Tickets for Get Lit! events on sale now

Tickets to Get Lit! 2007, Eastern Washington University’s annual literary event that will be held April 18 through 22 at sites in Spokane and Cheney, went on sale Friday.

The three paid events are as follows:

“Timothy Egan and Jess Walter, with opening act Ann Joslin Willliams, April 19, 7:30 p.m., Bing Crosby Theater, 901 W. Sprague Ave. Tickets range from $16 to $20, depending on location.

“Walter Mosley, opening act M.L. Smoker, April 20, 7:30 p.m., Showalter Hall Auditorium, EWU’s Cheney campus. Tickets: $16 to $20.

“Evening of Poetry, featuring Jim Daniels, Tess Gallagher and Alberto Ríos, April 21, 7:30 p.m., Bing Crosby Theater. Tickets: $12 to $15.

Free events include poetry slams, an April 18 reading by Donald Worster (7:30 p.m. at Spokane Community College), panel discussions and readings by EWU faculty. Writing workshops will be offered on April 21 for $45/$50 ($22.50/$25 for students).

For full festival information, go online at www.ewu.edu/getlit. Or call (509) 623-4262.

Just for kids

Jack Prelutsky, the Seattle children’s author, has been given the Washington Poets Association’s 2007 Lifetime Achievement Award.

Prelutsky, who on Sept. 27 was named the nation’s first Children’s Poet Laureate by The Poetry Foundation (publisher of Poetry magazine), is the author of several dozen volumes of children’s verse.

He will be awarded the Washington Poets Association honor at the organization’s 2007 Burning Word Festival of Poetic Fire, a daylong extravaganza to be held on Whidbey Island, Wash., on April 28.

Prelutsky, 66, has written titles including “A Pizza the Size of the Sun,” “The New Kid on the Block” and “Something Big Has Been Here.”

To discover more about him, go online at www.jackprelutsky.com.

A final high

The word drifting down from Sandpoint is that “Thistle,” Melissa Kwasny’s poetry collection that won the 2005 Idaho Prize for Poetry awarded by Lost Horse Press, has been named as a finalist for ForeWord Magazine’s 2007 Book of the Year.

“Thistle” is one of 14 finalists in poetry, which is one of 59 categories the magazine rewards. Some 1,400 books were entered in all, and this list was culled to 698 finalists from 419 publishers.

The top three winners in each category (gold, silver, bronze) will be announced June 1.

Last-chance limericks

Deadline for this year’s Spokesman-Review Limerick Contest is Monday. No e-mails will be accepted after 5 p.m., and all postal entries must be posted by Monday.

This year’s topic is “Spokane – near nature, near perfect: missing the mark – or not! Legends, lunacies and luminaries,” which covers just about every general topic you can think of.

I’ll provide one final example of limerick form (this one is courtesy of none other than H.G. Wells of “The War of the Worlds” fame):

“Our novels get longa and longa,

Their language gets stronga and stronga.

There’s much to be said

For a life that is led

In illiterate places like Bonga.”

E-mail entries to limerick@spokesman.com. By post, send them to S-R Limerick Contest, The Spokesman-Review, 999 W. Riverside, Spokane, WA 99201.

Book talk

“Gay & Lesbian Book Group (“The Price of Salt,” by Patricia Highsmith), 7 p.m. Wednesday, Auntie’s Bookstore, Main and Washington. Call (509) 838-0206.

“Literary Freedom Book Group (“What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day,” by Pearl Cleage), 1 p.m. Saturday, Auntie’s Bookstore.

The reader board

“Charles Mutschler (“Spokane’s Street Railways”), slide show/lecture, 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Liberty Cafe, Auntie’s Bookstore.

“Robert Olen Butler (“A Good Scent From a Strange Mountain”), reading, 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Fine Arts Auditorium, Washington State University, Pullman. Call (509) 335-3581.

“Steve Oliver (“Spokane Crime Stories 1906”), reading, 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Auntie’s Bookstore.

“Meghan Nuttall Sayres (“Weaving Tapestry in Rural Ireland”), slide show/reading, 7 p.m. Thursday, O’Doherty’s Bar and Grille, 525 W. Spokane Falls Blvd. Call (509) 838-0206.

“Dino Fanara (“Angel of the East Indies: Biography of the Van Dooremolen Family”), reading, 7:30 p.m. Friday, Liberty Cafe, Auntie’s Bookstore.