PORT ANGELES — The 20th annual Writers’ Harvest Reading for Hunger Relief, a gathering to benefit two local food banks, is set for Friday night and, its organizer said, it’s to be the last.
The event, traditionally held in November as temperatures grow chilly, gives people a chance to support local food banks while listening to a variety of local writers share their work.
The 2015 reading will start at 7 p.m. in the Raymond Carver Room at the Port Angeles Library, 2210 S. Peabody St., with admission by donation — of either cash or nonperishable food items.
Proceeds will go to the Port Angeles Food Bank, 402 S. Valley St., and the Sequim Food Bank, 144 W. Alder St.
Peninsula College professor Janet Lucas, also a poet and essayist, has been assembling the Writers’ Harvest for about nine years now, and said this week that it’s become harder than ever to recruit readers.
The first reading two decades ago was
supposed to be a one-off, presented by a group of Peninsula College professors and writers, but it caught on.
Professor, poet and novelist Jim Fisher put together the chapbook of the readers’ works to be given out at the event; that custom continues.
But Fisher died of cancer at age 72 in November 2014.
Lucas assembled the chapbook last year, along with inviting members of the North Coast Writers group to partake in the annual reading.
“The amount of work involved gave me a whole new respect and admiration for the already inimitable Jim Fisher,” she said.
Writers
This Friday night’s Writers’ Harvest has Peninsula College professors and North Coast Writers members reading short stories, poetry and memoir.
They include:
■ John Anderson, a participant new to the Writers’ Harvest and new to Peninsula College who teaches English at the Clallam Bay Corrections Center.
■ Janet Lucas, a Port Angeles native, Peninsula College English professor and writer of creative non-fiction, scholarly articles and poetry.
■ Charlotte Warren, a retired Peninsula College professor and author of the poetry collection Gandhi’s Lap and of Jumna: Sacred River, a memoir of her life in India during the 1940s and ’50s.
■ Suzann Bick, a Port Angeles writer originally from New Orleans who has published her work in Tidepools, The Dandelion Review and other journals.
■ Patrick Loafman, a wildlife biologist and author of the 2013 novel Somewhere Upriver and the forthcoming book Garage Band.
■ Diana Somerville, composer of the blog “Greening the Commons” and author of a travel memoir, Inside Out Down Under: Stories from a Spiritual Sabbatical.
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Features Editor Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5062, or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
