GetLit! seeks sponsorships from ‘Lit Lovers'

Economic realities force EWU program, festival towards the private sector for contributions

By JOHN McCALLUM

Editor

Faced with changing economic conditions, Eastern Washington University's literary arts promotion program is taking a new turn when it comes to its funding.

Get Lit! is seeking people to become “Lit Lovers” by making individual or group contributions and asking those who do so to bring at least two friends onboard to help through matching donations. Contributions can be made via the program's secure website by going to http://www.ewu.edu/getlit and clicking on “Donate to Get Lit!”

Get Lit! programs coordinator Danielle Ringwald said while anything from $1 to $1 million would be accepted, they are looking for online contributions in the $50-$100 range. Contributions can be made as one-time payments or staggered on a quarterly, monthly or semi-annual basis.

Get Lit! was originally part of the Eastern Washington University Press, and received its funding from the university's Division of International and Educational Outreach. As such, the program didn't have to compete with other university departments for money.

“We didn't have to worry about state funds and didn't have to share funds with other departments and faculty,” Ringwald said.

Funding for the program was taken care of even when its most visible program, the annual Get Lit! Festival, went into the red, which Ringwald said usually happens.

But with cuts to state funding of higher education, and a downturn in the economy EWU Press has been tabbed to close at the end of the school year. Get Lit! was moved to the College of Arts and Letters in fall 2009, and is now in the same pool of funding used to pay for faculty and staff.

“Obviously teachers take first priority,” Ringwald said.

The decision was made in November to begin reaching out to the private sector for funding; something Ringwald said needed to be done to create partnerships with corporations and businesses, entities that often turn into long-time donors.

Get Lit! kicked off its “Lit Lovers” campaign in mid-December, and has already received financial support from such noted area authors and festival participants as Dan Webster and Jess Walter. Started in 1998, the festival offers many weeklong events mainly in downtown Spokane, and has featured appearances by such literary giants as Salman Rushdie, Kurt Vonnegut, David Sedaris, Sherman Alexie, Sarah Vowell, Dave Barry and Garrison Keillor.

This year's 12th annual festival features over 50 events ranging from author presentations and readings to workshops, panel discussions and poetry slams. Headliners include Anna Lappe, “Diet for a Hot Planet,” Dr. Reza Aslan “How to Win a Cosmic War: God, Globalization and the End of the War on Terror” and multicultural award winning children's author Janet Wong. Also featured will be an evening with Pulitzer Prize-winning fiction author Richard Russo and Spokane's Walter, and a poetry performance by world-renowned poet Patricia Smith, who will team with local jazz musicians to fuse her poetry with music.

Many of the Get Lit! events are free. Tickets for the headlining appearances range from $10-$25, or a festival pass can be obtained for $65, offering an over 60 percent discount off selected tickets.

Ringwald said it usually costs between $90,000-$100,000 to put on the festival. The program holds costs down by using volunteers, student interns and working with authors who will appear for less than the going performance rate. The program's only fulltime employee is Ringwald.

Contributions also help Get Let! with other program offerings. Authors Tour was started in 2003 to bring published authors into K-12 schools in the Inland Northwest for day-long classroom presentations, with Poetry Out Loud, a national poetry recitation contest for high school students started in 2006.

John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].