EWU Prof Kate Peterson named interim director of Get Lit!

SPOKANE, Wash. - Eastern Washington University has appointed Kate Peterson, an English instructor at EWU, to serve as the interim Get Lit! director in response to the departure of Melissa Huggins. Peterson's official start date will be Dec. 16.

Huggins will depart Get Lit! in December to become the executive director of Spokane Arts, a local arts nonprofit. Huggins has been with Get Lit! since 2009 and has served as director since 2011. She has coordinated five Get Lit! Festivals, facilitated multiple Writers in the Schools programs for K-12 students, and partnered with the EWU MFA program in creative writing to run the EWU Visiting Writer Series.

During her tenure as Get Lit! director, featured authors included Joyce Carol Oates, Anthony Doerr, Susan Orlean, Colson Whitehead and Sherman Alexie, along with many other notable authors. She developed partnerships with many community organizations and local businesses, and helped develop signature Get Lit! events like Pie & Whiskey, the EWU Alumni Showcase and Erotic Fan Fiction, among others.

Peterson earned her MFA from Eastern Washington University, where she has been working as an adjunct professor since 2014. Her chapbook Grist won the 2016 Floating Bridge Chapbook Prize and was published in October 2016. Her poetry and prose have been published in Glassworks, The Sierra Nevada Review, Sugar House Review, Hawai'i Pacific Review, Aethlon, Packingtown Review and others. Peterson has been involved in Get Lit! since 2013, coordinating the Poetry Out Loud program and volunteering for the festival.

"I'm confident that Kate will do a wonderful job," said Huggins. "She's extremely involved in the Spokane community and cares deeply about continuing the festival's long tradition. The 2017 festival will be in good hands."   A full search for the permanent director will begin in February 2017.

The 2017 Get Lit! Festival is scheduled for April 17-23, and announcements about participating authors will happen in December and January. Other upcoming events include EWU Visiting Writers Sarah Shun-lien Bynum (Feb. 24) and Liz Kay (March 17).

For more information or to sign up for the Get Lit newsletter, visit our website here. To contact Get Lit, please email getlit@ewu.edu.