Click here for Get Lit! 2005 Children's Events Begin news release.

Authors Tour of Rural Schools
January through April, 2005
 
Get Lit! children's events begin with the Authors Tour of Rural Schools, now in its second year. Authors, who visit children in their rural eastern Washington or northern Idaho schools, share from their work, discuss the writing life, and lead students in writing exercises. Participating authors spend a full day or multiple days, from January through early April, with students in elementary, middle and high schools responding to their curiosity about writing and nurturing their creative writing talent.
 
"The response from all of my students has been extremely positive. Even my 'toughest' critics have had something positive to say," wrote one rural high school teacher of an author visit in 2005. Students "came away beaming at praise for their work, and thoughful at advice to revise," wrote another teacher.
 
For more information, e-mail Marny Lombard, Get Lit!'s Young Writers Coordinator, at GetLitKids@mail.ewu.edu.
 
Click here for the 2005 Authors Tour of Rural Schools brochure (pdf file, 1.5 MB)

This program is supported in part by a grant from Humanities Washington, a state-wide non-profit organization supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities and local contributors.

Get Lit! Youth and Teen Poetry Slams
Friday, April 15^th, 4 - 6 p.m. and 7 - 9:30 p.m.
 
Poetry Slam is spoken word poetry in a setting emphasizing the art of performance. In Get Lit! Poetry Slams, teams of two or more students compete against one another for prizes in two age divisions, ages 11 and younger, and ages 12-19. Graduate students in EWU's Creative Writing program conduct Poetry Slam Workshops in area schools in the months leading up to the competition to help teams prepare. The first place winners of the youth division will perform at the Get Lit! / KPBX Kids' Concert. The first place winners of the teen division will open for Get Lit!'s An Evening of Poetry.
 
The 2005 Poetry Slams will be held on Friday, April 15^th at West Valley High School, 8301 E. Buckeye Ave. Registration for the youth slam begins at 4:15 p.m.; teen slam registration begins at 7 p.m. (teens may preregister at 4:15). The cost per performer is $1.00, which helps pay for refreshments, plus one donation of a canned good for the Spokane Food Bank. Audience members get in free.
 
For more information, contact Emily Benson in EWU's Writers in the Community program, at WITC@mail.ewu.edu or 623-4227.

Get Lit! / KPBX Kids' Concert
Sunday, April 17^th, 1 p.m.
 
"I'll love you forever / I'll like you for always / as long as I'm living / my baby you'll be."
 
This year's Get Lit! / KPBX Kid's Concert features author and storyteller Robert Munsch. You may not recognize this Canadian author's name, but you likely will be familiar with the refrain of his best-selling children's book, Love You Forever (above).
 
Bob will tell stories from his forty-four books and unpublished works to children (and adults!) at the Free KPBX / Get Lit! Kids' Concert in Spokane on Sunday, April 17^th at 1 p.m. in the Masonic Temple Auditorium, 1108 West Riverside (please use the building's north entrance).
 
For more information about Robert Munsch, visit his Web site at http://www.robertmunsch.com/.
 
And what's a concert without music? Local singer/guitarist Steve Schennum will perform some of his amusing songs to round out this Get Lit! / KPBX Kids' Concert performance.
 
We invite you to donate a new book, appropriate for children learning to read, to the PageAhead collection table that will be at the concert.

PageAhead Family Read Workshop
Tuesday, April 19^th
 
Parents, mentors, caretakers, and educators of young children who are learning to read, this workshop is for you. It provides tips on how to incorporate reading into children's home lives. Included is a model read-aloud, tips on choosing age appropriate books, and inexpensive, easy ways to have fun reading at home with children. The forty-five minute workshop will be held on Tuesday, April 19^th at the book-rich Downtown Spokane Library in room 1A (ground floor) beginning at 7 p.m.
 
For more information about PageAhead, visit their Web site at www.pageahead.org.

Writers in the Schools Day
Friday, April 22^nd
 
What do you have when local authors and writers celebrate writing and literature with elementary, middle and high school students? Writers in the Schools Day, now in its third year. Writers will volunteer one-to-two hours of their time in classrooms throughout the city on Friday, April 22^nd, during Get Lit! 2005, the Northwest Literary Arts Festival. They will share from their work, talk about the writing life, and lead writing exercises to give students a sense of their own power as writers.
 
For more information, e-mail Marny Lombard, Get Lit!'s Young Writers Coordinator, at GetLitKids@mail.ewu.edu.
 
Click here for the 2005 Writers in the Schools brochure (pdf file, 1.5 MB)

Attention High School Students
Check out Get Lit! writing workshops and panels on Saturday, April 23^rd from 9 a.m. to noon and 1 to 4 p.m. at the Ridpath Hotel. Attending the panels is free, and high school students qualify for the student discount for workshop registrations.