The Spring 2008 Art Source contains an EDGE Professional Development Program report; news on Artist Trust's outreach throughout the state; fantastic Benefit Art Auction photos; and lots more.

Get a sneak peek below at a feature article about Tod Gonzaga and the Gonzaga University Visiting Writers Series.

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Tod Marshall and the Gonzaga University Visiting Writers Series
by Shalon Parker, Artist Trust Board member and Outreach & Artist Commitee member

Thanks to the initiative, boundless energy and hard work of Artist Trust Grants for Artist Projects and Fellowship recipient Tod Marshall, for the past several months Spokane’s literary community has been enlightened and inspired by various distinguished poets and writers brought to the region as part of the Gonzaga University Visiting Writers Series. Each visiting writer gives a free public reading of his/her work on the Gonzaga campus. The lineup for the first year of the series was Herman Asarnow, Donald Revell, Joy Harjo, Bharati Mukherjee, Robert Hass and Dan Butterworth.

Launched in September 2007 and enthusiastically received by students and local writers alike, the series is the brainchild of Tod Marshall. An associate professor of English at Gonzaga University and a highly regarded and widely published poet himself, Marshall frequently gives poetry readings and has conducted community workshops on poetry, visiting primarily rural Washington towns. Indeed, for his Meet the Artist event as a 2005 Artist Trust Fellowship recipient, he organized a poetry reading for the Metaline Falls community (pop. 223) at the Cutter Theatre in October 2006 [see p. 12 for other recent Meet the Artist events]. He also has contributed his time and energy over the years to Get Lit!, the premier literary arts festival held each spring in Eastern Washington. 

Marshall says that his motivation for starting the series at Gonzaga was his own undergraduate experience of hearing nationally renowned writers read their work: “When I was an undergraduate student, I had the good fortune to attend readings by Gwendolyn Brooks, Allen Ginsberg, Robert Creeley and others. Those events showed me that literature was alive, and that it was made by actual living people (with glasses and mismatched socks, all the foibles of real life). These encounters inspired me as a writer and as a reader in different ways than my meetings with words on the page. I felt a commitment to my students and to my community to create similar opportunities on the eastern side of the state where such cultural programming sometimes seems scarce.”

The impressive lineup of writers for the first year of the series demonstrates Marshall’s commitment to bringing in a diverse set of writers with notably different aesthetics, experiences, and perspectives. Some have regional reputations while others such as Robert Hass, a former poet laureate of the United States and the 2007 National Book Award Winner in poetry, are widely appreciated.

Marshall crafted his list of potential invitees in consultation with other members of the local community, and he is quick to acknowledge his colleagues’ contributions to making this series a reality. Nonetheless, I and others here in Eastern Washington realize that securing the “yeses” from the visiting writers was largely due to Marshall’s own visibility in the world of American poetry and the respect and goodwill from his fellow writers that he has earned over the years. The poets Donald Revell and Robert Hass, for instance, were interviewed by Marshall for his 2002 book, Range of the Possible: Conversations with Contemporary Poets (Eastern Washington University Press).

Marshall, along with so many others here in the Inland Northwest, is eager to see the series become a regular fixture of Spokane’s cultural life. All of the free public readings so far have been standing room only, with approximately 450+ people in attendance. For Marshall such remarkable attendance “speaks to the deep hunger for this sort of
programming in Spokane and the Eastern Washington community.” The Visiting Writers Series has indeed been a wonderful opportunity for local writers, students and other supporters of the literary arts in the Inland Northwest to experience, and we’re extremely fortunate to have someone of Tod Marshall’s caliber and commitment to creative writing spearheading the program and working towards securing its future for years to come.

The Visiting Writers Series 2007-08 has been supported by a grant from Humanities Washington, with additional funding provided by Gonzaga University’s Department of English, Office of Intercultural Relations, Academic Vice President, College of Arts and Sciences, and Faculty Speakers Series.

For additional information about the series, contact marshall@gonzaga.edu.

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