About the Press and the Publisher

Established in 1998, Lost Horse Press—a nonprofit independent press—publishes poetry titles of high literary merit, and makes available other fine contemporary literature through cultural, educational and publishing programs and activities. The Lost Horse New Poets, Short Books Series, edited by Marvin Bell, is dedicated to works—often ignored by conglomerate publishers—which are so much in danger of vanishing into obscurity in what has become the age of chain stores and mass appeal food, movies, art and books.

Based in Sandpoint, Idaho, Lost Horse Press is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, independent press that publishes poetry titles of high literary merit, and makes available fine contemporary literature through cultural, educational and publishing programs and activities. Christine Holbert, founder and publisher of Lost Horse Press, earned her publishing degree from Eastern Washington University in 1998. At that time, she realized that few independent presses in the region could afford to hire a full-time editor or book designer. She understood that the place to pursue a serious publishing career was New York, but since she didn't want to live in the City, Holbert decided to found a literary press so she could have a job. And live in the country. So, in June 1998, she established Lost Horse Press in her home south of Spokane, Washington. Holbert and the Press moved to Sandpoint, to a Mennonite-built log cabin in the Sunnyside area, in 1999. There—by the shores of 43-mile-long Lake Pend Oreille—Christine reviews and edits manuscripts, designs covers and text, typesets books, designs catalogs, promotes Lost Horse books, manages marketing, oversees interns and volunteers, and negotiates with distributors, bookstores, printers, authors, and other publishers. Christine Holbert has guided to completion such outstanding titles as Love by Valerie Martin, Composing Voices: A Cycle of Dramatic Monologues by Robert Pack, Thistle by Melissa Kwasny, Woman on the Cross and Tales of a Dalai Lama by Pierre Delattre, Just Waking by Christopher Howell, The Baseball Field at Night by Patricia Goedicke, and A Change of Maps by Carolyne Wright, among others. In its eleven years of existence, the Press has published twenty-six books of poetry and ten fiction titles, many of which have won national awards.

The Lost Horse Series for Emerging Writers is dedicated to publishing and promoting the early books of deserving authors whose work is ignored by conglomerate publishers who require their authors to already have an established audience. Emerging writers—especially poets—have few publishing houses willing to advocate their work. Few publishers will take the literary or the financial risk to publish an unknown author whose work may not sell well. Lost Horse Press has published eight previously unknown poets and writers. One such title, Scott Poole’s The Cheap Seats, has won two national book awards. In 2006, Lost Horse Press teamed up with poet, Marvin Bell, to introduce a new series for emerging poets, New Poets | Short Books. “The idea for this series is indebted to Poets of Today, the Scribner series edited by John Hall Wheelock from 1954 to 1962, which published in eight volumes first books by twenty-four poets, three poets at a time under a single cover. . . . The increased promotion in recent years of American poetry on many levels owes much to a dumbing-down of the art and the proliferation of novelty acts. Yet the country is also chock-full of little-published poets of higher seriousness. This 3-in-1 series, then, is intended to sample a range of poets who have yet to publish a book and have generally gone about their writing in private. It will not be run as a contest, nor will it accept submissions.” Volume IV will be released in February 2010.

In addition to running the Press, Holbert is dedicated to contributing to the community: She organizes creative writing workshops, an annual writing conference for adults, literary readings, and an annual book contest—The Idaho Prize for Poetry—to promote the literary arts in Idaho and nationally. In 2001, Lost Horse Press and the East Bonner County Library introduced a program—Young Writers of the Lost Horse—to help children in elementary through high school strengthen their writing skills and heighten their interest in writing. These workshops are provided at no charge to Bonner County students, and are designed to give children from grades 5 through 12 a fresh perspective on the process and pleasure of writing.

The Idaho Prize, established by Lost Horse Press in 2004, is an annual national poetry competition offering prize money plus publication for a book-length manuscript. The 2004 contest was judged by poet Marvin Bell. The winner of the first annual Idaho Prize is poet Alvin Greenberg of Boise, Idaho with his manuscript Hurry Back. Mr. Greenberg’s book was released in December 2004. Melissa Kwasny’s Thistle won the 2005 Idaho Prize for Poetry. Her book is currently available from LHP and Small Press Distribution.

