Maggie Smith will be a featured author at the 2018 Get Lit! Festival at Eastern Washington University in Spokane, WA.
The Get Lit! Festival began in 1998 as a one-day marathon of literary readings sponsored by Eastern Washington University Press and EWU’s Department of Creative Writing. Then The Spokesman-Review lovingly called it “the little literary festival that could,” and they were right. By 2004, the audience had swelled to 10,000 people from Spokane and the surrounding region. More recently, The Spokesman-Review referred to the festival as the literary equivalent to Spokane’s nationally recognized sporting events, Hoopfest and Bloomsday. Housed within Eastern Washington University’s College of Arts, Letters, and Education, the Get Lit! Festival continues to grow by leaps and bounds. Each year, we partner with local institutions such as Gonzaga University, Spokane Community College, Spokane Falls Community College, North Idaho College, and Whitworth University; as well as community organizations and businesses to bring over 40 authors to each festival. Get Lit! Programs includes:
- The Get Lit! Festival, a weeklong book festival held every April
- Writers in the Schools programs, including Author’s Tour and Writers in Residence
- Poetry Out Loud, a national program for which Get Lit! serves as the Eastern Washington region coordinator. Poetry Out Loud engages high school students in contemporary & classic poetry through recitation and performance.
- The Spokane Youth Book festival (SpoYo), took place in October 2015
- A Visiting Writer Series, featuring 8-10 authors per academic year, in partnership with The MFA at EWU.