November 9, 2005

Writers Community Harvest supports hurricane relief Nov. 17

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – The Writers Community Harvest will collect donations for the American Red Cross Hurricane Disaster Relief Fund on Nov. 17 at an event featuring five Purdue University writers reading from their work.

The event, which is at 7 p.m. at the Wells Center, 638 North St., Lafayette, is sponsored by Sycamore Review, Purdue's national literary magazine, and the Department of English. The suggested donation is $3, all of which will be donated to the American Red Cross.

Writers include members of Purdue's Department of English — Patricia Henley, Marianne Boruch, Porter Shreve and Bich Minh Nguyen — and Amy Quan Barry, a visiting writer from the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

"We intentionally organized this event right before Thanksgiving to encourage the Purdue community to help others who are in need," said Gretchen Steele, the philanthropy coordinator of the Sycamore Review and a second-year graduate student in creative writing. "While planning this event, Hurricane Katrina disrupted the lives of thousands of Americans living in the Gulf Coast. Because of their great need, we want to help the people whose lives have been affected."

Last year, about 50 people attended the Writers Community Harvest, which collected canned goods for a local food bank.

For information, contact Steele at (860) 670-5617 or e-mail gsteele@purdue.edu.

Writer: Amy Patterson Neubert, (765) 494-9723, apatterson@purdue.edu

Sources: Gretchen Steele, (860) 670-5617, gsteele@purdue.edu

Porter Shreve, associate professor and director of the Creative Writing program, (765) 496-1651, pshreve@purdue.edu

Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu

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