Clemson writers to read in benefit for Upstate food programs

CLEMSON — Four Clemson University faculty members will read at this year’s Writers’ Harvest, a benefit for Paw Pantry and Loaves & Fishes.

The event, featuring writers Stevie Edwards, Lee Matalone, Sarah Cooper and John Pursley III, takes place at 7 p.m. Thursday in the Self Auditorium at the Strom Thurmond Institute building, 230 Kappa St. in Clemson.

The reading will also feature winners of the university’s annual Writers’ Harvest Student Reader Awards: Carson Colenbaugh (poetry) and Hannah Jane Pearson (prose).

“This annual event gives the campus and the public a chance to hear some of Clemson’s most talented poets and fiction writers — both faculty and students,” said Mike Pulley, event organizer and emcee. “In the process, the audience also gets to help feed those in need on campus and throughout Upstate South Carolina during the holidays.”

To gain admission to this year’s reading, the writers request a donation of canned goods or cash. Checks made out to Loaves & Fishes Inc. will be accepted.

The beneficiaries: Loaves & Fishes is a nonprofit organization that fights hunger in the Upstate by rescuing food that would otherwise be wasted and delivering it to almost 100 partner organizations.

Paw Pantry, located next to Clemson’s Harcombe Dining Hall, helps to alleviate food insecurity among Clemson students and in the community.

Writers’ Harvest readings are planned during the holiday season by writers and poets throughout the nation. The first event was launched by Share Our Strength, a national organization that works to make sure no child in America grows up hungry. Writers’ Harvest at Clemson is sponsored by Pearce Center for Professional Communication and the English Majors Organization.

The writers: Stevie Edwards is author of two poetry collections, “Good Grief” (2012) and “Humanly” (2015), as well as a recent chapbook, “Sadness Workshop” (2018). Her article “A Room without Men: Toward Defining a Feministic Poetics” recently appeared in The Writer’s Chronicle. She is founder/editor-in-chief of Muzzle Magazine and a senior editor at YesYes Books. She is a lecturer in Clemson’s English department.

Lee Matalone’s debut novel, “Home Making,” is forthcoming from Harper Perennial (February 2020). Her writing has appeared in “The Offing,” Denver Quarterly, “Hobart” and “The Rumpus,” among other places. She is a first-year lecturer in the English department at Clemson.

Sarah Cooper teaches in the English department and Women’s Leadership program at Clemson. Her poems appear in “Lunch,” “Room” and “Pilgrimage,” among other journals and anthologies. Her forthcoming chapbook, “Permanent Marker,” will be released this spring.

John Pursley III teaches at Clemson University where he directs the Clemson Literary Festival. He is the author of the poetry collection “If You Have Ghosts” and four chapbooks. He is an editor at Burnside Review and the South Carolina Review.

Carson Colenbaugh is a sophomore horticulture student at Clemson from Kennesaw, Georgia. He is active on campus as a member of the Fire Tigers, Clemson’s wildfire prescribed burn crew, and the Clemson Food Collective, a student organization which strives to promote local producers and food security on campus. Colenbaugh has been recognized for his talents in acting, singing and writing, and opened for former “Saturday Night Live” writer John Mulaney at Memorial Auditorium in 2018.

Hannah Jane Pearson is an English and American Sign Language major at Clemson from Easley, South Carolina. She graduates in December and will spend the following months interning with the Walt Disney Company.