Lost Horse Press sponsors the annual Lost Horse Writers' Conference, a literary celebration bringing together readers, scholars, and writers for three days of intensive creative writing workshops, readings by regionally and nationally distinguished writers, lectures, panel discussions, book signings, collaborative presentations, and intimate literary discussions. No other program of this scope exists in north Idaho, benefiting the experienced writer and the neophyte, as well as the ardent reader of contemporary Northwest literature. Since 2000, the Lost Horse Writers’ Conference has presented free public readings featuring nationally celebrated writers such as Marvin Bell, Marilynne Robinson, Pamela White Hadas, William Kittredge, Annick Smith, Rick Bass, Quincy Troupe, John Keeble, Claire Davis, Kim Barnes, Dow Mossman, Pierre Delattre, Carlos Reyes, James Grabill, Christopher Howell, Scott Poole, Greg Glazner and many others who have distinguished the stages of Oden Hall and The Panida Theater. Additionally, Holbert has invited world-class musicians to Sandpoint—to collaborate with writers and poets on stage—including jazz bassists Ron Carter and Glen Moore, as well as Sandpoint’s classical guitarist, Leon Atkinson.

At this time, Christine is building a studio for Lost Horse Press, a timber-frame building that will also accommodate Lost Horse Press’s 1896 Chandler & Price platen press on which broadsides and chapbooks will be printed.

LIT UP! WOMAN HAS MADE LITERARY FESTIVAL 
INTO A FIVE-DAY EXTRAVAGANZA

By Dan Webster, Staff writer 
October 3, 2000 
The Spokesman Review, Section: IN LIFE

Only a poet would use the word “vortex” in a sentence.

A poet or a physicist.

Christine Holbert is neither. She is, however, a publisher of poets.

And as one of the primary forces behind Get Lit!, Eastern Washington University’s third annual literary festival, she’s not unlike physics itself. Because when it comes to promoting Inland Northwest literature—indeed, literature period—Holbert is energy epitomized.

It’s been largely through Holbert’s efforts that, in just three years, Get Lit! Has grown from a mere one-day round of readings at The Met to a full five-day affair held at nine different locations.

Highlights of this year’s festival include Wednesday’s showing of the movie “Jesus’ Son,” which is adapted from Bonners Ferry writer Denis Johnson’s book; Thursday’s appearance by award-winning poet Quincy Troupe at EWU’s Showalter Auditorium; Saturday’s poetry slam at Mootsy’s tavern; and Sunday’s grand finale lineup of such distinguished poets and writers as Kim Barnes, William Kittredge, Claire Davis and, again, Johnson.

In between there are poetry and fiction readings, children’s events, at least one panel discussion and a closing night open-mike event.

Not that Holbert has done it alone. She belongs to a team of professionals and volunteers that includes Christopher Howell and Scott Poole, director and co-director of the EWU Press, both of whom are editors and poets with impeccable credentials.

And the festival gets plenty of local support from area businesses (including Metropolitan Mortgage, owner of The Met; Hotel Lusso and Auntie’s Bookstore), not to mention the numerous grants that have come in from various sources ($7,000 alone from the Washington Commission for the Humanities).

But it wouldn’t be unfair to say that, like Reggie Jackson and the 1977 New York Yankees, Holbert is the straw that stirs the drink. Holbert, after all, wrote the grant applications.

Poole is one of her biggest fans.

“She’s totally invaluable,” he says. “She has a way of getting people excited about a festival, not only promoting the idea of it, but getting people enthused.”

In Poole’s view, Holbert, whose title is Get Lit! coordinator, was key “not only in helping everyone envision what the event could be but also in putting all the pieces together to make it a reality.

“Without that,” he says, “this would never have happened.”

That’s high praise for someone who, not that many years ago, was busy raising three children and indulging her love of literature mostly by reading it. As her children got older, Holbert says, “I started looking for interests of my own. And literature was it.”

