Nothing is so empowering as sharing your words with a supportive and accepting community, seeing your words in print, and reading them aloud to an appreciative audience. Spark Central’s publishing programs engage citizens of all ages in the literary arts, making writing accessible, and building a supportive, growing community of writers in Spokane, from elementary school to adulthood. It includes our West Central Express newspaper program (part of Level Up), our book publishing field trips, and our teen arts and literary journal Ignite. We also have annual writing workshops that result in book projects for adults.

We want as many Spokane residents as possible to discover their creative power with words and feel the thrill of publication and sharing. This will build a more literate community that appreciates and participates in the literary arts and has the writing skills and confidence for whatever future they pursue.

West Central Express is a real newspaper created by 3rd-5th grade students in Level Up, our after school program at Holmes Elementary, Audubon Elementary, and Garfield Elementary. Support from dedicated volunteers and sponsors make this newspaper project a powerful learning experience for junior journalists! 

Spark Central publishes writing collections in short-run editions. These collections feature teens and adults from our community, and are the result of writing workshops run by local writers. Participants engage in meaningful writing exercises, collaborative workshopping, and a community reading where we celebrate our work together. Each participant receives a copy of the publication, the rest of which are sold to support Spark Central's programs and publishing projects, so we can keep paying the creativity forward.

Past projects have featured a diverse cross-section of our Spokane community, including teens and senior citizens, immigrants, long-time neighborhood residents, writing novices, and established writers.