Readings to benefit food bank, hospice

Ohio University students can help a food bank and a hospice by attending benefit readings by published authors this week.

OU's Program in Creative Writing will feature readings from three OU professors and one from Kansas State University at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in Irvine Auditorium.

Playwright Jose Delgado, poet Wayne Dodd and fiction writer Jack Matthews – all OU professors – and poet Elizabeth Dodd will read from their works to benefit Southeastern Ohio Food Bank's Second Harvest.

A $5 admission fee will be donated to the food distribution program, which serves nine Ohio counties, including Athens County, said OU media specialist Jennifer Kirksey Smith.

The authors will participate in a book signing and reception following the event.

Students can attend a reading by author and funeral director Thomas Lynch at 2 p.m. in the Friends of the Library Room in Alden Library.

Lynch, famous for his meditations on how humans regard life and death, will read from his collections of poetry and essays.

The free reading will raise awareness for National Hospice Month, said George Bain, head of archives and special collections for the library.

Lynch also will speak at 7 p.m. Friday at the Athens Community Center.