Get Lit! Festival a treasure for Spokane

In 2014, journalist and creative writer Kevin Taylor hatched an idea: publish a volume of local writers telling stories unique to Spokane, as a fundraiser for the Get Lit! Festival.

Now, local bookshelves are full of anthologies like Lilac City Fairy Tales, Railtown Almanac, and Spokane Writes, but at the time, such a book didn’t exist. He put out a call for local writers to contribute work, then donated his time to edit and compile it into a collection called Spokane Shorties. He recruited artist Chris Bovey, who agreed to let his artwork grace the cover and volunteered to design the book. Local writers submitted gritty, weird stories.

The pocket-sized volume sold out multiple runs. At the book’s launch, Taylor joked about pitching a crazy idea to the festival director and being surprised when I agreed. Little did he know that saying “yes” is the best part of working in the arts. “Yes” is where the magic happens.

Surviving to reach its 20th anniversary is no small achievement for the Get Lit! Festival. It is, after all, a small regional book festival. Admission is low-cost or free, the cost of travel and lodging for touring authors increases year over year, and corporate sponsorship is hard to come by. Against all odds, this community has sustained Get Lit! in ways both stunning and simple.

Multiple area colleges and universities have agreed to host Get Lit! events on their campuses, and to help pay for those authors’ visits. Hotels give discounted rates and offer space for author receptions. Atticus, Visit Spokane, and others donate items for author welcome bags, telling the story of Spokane to visitors. Local newspapers cover the event every year. Verne Windham of Spokane Public Radio features festival books on “The Bookshelf,” benefiting listeners across the region.

There are collaborations between local artists and participating writers, spearheaded for years by artist and arts advocate Karen Mobley, which continue today in new forms like Window Dressing. EWU’s creative writing faculty devote time above and beyond their teaching duties to support the festival.

Each of Spokane’s poets laureate have led workshops, emceed, read, volunteered – nearly every way a person could be involved with Get Lit!, they have. The same can be said for dozens of prominent local writers, far too many to list, who have offered their time, talent and expertise as a way of giving back and nurturing emerging writers.

When planning 40 events during one week, there is never a shortage of questions to ask. Would you be willing to moderate a panel? Do you have any interest in writing erotic fan fiction? Could you emcee a poetry slam for middle-schoolers? Would you carry a milk crate around downtown, stop every so often to recruit an audience, then recite a poem? Do you have any experience baking pies? What about slinging whiskey? Can you take tickets, sell T-shirts, hand out surveys, give introductions, set up, break down, bring more ice? I asked these questions and countless others, and always the response: Happy to help. I’d love to. Sign me up.

In total, I spent seven years with Get Lit!, five as director. The effort required to sustain the festival often felt akin to protecting a candle flame during a downpour with one hand.

Supported by a graduate assistant each year – fantastic, capable partners in crime – we did our best. But just as a server drifting off to sleep realizes which table never received their drink refill, the specter of past mistakes still trouble me. The author pairing that went awry, the poor introduction, errata in the festival guide, believe me: I remember it all.

Luckily the frustrations were counterbalanced by festival attendees’ excitement: aspiring writers who arrived an hour early for morning workshops. Parents who cheered on their kids and teens at all-ages poetry slams. College students giddy with anticipation to meet their literary heroes. The military veterans who thanked my predecessor – festival director Danielle Ward – through tears because the conversation between authors Tim O’Brien and Brian Turner gave them a forum to speak about their own experiences at war.

Get Lit! is a place for those who love comic books, zines, biography, historical fiction, mysteries, or romance. It’s a place to nerd out. It’s a safe space for jokes about “poet voice,” and to debate what the term “creative nonfiction” really means.

More importantly, it’s a week where readers and writers, storytellers and musicians, businesses, organizations and institutions, join together to affirm what kind of city we want: a city known for hosting great conversations about literature, for being creative and collaborative, for caring about the written word and respecting oral storytelling traditions.

That vision is sustained by a tiny affirmation, repeated by eager readers, writers, volunteers, and others. Are you going to the Get Lit! Festival this year? Yes. I’d love to. Won’t you join me?