Writers Harvest, an annual event presented by the Ohio University Creative Writing program, hosts three local writers for an evening of literary nourishment on Thursday, Nov. 9, at 7:30 p.m. in the Walter Hall Rotunda.
The event—part of a nation-wide reading series—benefits hunger relief efforts in the region, with all proceeds going to Hocking Athens Perry Community Action’s food assistance programs and to the Southeast Ohio Food Bank. This year’s goal is to raise $500 in donations for these organizations. There is a $5 admission donation for the event.
This year’s lineup features poet and OHIO faculty member Bianca Spriggs, nonfiction writer and Ohio University alum David Wanczyk, and fiction writer David E. Yee.
A reception and book signing follows, with refreshments from Fluff Bakery.
Bianca Spriggs
Affrilachian Poet and Cave Canem Fellow, Spriggs is an award-winning writer and multidisciplinary artist from Lexington, KY. An Assistant Professor of English at OHIO, Spriggs is the author of four collections of poems, most recently Call Her by Her Name (Northwestern University Press, 2016) and The Galaxy Is a Dance Floor (Argos Books, 2016). She is the co-editor of three poetry anthologies, most recently Undead: Ghouls, Ghosts & More (Apex Publications, 2017) and the forthcoming Black Bone: 25 Years of the Affrilachian Poets (University of Kentucky Press, 2018).
You can learn more about her work here: www.biancaspriggs.com.
David Wanczyk
Wanczyk, a graduate of OHIO’s PhD program in nonfiction, grew up a Boston Red Sox fan and once gave up twenty-seven runs in an inning before realizing he’d never make it to Fenway Park—or varsity. He’s coped with that by writing on novel sports for Salon, Slate, Boston Globe Magazine, Texas Monthly, and other venues.
In his new book, Beep: Inside the Unseen World of Baseball for the Blind, Wanczyk illuminates the sport of blind baseball to show us a remarkable version of America’s pastime. With balls tricked out to beep three times per second like a troubling EKG and with bases that buzz, beep baseball is both innovative and intensely competitive. And when the best beep baseball team in America, the Austin Blackhawks, takes on its international rival, Taiwan Homerun, no one’s thinking about disability. What we find are athletes playing their hearts out for a championship.
The editor of New Ohio Review, he lives in Athens with his wife, Megan, their daughter, Natalie, their son, Ben, and the family heirloom—an autographed Pedro Martinez hat.
David E. Yee
Yee is an Asian American writer currently residing in Columbus, Ohio. Sometimes he misses Baltimore. He has an MFA in Fiction from the Ohio State University where he was an Associate Editor for The Journal. His work has been published or is forthcoming in American Short Fiction, Seneca Review, Gulf Coast Online, Juked, Sycamore Review, and elsewhere.
His story, “Clean for Him the Ashes,” won the 2017 New Ohio Review fiction contest, judged by Colm Tóibín, and appears in NOR 22.
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