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LitFest |
The 2012 Mid-Columbia Literary Festival is sponsored by Columbia Basin College and its partners. LitFest 2012 will host an impressive list of authors covering a wide range of styles and approaches. They will include author presentations, book signings, workshops, readings, and much more.
About the Book
LitFest Kick-off Event
Tuesday, February 7
6 p.m., Bookwalter Winery
Sponsored by Bookwalter Winery
The first event of LitFest 2012 is meant to spread the love of all literature. Area bibliophiles will talk about books they think are MUST READS. Don't miss this opportunity to hear about great titles and share the joy of reading. Comments and recommendations from the audience are welcome. Seating is limited.
Poetry Out Loud
Regional Finals
Wednesday, February 15
7 p.m., CBC Theatre
Join the Washington State Arts Commission, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Poetry Foundation, and Columbia Basin College as we host the first regional finals for the nationwide Poetry Out Loud recitation competition. Students from local high schools will be reciting classical and contemporary poetry as they compete for a chance to go to the Washington state finals.
Kim Addonizio
Poetry
Wednesday, February 22
7 p.m., HUB Main Stage
Kim Addonizio has been called “one of our nation’s most provocative and edgy poets.” Her latest books are Lucifer at the Starlite, recently a finalist for the Poets Prize and the Northern CA Book Award; and Ordinary Genius: A Guide for the Poet Within, both from W.W. Norton. Kalima Press recently published her selected poems in Arabic. Addonizio’s many honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship, two NEA Fellowships, and Pushcart Prizes for both poetry and the essay. Her collection, Tell Me, was a National Book Award Finalist. Other books include two novels from Simon & Schuster, Little Beauties and My Dreams Out in the Street. Addonizio offers private workshops in Oakland, CA, and online, and often incorporates her love of blues harmonica into her readings.
Heather Sharfeddin
Fiction
Thursday, March 15
7 p.m., L-102
Heather Sharfeddin was born in Forsythe, Montana and, as she writes, “educated in life in Missoula.” The daughter of a forester-turned-cattle rancher, she is a chronicler of life and landscape in the West. She currently lives near Portland, Oregon, with her husband and teenage son. Her books include Sweetwater Burning, Blackbelly, Mineral Spirits, and Windless Summer.
Anu Taranath
Literature
Thursday, April 19
7 p.m., HUB Main Stage
In this engaging lecture, award-winning University of Washington Professor Anu Taranath will use examples from global literature to showcase this extraordinary body of talented writing and to suggest ways of reading that invite conversation on often difficult topics of power, privilege, voice, and agency. A novel from Nigeria, Sri Lanka, or Trinidad illuminates local cultures, but also invites us to reflect on our own culture, be it in Pullman, Friday Harbor, or Seattle. Characters and stories in novels might speak like us or seem totally dissimilar, and in figuring this out during our reading process we begin to form an impression of what we are like, how we define ourselves, and where these definitions come from. Literature from around the globe helps us picture “people over there” and brings texture and depth to our lives “over here.”
Debra Gwartney
Memoir
Wednesday, May 2
7 p.m., HUB Main Stage
Debra Gwartney is the author of Live Through This, a memoir published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in 2009, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the National Books for a Better Life Award. Her book was also named one of the best books of 2009 by The Oregonian and Pacific Northwest Booksellers' Association.
Debra has published in many magazines and newspapers, as well as literary journals including Poets & Writers, Creative Nonfiction, Fourth Genre, Prairie Schooner, Washington Square Review, Kenyon Review, Salon, Triquarterly Review, and others. She was co-editor, along with Barry Lopez, of Home Ground: Language for an American Landscape, published in 2006 by Trinity University Press.
Judith Roche
Poetry
Thursday, May 17
7 p.m., HUB Main Stage
While many appreciate the beauty of a good poem, few of us are able to grasp the difficult process of writing poetry. In this hands-on poetry-writing workshop, award-winning published poet Judith Roche will offer her extensive experiences reading, writing, and teaching poetry. Participants will learn to express the “feel” of their natural surroundings – whether they are the lush farms of the Palouse or the evergreen forests of the Olympic Peninsula – and learn the building blocks for successful poetry writing. Judith will help build skills to use memories, experiences, and sense of place as a basis for writing poems. To enlighten and inspire participants to the expressive nature of poetry, she will also offer examples of her own work and that of local poets.
Augusten Burroughs
Nonfiction
Wednesday, May 23
7 p.m., Gjerde Center
Burroughs is this author of several books including the bestselling memoir, Running With Scissors. His most recent book is This is How: Proven Aid in Overcoming Shyness, Molestation, Fatness, Spinsterhood, Grief, Disease, Lushery, Decrepitude & More For Young and Old Alike. To say that Augusten Burroughs has lived an unusual life is an understatement. From having no formal education past third grade and being raised by his mother’s psychiatrist in the seventies to enjoying one of the most successful advertising careers of the eighties to experiencing a spectacular downfall and rehab stint in the nineties to having a number one bestselling writing career in the new millennium, Burroughs has faced humiliation, transformation, and everything in between. That he is able to wring humor and insight out of this shocking scenario is testimony to Burroughs's writing skill. Upon its publication in 2002, Scissors was hailed as "mordantly funny" (Los Angeles Times), "hilarious" (San Francisco Chronicle), and "sociologically suggestive and psychologically astute" (The New York Times). The book became a #1 bestseller and was turned into a 2006 movie starring Annette Bening, Alec Baldwin, and Joseph Fienes.
Garth Stein
Fiction
Thursday, May 31
7 p.m., Gjerde Center
Garth Stein is the author of The New York Times best selling novel, The Art of Racing in the Rain . Now published in 30 languages, The Art of Racing in the Rain was the #1 BookSense selection for June, 2008, the Starbucks spring/summer 2008 book selection, and has been on the IndieBound bestseller list since its publication. Stein's previous novel, How Evan Broke His Head and Other Secrets won a Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Award, and was a BookSense Pick in both hardcover and paperback. Raven Stole the Moon was Stein's first novel. He has also written a full-length play, Brother Jones, and produced a number of award-winning documentaries.
About the Book
LitFest Event
Tuesday, June 5
6 p.m., Bookwalter Winery
Sponsored by Bookwalter Winery
LitFest 2012 ends just as it started, with an event meant to spread the love of all literature. Area bibliophiles will talk about books they think are MUST READS. Don't miss this opportunity to hear about great titles and share the joy of reading. Comments and recommendations from the audience are welcome. Seating is limited.
Writing Competition
Litfest Event
Thursday, June 7
7 p.m., HUB Main Stage
This event will feature the winners from the Annual Writing Competition of area high school and CBC students in poetry, fiction, and non-fiction.
Thanks to our sponsors...
CBC Arts & Humanities Division, the Tri-City Herald, Battelle Foundation, the Richland Public Library Foundation, Humanities Washington, the Estate of Louise Foskett, National Endowment for the Arts, Community Reads, Washington State Arts Commission, Poetry Out Loud, Bookwalter Winery, Adventures Underground, and Barnes & Noble.
For questions or comments about this page, please contact
Maria Allan, Program Support Supervisor, 509-542-4772
