EWU’s Get Lit! Begins Friday

Eastern Washington University’s Get Lit! festival kicks off on Friday, April 17, offering three days of free and low-cost events for literary enthusiasts.

Get Lit!, which is hosted by EWU’s Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program, has for 28 years provided the greater Spokane community with opportunities to connect with nationally acclaimed writers, local authors and fellow lovers of literature.

From crafting sessions and readings to open mic events – and a session that explores the journey to getting published – this year’s festival offers something for everyone.

Throughout the morning and afternoon on Saturday, April 18, events held at the historic Montvale Event Center are free and open to the public. Other venues offering free and ticketed events include the Spokane Central Library, the Bing Crosby Theater, and Emerge, a nonprofit art school in Coeur d’Alene.

Featured authors for this year’s crafting sessions include:

• Willy Vlautin, award-winning author of eight novels, including, most recently, The Left and the Lucky. Three of his novels, The Motel Life, Lean on Pete, and The Night Always Comes have been adapted as films, and his books have been translated into fifteen languages. Learn more about Vlautin online.
• Tessa Hulls has received numerous awards, including a Pulitzer Prize, for her graphic memoir Feeding Ghosts. She’s pivoting her career to become an embedded comics journalist working in long-term partnership with field scientists in remote environments. Learn more about Hulls online.
• Keetje Kuipers’ fourth collection of poetry, Lonely Women Make Good Lovers, won the Isabella Gardner Award, received a starred review from Publishers Weekly, and was recommended by Ron Charles for the Washington Post Book Club. Learn more about Kuipers online.

Here is the schedule of the Get Lit! festival’s 2026 events:

FRIDAY, APRIL 17

10:30 a.m. | Craft Class: Poetry with Keetje Kuipers

11:00 a.m. | A Reading and Conversation with Willy Vlautin: Record Your Own Poetry Moment with Spokane Public Radio

Noon | Table Reads: A No-Mic Open Mic

1 p.m. | Craft Class: Nonfiction with Tessa Hulls

2 p.m. | Daring to Debut: The Journey to Publication

3 p.m. | Saranac Art Projects Gallery Show and Author’s Reception

3:30 p.m. | Craft Class: Fiction with Willy Vlautin

5 p.m. | Book Fair Preview Party!

7 p.m. | The Writer’s Memoir

SATURDAY, April 18

9 a.m. | Book Fair

9:30 a.m. | Conversations Over Coffee

10 a.m. | InRoads Launch Party

10:30 a.m. | Parents Who Write: Making It Up As We Go

11 a.m. | Silent Reading Party

11:30 a.m. | So You Think You Want to Write a YA Novel

Noon | Spirituality & Friendship Across Genres Foray for the Arts: Festival Features and Open Mic

12:30 p.m. | Drop In and Write

1 p.m. | Flourishing Where You Are: Creating a Resilient and Authentic Writer’s Life

1:30 p.m. | An Afternoon of Poetry

2 p.m. | EWU MFA Publisher’s Roundtable

2:30 p.m. | Writing the Prairie

3 p.m. | Worlds Beyond: A Reading and Discussion on Speculative Fiction

7 p.m. | An Evening with Jess Walter and Willy Vlautin presented by Northwest Passages

SUNDAY, APRIL 19

9 a.m. | Magic for Memoirists: Using Flash Prose, Fiction Craft, Poetry, and Hybrid Forms to Shape—and Complete!—Your Memoir

10 a.m. | Authors of Alaska

11:30 a.m. | The Art of Writing a Picture Book

1 p.m. | This Mortal Coil: The Poet in the Clinical Realm

2:30 p.m. | The Arctic Circle: Reflections on a Residency

4 p.m. | Writing the Campus Novel

5:30 p.m. | Regional MFA Reading

7 p.m. |  Making Myths, Building Community: How Local Fiction Connects

To learn more, visit the Get Lit! site online.