10/22/98
ATHENS, Ohio -- Four award-winning Ohio University faculty members will read from their work at the Writers Harvest benefit at 8 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 27, in Irvine Auditorium.
Writers Harvest is coordinated on the national level by Share Our Strength, one of the nation's largest hunger relief organizations. Since 1992, Share Our Strength has conducted readings nationwide featuring hundreds of the country's most distinguished writers. Now in its fifth year, Ohio University's Writers Harvest has collected about $1,000 annually through a $5 admission fee. Proceeds benefit the Southeast Ohio Food Bank.
"People often wonder how they can help with hunger relief in our area. Attending the Writers Harvest benefit is an enjoyable way to contribute," said Jean Cunningham, coordinator of special programs for Ohio University's English Department.
Featured writers will include poet Robert Kinsley, fiction writers Joan Connor and Jack Matthews, and essayist David Lazar.
"This year's Writers Harvest will showcase the beguiling and invigorating variety of writing published by our faculty," said Creative Writing Program Director Mark Halliday.
Kinsley earned a master's in creative writing from Ohio University. He is the author of two books of poetry, "Endangered Species" (1989) and "Field Stones" (1997). Kinsley's poems have appeared in magazines and journals such as Ploughshares, Harvard Magazine, The Indiana Review, Tar River and The Westminster Review. He was awarded an Ohio Arts Council grant, and is currently an editorial associate at The Ohio Review.
Connor joined the Ohio University faculty in 1996. Her first full-length collection of stories, "Here On Old Route 7," was published last year. Dozens of her short stories have appeared in magazines and journals such as Shenandoah , The Southern Review , The North American Review , The Ohio Review and The Gettysburg Review . Connor has received fellowships from Vermont Studio Academy, The McDowell Colony, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and Yaddo. She was selected for the Philip Roth Fellowship at Bucknell University and has been nominated several times for the Pushcart Prize. Connor received her bachelor's degree from Mount Holyoke College, a master of arts from Breadloaf School of English at Middlebury College and a master of fine arts from Vermont College.
Matthews, distinguished professor of English, is the author of more than 20 books. His individual short stories, essays, poems and reviews have appeared in such periodicals as The Yale Review, The New York Times, The Nation , The New Republic , The National Review , Mademoiselle and The London Review of Books . Matthews collects and preserves rare books. Two of his recent publications speak to this avid interest: "Booking Pleasures" and "Collecting Rare Books for Pleasure and Profit." Matthews' numerous awards include a 1974-75 Guggenheim Fellowship, Ohio Arts Council grants and The Sherwood Anderson Award. His work has appeared in The Best American Short Stories and Prize Stories: The O. Henry Awards . His fiction has been translated into Spanish, German, Czech and Rumanian.
Lazar joined Ohio University in 1990. He is the editor of "Conversations with M.F.K. Fisher," published in 1993. Lazar writes in the genre of creative nonfiction. His essays have appeared in periodicals such as Denver Quarterly , The Southwest Review , AWP Chronicle , Aperture , Ultra and Gulf Coast as well as The Houston Chronicle . Lazar's honors include nominations for the Pushcart Prize, an Ohio University Baker Fund Award in 1992, the Delmore Schwartz Award for Poetry in 1983, and the Academy of American Poets Prize in 1982. His essay, "The Coat," was selected by Best American Essays of 1993 as one of its "Notable Essays," and "Calling For His Past" received similar recognition in 1991. Lazar received his bachelor's degree from Bennington College in 1977, a master's in literature and creative writing from Syracuse University in 1983, and a doctorate from the University of Houston in 1989.
Doors open at 7 p.m., and no tickets will be sold in advance. A book signing and reception will follow the reading, which is being presented by the English Department's Creative Writing Program.