Get Lit! Festival 2025

We are thrilled to present one of our most longstanding festival events, our Regional MFA Reading! This event features an exciting lineup of readers from five Creative Writing Master of Fine Arts programs across the Northwest. Each school has sent us one MFA candidate to read their work, and students will be introduced by a creative writing faculty member. We are excited to get to know students and faculty members from these programs—this year we have Trey Hayden from Boise State, Trixie Zwolfer from University of Idaho, Ellison Rose from Oregon State University, Western Colorado University's Rebecca Williams, and of course, Abby Shaffer from our own Eastern Washington University represented. We hope you’ll join us to hear fiction, nonfiction, and poetry readings from our region’s rising talents!

*This event is virtual and will premiere on our YouTube Channel at the time listed above. Here is the direct link!

Please fill out our festival survey after you have attended this event. The information you provide will help us obtain critical grant funding and will help make next year’s festival even better!

Join two experts in the field of environmental science to hear readings from their work along with a conversation exploring modern conservation leaders, activists, and advocates as well as their motivations and methods during this sixth great extinction on Earth. Elizabeth Hilborn and Michelle Nijhuis, journalists working and reporting on different coasts, will also discuss the importance of storytelling in documenting the work of climate and environmental advocates in this volatile time on earth. Elizabeth Hilborn is the author of Restoring Eden: Unearthing the Agribusiness Secret that Poisoned My Farming Community. When she noticed that the bees on her family’s fruit farm were dying off, she began an investigation that would expose the dangers of common agricultural chemicals in her community. Elizabeth writes stories about conserving wildlife to support our food system. Michelle Nijhuis is the author of the 2021 book Beloved Beasts: Fighting for Life in an Age of Extinction, a history of the modern conservation movement that profiles some of its most complex characters. Michelle is a lapsed biologist who specializes in stories about conservation and global change. Purchase the author's books via Auntie's Bookstore.

This event is virtual and will premiere on our YouTube Channel at the time listed above. Here is the direct link!

Please fill out our festival survey after you have attended this event. The information you provide will help us obtain critical grant funding and will help make next year’s festival even better!