Literary Events Planned
October is shaping up to be a month of literary adventure for Washington residents. Here’s a quick look:
On Oct. 24-25, Northwest Bookfest, Seattle’s premier books festival, will present a slate of authors such as Arthur Golden (“Memoirs of a Geisha”), Dave Barry (“Dave Barry is From Mars and Venus”), Pam Houston (“Waltzing the Cat”) and Paul Theroux (“Sir Vidia’s Shadow”) and more than 200 bookseller and publisher exhibits. For further information, call (206) 517-6006.
Over that same weekend (Oct. 23-25), Women Writing the West - a national organization for writers who portray “the real women’s west” - will hold its annual meeting at Seattle’s Mayflower Hotel.
Planned events include workshops, programs by Northwest writers and various other helpful aids for the potential or published writer. Fees are $150 ($110 for members). For further information, call Laurie Carlson at 299-5688.
Earlier in the month, though - on Oct. 3-4, specifically - Eastern Washington University Press, in conjunction with EWU’s creative writing department, the Washington Arts Commission and The Met, will present Get Lit!, the inaugural Northwest Literary Arts Festival.
Headline authors who will be on hand to read from their works include Denis Johnson (“Resuscitation of a Hanged Man”), Patrick McManus (“The Good Samaritan Strikes Again”) and Kim Barnes (“Into the Wilderness”).
Saturday’s event will begin at 6 p.m. at Harry O’s Groove Gallery, 508 E. Third, and will feature readings from EWU creative writing graduate students and department alumni. Sunday’s readings begin at 11 a.m. at The Met, with the final reading scheduled to begin at 9:40 p.m.
“The point of it is to enhance awareness for literary publishing and writing in the Inland Northwest,” says Scott Poole, managing editor of EWU Press.
Money raised will help benefit the press and the creative writing department.
For further information, call 359-2456.
Homecoming
First-time author Glenda Burgess, 41, who will read from her novel “Loose Threads” at Auntie’s on Saturday (see below), is no stranger to Spokane. Although she now lives in Los Altos, Calif., with her software executive husband and her children, she spent virtually every summer of her early life in Spokane.
“My father was in the Air Force,” she says. And her grandfather, Glenn Waugh, was an executive for Sears “who was the guy who introduced the Ice Capades every Christmas.”
Having moved 21 times in her first 18 years, Burgess always considered the Lilac City home. “My sense of stability was Spokane,” she says.
By the way, Burgess’ second novel - the first 30 pages of the unpublished manuscript, that is - just won a prize at the 1998 Maui Writers Conference.
“I was just so thrilled because, as a writer, it means so much when you’re validated by your peers,” she says. “They know how hard it has to be and how hard it is to do.”
The reader board
Kathleen Duey, author of the “American Diaries” and “Survival” children’s literature series, will appear at 2 p.m. today at the Children’s Corner Book Shop, on the skywalk level of River Park Square at 714 Main.
Mary Anderson Parks, author of “The Circle Leads Home,” will read from her novel at 7:30 p.m. Monday at Auntie’s Bookstore, Main and Washington.
John Haag, author of the poetry collection “Stones Don’t Float: Poems, Selected and New,” will read from his book at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at Auntie’s Bookstore.
Don Morehead and Ann Morehead, co-authors of “A Short Season: Story of a Montana Childhood,” will read from their book at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at Auntie’s Bookstore.
Jim Harbaugh, S.J., author of “A Twelve-Step Approach to the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius,” will read from his book at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Auntie’s Bookstore.
Florence Boutwell, author of “Teresa of Northwood Prairie,” will sign copies of her book between 11:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. Saturday at Auntie’s Bookstore.
Glenda Burgess, author of “Loose Threads,” will read from her novel at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Auntie’s Bookstore.