("A Babe's Christmas Story"), Craig Renaud ("Great American Wine – The Wine Rebel's Manual") and Crissy Trask ("It's Easy Being Green: A Handbook for Earth-Friendly Living").

It's never too early think about giving books as Christmas presents. And even once-stodgy university presses are getting into the act. At Eastern Washington University Press, director Ivar Nelson is particularly high on a memoir titled "I Little Slave" (EWU Press, 440 pages, $21.95) by Bounsang Khamkeo.

Kenn Nesbitt is a rhyme scheme waiting to happen. Take the first stanza of the title poem of the Spokane author's new children's poetry book, "Santa Got Stuck in the Chimney" (Meadowbrook Press, 32 pages, $9.95), from which he will read at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at Auntie's Bookstore:

Mining disasters make the occasional headline. The deaths of 12 miners in January at West Virginia's Sago coal mine is just one example of how this occupation is commonly equated with destruction and death.

It's not every writer who has the – hmmmm, what's the right word? – nerve to co-opt a famous literary character. But then, as she explains, Laurie R. King isn't co-opting Sherlock Holmes. Actually, she's reviving Arthur Conan Doyle's detective-hero of such books as "The Hound of the Baskervilles" and "A Study in Scarlet."

Most of us remember our childhoods. Some of us can even call our very first memories with precise imagery. Jane Hirshfield certainly can. And the way she relates it fits her profile as an award-winning poet.

For five years now, October has been a time for Spokane to show some unity. No, not politically. As if that's ever going to happen.

Illness has always been a hot topic for fiction and nonfiction alike. And since the 1980s, no illness has roused more emotion than AIDS. From Randy Shilts' groundbreaking nonfiction book "And the Band Played On" to Michael Cunningham's novel "At Home at the End of the World," the tragic stories involving AIDS have been told again and again.

In such books as "Of Wolves and Men" and "Arctic Dreams," Oregon author Barry Lopez has established himself as one of America's leading naturalist writers. Lopez will be in Spokane on Monday to read from his latest work, "Home Ground: Language for an American Landscape" (Trinity University Press, 480 pages, $29.95), for which he served as editor.

Spokane sits a few hundred miles from the Pacific Ocean. Capt. Kelly Sweeney grew up here, graduating from Lewis and Clark High School in 1977. But the lure of the sea was strong, because since 1983 he has worked in the merchant marine, first as a seaman and then as an officer.

Writing comes naturally to some who pick up the pen. For others, it's one long, hard apprenticeship. Good writing requires a blend of both.