The New York native returned to school, finishing up the undergraduate work at EWU that she’d begun years before at SUNY Stony Brook. She continued on to earn a master’s degree at EWU in publishing.

It was while she was in graduate school, serving as managing editor of the EWU Press, that she knew she’d found her calling. She wanted a press of her own.

“But I didn’t want to leave the area,’” she says, “and there are not many small presses around. So one day I just decided to do it.”

By “it” Holbert means creating Lost Horse Press. Funded initially by Holbert herself, the press is her attempt to explore the kind of literary fiction that most interests her. If she can convert it to nonprofit status, she says, she’ll be able to do in print what Get Lit! does in person: continue spotlighting regional writers and poets.

“Rather than move to where the publishing was,” she says, “I got together with Scott and decided to make this area a literary vortex”—there’s that word—“and I think that with Get Lit!, and with the reception that Lost Horse Press books have had, we’re on our way.’”

Of the six books that Lost Horse has in print (six more are on the way), three of the authors are scheduled to perform at Get Lit! - Howell (Through Silence: The Ling Wei Texts), Poole (Cheap Seats) and Spokane poet, Tom Davis (The Little Spokane).

That trio joins a distinguished group that features two-time American Book Award winner Troupe and a group of Montana writers, including Kittredge, Deirdre McNamer, Annick Smith and James Crumley.

Holbert is particularly proud of attracting Troupe, a nationally known poet from La Jolla, Calif. A friend of EWU creative writing professor and novelist John Keeble, Troupe represents what Get Lit!’s founders hope it will become: an event that promotes literature from the Inland Northwest while bringing the best literature to it.

So far, because of the connections of such locals as Howell and Keeble, the festival is doing just that.

“The first year we were lucky to get really good writers because of the people we knew,” Holbert says. “Now I have people asking me if they can come.”

One of those is Idaho novelist Johnson.

“He never wants to go anywhere; he never wants to talk to anyone,” Holbert says. “And yet he calls and says, ‘I’m ready to come. When is it, this October? I need to go to Paris, but I’ll schedule that around Get Lit!’”

The upshot of all this is obvious. If nothing else, it proves that Holbert and Get Lit! have good—dare we say it?—chemistry.

 

1. PREVIEW: Get Lit!
Get Lit! kicks off its five-day run Wednesday with three showings of the movie Jesus’ Son at The Met (624-0810). For festival information contact, 623-4286.

2. COMING UP: Get Lit!
$10 festival passes ($5 for students) are available at Auntie’s Bookstore (838-0206), the EWU Press (623-4286), the EWU Bookstore and at the door. Passes are required for the following events (unless a separate admission charge is noted):

Wednesday: Jesus’ Son will show at 3:55, 5:45 and 8:10 p.m. at The Met, 901 W. Sprague. Tickets are $5 and are available at the door. For further information call 624-0180.

Thursday: Quincy Troupe poetry reading, 7 p.m., Showalter Auditorium, Eastern Washington University’s Cheney campus.

Friday: Quincy Troupe talk, 10 a.m., EWU Cheney campus; poetry reading, 5 p.m., Rockwood Bakery, 315 E. 18th; and poetry and fiction readings, 7 p.m., Hotel Lusso, 1 North Post.

Saturday: Children’s program, 11 a.m., The Children’s Museum of Spokane, 110 N. Post, $3.75 entrance fee; literary readings, 1 p.m., Auntie’s Bookstore, Main and Washington; 1 p.m., panel discussion on writing children’s literature, EWU downtown campus, 705 W. First (free); young adult reading, 3 p.m., Auntie’s Bookstore (free); poetry readings, 3 p.m., Gonzaga University; poetry readings, 7 p.m., Hotel Lusso; and poetry slam, 9 p.m., Mootsy’s tavern, 406 W. Sprague.

Sunday: Poetry and literary readings, noon to 7:15 p.m., The Met; and poetry reading, 8 p.m., Mootsy’s Tavern.