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If you would like to help fund these worthy programs, please see Sponsorships or
Join Friends of Get Lit! and designate
your donation be applied to Get Lit! 's Children and Youth Events.
Young Writers Program
Get Lit! 's Young Writers Program (YWP) encourages children and adolescents to think creatively and interact with literature and language.
Sending writers into schools exposes young people to the power of language, expands for them the possibilities of their own writing, and builds their
skills in an enlivening format that stands out from normal classroom teaching, which focuses on the practical applications of reading and writing as
communication tools as teachers help students prepare for standardized tests. YWP shines a fresh and joyful light on regional literature, and through
writing exercises help students value their own perceptions of life.
YWP comprises three visit elements: Writers in the Schools Day, Authors Tour of Schools,
and Writers in Residence. While in classrooms, authors facilitate
age-appropriate writing experiences, share from their work, and discuss writing as a creative calling. Participating writers represent a variety of genres,
including literary fiction and nonfiction, science fiction, poetry, children's books, young adult novels, journalism, and drama. YWP's fourth element is a
fall forum for teachers and authors to learn more about the program and to network with one another about how to garner the greatest benefit from the visits
for the students.
The Get Lit! Literary Festival offers those in the Northwest a rare opportunity to celebrate writing and story telling. The festival's Young Writers
Program broadens that access to literature to children and adolescents throughout the region, especially those in rural communities with limited access to such
opportunities.
Thank you to the following sponsors for their generous parts in funding this project:
Craig Holmes
Journal of Business
Starbucks Coffee Company
An anonymous donor
Authors Tour of Schools
October, 2005, through April, 2006
Get Lit! children's events begin with the Authors Tour of Schools, now in its third year. Authors, who visit
children in their 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 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 thoughtful 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.
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.
Thank you to the following sponsors for their generous parts in funding this project:
Bed & Breakfast at the China Bend Winery
Florence Wasmer Fund for Arts and Culture (through Foundation Northwest)
Inland Power and Light
The Spokesman Review
Get Lit! Youth and Teen Poetry Slams
Wednesday, April 19th, 2006 at Auntie's Bookstore, 402 West Main
- Youth (ages 11 and younger) at 4:30 p.m. (registration will begin at 3:45).
- Teens (ages 12-19) at 6:30 p.m. (registration will begin at 5:45).
Due to time restraints, there will be a limit of 20 teams per age division. Come early to ensure enrollment.
Poetry Slam is the competitive art of performance poetry. It puts a dual emphasis on writing and performing, encouraging poets to focus on what they're
saying and how they're saying it. A poetry slam is a spoken word poetry event in which poets perform their work and are judged, both for content and
delivery, by audience members who volunteer for this role.
In Get Lit! Poetry Slams, teams of two or more students compete against one another for great prizes in two age divisions:
the Youth Slam is for poets ages 11 and younger, and the Teen Slam is for poets ages 12-19. Any student team within these age ranges may enter,
including home schooled students. The first place winners of the Youth division will perform at the free Get Lit! KPBX Kids' Concert
on Saturday, April 22nd at 1 p.m. and receive $50 cash and a Get Lit! T-shirt for each team member. The first place winners of the
Teen division will open for Get Lit! 's "An Evening of Poetry," featuring Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Yusef Komunyakaa on
Friday, April 21st in Showalter Hall Auditorium on the EWU Cheney campus, and receive $50 cash and a Get Lit! T-shirt for
each team member. Second place winners of both divisions will receive $25 per team and Get Lit! T-shirts. Third place winners will
receive Get Lit! T-shirts.
The 2006 Poetry Slams will be held on Wednesday, April 19th at Auntie's Bookstore, 402 West Main. The cost per performer is $2, which helps pay for
refreshments, plus a donation of a canned food for the Spokane Food Bank. Audience members get in free.
Graduate students in EWU's Creative Writing program will conduct Poetry Slam Workshops in area schools in the months leading up to the competition
to help teams prepare. Teachers may schedule workshops by contacting EWU's Writers in the Community program.
For more information, including poetry slam rules, visit http://www.ewu.edu/x35244.xml or contact
Nicole Odden in EWU's Writers in the Community program, at WITC@mail.ewu.edu or 623-4227.
To learn more about WITC, visit http://www.ewu.edu/x35222.xml.
Get Lit! KPBX Kids' Concert
Saturday, April 22nd, 1 p.m.
Jack Prelutsky, one of the best children's poets in the nation, will sing and recite his poems in a
sure-to-be fun Get Lit! KPBX Kid's Concert on Saturday, April 22nd at the Met Theater in downtown Spokane.
Prelutsky is the author of more than thirty collections, including both his original verse and anthologies of children's poetry.
Part entertainer, part comic, and part musician, Prelutsky draws kids into poetry they can delight in and really care about.
Photo from the 2005 Get Lit! KPBX Kid's Concert.
Page Ahead Families Read Workshop
Tuesday, April 18th, 4 p.m., downtown Library, Room 1A, Spokane. Free.
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 18th at the book-rich Downtown Spokane Library in room 1A (ground floor) beginning at 4 p.m.
For more information about PageAhead, visit their Web site at www.pageahead.org.
Writers in the Schools Day
Friday, April 21st
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 fourth year. Writers will volunteer one to two hours of their time in classrooms throughout
the city and valley on Friday, April 21st, during Get Lit! 2006, 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.
Writers in Residence
October through May
Writers in Residence provides "teaching writers," with their writer's perspective and tools, to K-12 schools to guide students'
experiences of writing about their world, their lives and their stories. Teaching writers are poets, essayists and fiction writers
who each spend time weekly in three classrooms, working with students over the course of the school year to help them discover
the worth of their stories and the power of their own voices. Collaboration is an invaluable part of this experience, invigorating
participating classroom teachers with new ideas. Four schools in the greater Spokane area are participating in this pilot project.
Thank you to the following sponsors for their generous parts in funding this project:
Attention High School Students
Check out Get Lit! writing workshops and panels on
Saturday, April 22nd from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Attending the panels is free, and high school students qualify for the
student discount for workshop registrations.
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