Get Lit! Festival
April 17th – 19th, 2026
Get Lit! Programs is a non-profit literary arts organization housed within Eastern Washington University.
We are responsible for the Get Lit! Festival, Washington State’s longest-running annual literary festival, which has grown over the last 28 years from a single day of readings to, historically, a week-long celebration of literature. Get Lit! is currently a four-day festival, Thursday through Sunday, which includes full days of readings, craft classes, panel discussions, literary happy hours, virtual events, a book fair, and more— all offered for free or at low-cost. Each festival brings a diverse lineup of highly sought-after authors to our region, while also celebrating our local literary talent.
In addition to the festival, Get Lit! also helps to promote EWU’s Visiting Writers Series and works closely with EWU’s Writers in the Community program, which places graduate students into local spaces of need to teach creative writing.
It is our mission, both in our festival programming and our educational outreach, to celebrate the arts, amplify diverse voices, and empower creativity.
This year’s festival runs from Friday, April 17th to Sunday, April 19th *Sunday will be virtual.
Get Lit! is a non-profit organization and relies on grants, community partners, sponsors, donations, ticket and merchandise sales, as well as other fundraising efforts in order to run our annual festival and educational outreach programs. We also rely on interns and volunteers from the community. If you would like to help support our program, please donate online today. To learn how to sponsor an event or festival author, and/or get involved as a volunteer, email us at getlit@ewu.edu.
History
Founded in 1998, Get Lit! Programs is a non-profit literary arts organization housed within Eastern Washington University’s College of Arts, Letters, and Education. Get Lit! Programs is responsible for the Get Lit! Festival, the region’s only annual literary festival, which has grown from a single day of back-to-back readings to a celebration of literature that features over forty events and sixty authors and brings in thousands of attendees from Spokane and the surrounding region. The festival presents a diverse line up of highly sought-after authors while also highlighting our talented local literary community. With help from generous community partners and sponsors, the festival offers free and low cost readings, writing workshops, craft classes, poetry slams, panel discussions, literary happy hours, and much more.
Get Lit! has historically run many different community outreach programs funded by grant dollars, including Writers in Residence, a program that places published authors in local schools to teach 10-week creative writing courses to students who may not normally have access to a creative writing curriculum. We hope to be able to bring back some of these outreach programs in the future.
In 2023, Get Lit! Programs celebrated its 25th anniversary, an exciting accomplishment that shows us how beloved Get Lit! is in our community. It continues to be our mission, both in our festival programming and our educational outreach, to advance the arts, celebrate diversity, and empower creativity.
Part of our goal each year is to partner with local businesses and artists. Here are some of the artists we’ve been fortunate enough to work with over the past few years.
Our 2025 artwork was designed by Kate Reed!
Our 2022 artwork was designed by Nick Malara!
Our 2023 artwork was designed by Tiffany Patterson!
Our 2024 artwork was designed by Reinaldo Gil Zambrano!
Staff: 2025-2026
Kate Peterson earned her MFA from Eastern Washington University in Spokane, where she now works as Director of Get Lit! Programs. Her poetry and prose has been published in many literary magazines including Crab Creek Review, Rattle, Sugar House Review, Hawai’i Pacific Review, Packingtown Review, and elsewhere. Her chapbook Grist won the Floating Bridge Chapbook Prize and was published in 2016. Contact Kate via kpeterson4@ewu.edu or 509-828-1435.
Mackenzie Draper is an agender writer from the Pacific Northwest. They fell in love with reading as a young child, and, ever since learning what an editor does, has always dreamed of making that their career. Mackenzie got their AA at SFCC and their BA at Gonzaga University. They live with their fiancee and two cats in Spokane and attend Eastern Washington University’s Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program as a first year fiction student. Mackenzie can be reached at getlit@ewu.edu.
Adam Westerholm is a fiction writer from Fargo, ND. He received his Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from University of Denver in 2020, and is currently an MFA Candidate at Eastern Washington University. He is the assistant managing editor of Willow Springs Press, and a super-intern for Get Lit! 2026. Before moving to Spokane, he also worked as a tutor and copywriter in the greater Los Angeles area. He enjoys biking, basketball, and watching films from his physical media collection.
Kirsten Van Zee is originally from rural Illinois and got her BA from Bradley University. At Eastern Washington, she interns for Get Lit, works for Willow Springs Books, and teaches composition to undergraduate students. Her thesis is a novel that explores women’s friendships, belongings, and of course, magic dragons.
Emily Ladd is a long-time Spokanite and a second-year fiction student in EWU’s MFA program. When they aren’t writing or reading, Emily can be found organizing local writing meet ups, moonlighting as a dog trainer, and exploring different ways to cook potatoes.
Kyle Bascom is a poet from Idaho studying in the MFA program at Eastern Washington University. In addition to writing poetry, he loves to sing, act, play one of his instruments, or spend time in nature.
Sophia McLain is a writer from Arkansas and a current first-year fiction student in the MFA program. After working in nonprofit roles, she loves trying to find ways that writing can connect with service. She enjoys hiking and watching really bad ghost-hunting videos.
Get Lit! Programs employs one full-time staff member, and one graduate student assistant from The MFA at EWU. The program relies heavily on student interns and volunteers from The MFA at EWU as well as other local colleges and universities. Get Lit! strives to create an interactive learning environment that connects students with members of the community. Special thanks to all of our interns! If you are interested in becoming a Get Lit! intern or in volunteering for the festival, please contact us: getlit@ewu.edu.
