The Get Lit! 'Tickle My Ears' Workshop by award-winning children's author Carole Lexa Schaefer will be held Saturday, April 12, 2008, at the North Spokane Library, 44 E. Hawthorne Rd. Donations offered at the door will help fund the Get Lit! Young Writers Program. Please phone 368-6587 to reserve your seat.

Get Lit! Writing Workshops, slated for Saturday, April 19, 2008, will be held at the Spokane Club, 1002 W. Riverside Ave. (at Monroe), Spokane. Writing genres covered in the workshops will include fiction, nonfiction, and poetry.

After workshops have been announced, register for workshops through the Get Lit! office in advance to assure your spot. Either download the Get Lit! 2008 Workshop Registration Form and mail it in or drop it off to:

Get Lit! Workshops

534 E. Spokane Falls Blvd. Suite 203

Spokane WA 99202

Or phone in to (509) 368-6587 (for Visa / MasterCard payment).

The fee for a workshop is $50*. Students are eligible for a 50% discount (show current student I.D. at workshops check-in). Workshops seats are assigned on a first-come-first-served basis.

* Tickle My Ears and Willow Springs Workshop for Teen Writers are free.

You are also invited to attend either of the free panel discussions from noon to 1 p.m.

Tickle My Ears

Free* workshop for librarians, teachers, parents, and writers of children’s books
by Carole Lexa Schaefer

Once, after reading my picture book, The Squiggle, a child said to me, “Read it again – it tickles my ears!” This ‘tickle’ effect is simply writing that emphasizes the aural/oral aspects of language. Before any of us can read a word of language, we hear and learn to speak it. Our first experiences of story come to us through our ears. During my many years of working with preschoolers before they learn to read, I’ve observed that as much as any story plot, it’s the strength, lyricism and fun of the sound of language that elicits the request, “Read it again!”

The how-to and effects of this focus in writing for children is the topic of this workshop, which will include how I came to write stories for children via what I call “the music in my ears,” ways to find story lines and themes by “keeping your ears open,” and a look at lyricism (or what I call “wordsong”) in writing for children. Participants also will experience creating animal talk wordsongs, recalling and writing a ‘sound’ childhood experience, and playing “Pass It!” (an old fashioned word-of-mouth childhood game – sure to tickle your ears!).

*Donations collected at the workshop will help fund Get Lit!’s Young Writers Program

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The Power of Subtext

Fiction writing workshop by Karen Karbo

All the best fiction has something going on just beneath the surface, an underlying meaning the reader grasps without the writer having to spell it out. It’s called subtext and even though it sounds suspiciously like a topic already covered in ninth grade English, learning how to inject subtext into your writing is as necessary as it is tricky. In this workshop Karen Karbo will offer examples of subtext in the work of well-published authors, ways in which we can recognize subtext in our own work, and how to tame the beast.

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Telling Lives: Biographical Workshop

Nonfiction writing by Elinor Langer

Biography is the most intimate non-fiction literary form. It is one thing to write about oneself; another to write about someone else, whose control over their portrayal is forever lost, if not by death, then by the very existence of the biographer, and the biography. Biography is a serious responsibility—and it is also a compelling activity. Among other things, it is a license to pry. From the subject's grandest public face to his or her pettiest private one, everything is open for inspection. In addition to lecture and discussion, this workshop will include some informal in-class writing to attempt to give the participants a taste of the biographical experience. No preparation necessary.

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Impromptu Play

Poetry writing by Katrina Roberts

If we catch the mind off guard, we sometimes discover thoughts we didn't know we harbored. Impromptu play helps us "go within and scale the depths of being," in Rilke's memorable phase. It helps us mine our memory for diamonds or trace the trails of sparks in our mind that at some point collide and combust into a poem. Impromptu is related to prompt: both are derived from the latin verb promere, meaning "to bring forth." In this workshop, we will write from prompts, tapping into personal "promptuaries"—mental repositories or treasure troves, attics and cellars often neglected or forgotten, even though they brim with poetic possibilities.

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Willow Springs Workshop for Teen Writers, 2:15-4 p.m., Free
Pre-registration requested (phone 509.359-7435) but not required.

High school writers and poets are invited to workshop their poetry (up to 3 poems) or prose (up to 8 pages of fiction or nonfiction) in small groups led by the editors of Spokane’s national literary journal, Willow Springs. Student writers must bring an original, plus three copies of their manuscripts.

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Get Lit! 2008 workshops are presented by:
Eastern Washington University Press