Book notes: Only one writer from East Side wins GAP award

In the press information accompanying the announcement of the 2007 Grants for Arts Project awards, the sponsoring entity – Artist Trust – does bit of bragging about its support of Washington state arts.

And much of it is justified. Some examples: The 77 GAP awards given out represent a “45 percent increase in the number of awards given from 2006.”

The 795 applications broke a record, as did the per-award maximum amount of $1,500, which resulted in a total of $112,214 given to the winners – “the most distributed in the history of the GAP program.”

But here’s the thing: Of the 139 applicants in the literary arts category, only 15 were rewarded. And of those, a single recipient – former Spokane resident Gwendolyn James, now a professor of English at Columbia Basin College in Pasco – resides east of the Cascades.

James won her grant for a full-length manuscript she is developing that she has tentatively titled “Incantations and Lies.”

“The work sample I submitted was from my chapbook, published by Lost Horse Press under the title ‘Acts of Contrition’ as part of the New Poets: Short Books series edited by Marvin Bell,” James explained in an e-mail.

It may be that writers on this side of the state simply don’t know about the GAP awards and aren’t applying for them.

It might also be that the awards themselves are biased toward the West Side.

Or it could be a combination of the two, complicated further by other factors.

James, who favors the first explanation, had this to say:

“There are few opportunities for new writers (the kind the GAP grants tend to support) to network with one another to find out about opportunities like the GAP grants. I, in fact, stumbled across the information on the Internet.

“I think the lack of community provokes people to become reclusive about writing (like me) or to leave the area, if they can, and find greener pastures, possibly on the greener side of the state, so to speak. Sherman Alexie comes to mind.

“Portland and the Seattle are both riddled with writers and artists (almost too much so) who can help new folks get connected to the right people and who are often more willing to do so.”

Whatever the truth is, writers from this part of the state need to advocate better for themselves, not to mention find more ways to network.

To see the entire GAP list, go online at www.artisttrust.org.

Wake up and read

The Northwest is known for its great coffee.

Taking advantage of that fact, Page Ahead – a statewide literary program that was formed in Seattle in 1990 – has formed a partnership with 43 Inland Northwest coffee shops in an effort to collect “1,000 new children’s books for children in need.”

Note the stress on the word “new.” Contributors are asked to drop their donations at any of the following coffee-based businesses (some of which boast multiple locations): Common Grounds Coffee & Gift Shop, The Daily Grind Uptown, The District Coffee Shop, Dutch Bros., Service Station, The Shop, Thomas Hammer Coffee Company, Rocket Bakery and Starbucks.

According to Page Ahead, it has provided more than 60,000 new books to children in the Spokane area since 1994 and more than 1.5 million books across the state overall.

For more information, go online at www.pageahead.org. Or call the local office at (509) 789-3548.

Writing for kids

Writers from all over the region are invited to attend the third annual fall conference of the Inland Empire Region of the Society of Children’s Books Writers and Illustrators on Sept. 15 in Spokane at the Quality Inn, 110 E. Fourth Ave.

Speakers scheduled to address the conference, which will run from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., include Chris Crutcher, Kenn Nesbitt, Traci Todd, Erik Brooks and Kelly Milner Halls. Participants will be able to engage in manuscript and portfolio critiques and teaching sessions.

Preregistration fees (before Aug. 15) are $80 ($70 for SCBWI members). Critique sessions are an additional $35.

For further information, go online at www.scbwiwaid.org.

Change of dates

The Dog Days Poetry & Prose Writing Workshops series that Sandpoint-based Lost Horse Press was going to hold Aug. 10-12 has been postponed to Sept. 28-30.

Poet Melissa Kwasny and novelist John Keeble will still act as workshop leaders, and fees remain $150.

For additional information, go online at www.losthorsepress.org, e-mail losthorsepress@mindspring.com or call (208) 255-4410.

The reader board

“Lauren Kessler (“Dancing with Rose: Finding Life in the Land of Alzheimer’s”), reading, 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Auntie’s Bookstore, Main and Washington. Call (509) 838-0206.