Willow Springs 57 a journal you can count on

Let’s count the things you can count on:

1. That the dryer will eat your socks, leaving several mismatched pairs (which you will wear anyway).

2. That just as soon as you change your studded snow tires the temperature will drop, making the streets slicker than oil on a baby’s bare bottom.

3. That anything labeled “lite” has about as much appeal as Paris Hilton at a NASCAR rally.

4. And that the literary journal Willow Springs will come out with an issue filled with words arranged in entertaining, often illuminating, ways.

Willow Springs 57 is the latest offering from Eastern Washington University, which sponsors the award-winning, semiannual journal.

Edited by EWU professor of creative writing Samuel Ligon and student managing editor Adam O’Connor Rodriguez, along with a crew of student associates, Willow Springs 57 features 20 poems by 17 poets, three short stories by as many writers and two interviews – one with poet Robert Bly.

(Bly, by the way, is developing a relationship with Spokane. Besides having been a part of Get Lit! 2005, EWU’s annual celebration of literature, he will return on March 10 for Spokane Falls Community College’s Lit Live! Literary Program.)

But back to Willow Springs: Of all the literary arts, poetry seems to be the most personal. Some poems speak to some people, some to many, some to very few. But look far enough and you’ll find imagery, or even just a line, that hits you.

This one got me. It’s from a poem titled “Weldon Kees at the Piano” by Jack Martin:

“The Nebraska in your eyelashes

won’t help you anymore.”

That may not even be the best line. The poem, in fact, is simply stunning in how well Martin is able to juggle words and images to effect a reaction, with this reader at least.

And that, folks, is why it’s worth searching through literary journals such as Willow Springs. Somewhere there’s something that’s going to affect you in a way that you often can’t understand.

Count on it.

Get Lit! and ‘Loud’

The folks at Mootsy’s, 406 W. Sprague Ave., will be having five more editions of the “Out Loud” poetry series, which offers amateurs an opportunity to mix with those who actually have been published. An open-mike event, “Out Loud” will meet at 6 p.m. next Sunday and March 12 and 26, and April 9 and 23.

The final date will be the culminating event of the eighth Get Lit!, the Eastern Washington University Press’ annual literary festival that will be held April 20-23 at The Met. Get Lit! this year features a lineup of writers that includes Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Marilynne Robinson, poet Yusef Komunkayaa and memoirist Kim Barnes.

To get more information about “Out Loud,” call 838-1570. For more about Get Lit!, call 623-4262, e-mail ewupress@ewu.edu or go online at www.ewu.edu/getlit/index.html.

For performing poets

The Ninth Annual Bart Baxter Contest for Poetry, which essentially is a slam, will be the night of April 3 in Seattle.

Sponsored by the Washington Poets Association, the contest features poets performing their work in three-minute sessions. Poets who enter the contest will compete in one-on-one “bouts,” where they will be judged both on the poem and their ability to perform it. The eight finalists will vie for $500 in cash prizes

Deadline for entering is March 15. For further information, e-mail pen@splab.org or emeraldchris@yahoo.com, or go online at www.washingtonpoets.org.

He knew Thoreau

Bradley P. Dean, an internationally renowned Thoreau scholar, died at home in Bloomington, Ind., on Jan. 14.

Dean, who was 51, had ties to Spokane. He earned an Associate of Arts degree from Spokane Community College, then bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Eastern Washington University,

Dean, who later earned a Ph.D. from the University of Connecticut, was recognized as an expert on the writer-philosopher Henry David Thoreau. His work on Thoreau’s notes led to the publication of three books, “Faith in a Seed,” “Wild Fruits” and “Letters to a Spiritual Seeker.”

At the time of his death, he was an independent scholar who had just begun teaching at Indiana University and was working on a fourth Thoreau book.

In a story that ran in the Indianapolis Star, Kathi Anderson, executive director of the Walden Woods Project, was quoted as saying that Dean “was a passionate and devoted scholar. He spent much of his life immersed in his research.”

Book talk

“Dark City Mystery Group (“1st to Die,” by James Patterson), 7 p.m. Monday, Auntie’s Bookstore, Main and Washington (838-0206).

“Hastings Inspirational Readers Group (“Divine Embrace,” by Ken Gire), 7 p.m. Monday, Valley Hastings, 15312 E. Sprague (924-0667).

“Modern Fiction Book Group (“Motherless Brooklyn,” by Jonathan Lethem), 7 p.m. Tuesday, Valley Barnes & Noble (922-4104).

“Colfax Who Reads What book discussion group (“The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time,” by Mark Haddon), 7 p.m. Thursday, Colfax Library, 102 S. Main, Colfax (877-733-3375).

The reader board

“John Donaldson (“A Legend on the Road: Bobby Fischer’s 1964 Simultaneous Exhibition Tour”), lecture, chess demonstration, 5 p.m. Friday, Auntie’s Bookstore.