The Drake Writers and Critics Series, in conjunction with the Food Bank of Iowa, will present the 2012 Drake Writers’ Harvest Festival on Thursday, Nov. 8. The event will begin at 7 p.m. in the Wesley House Gallery, 2718 University Ave., and is free and open to the public.

Author Kelcey Parker and Drake’s Periphery Award winners will present readings at the event while raising awareness, money, and food supplies for the Writers’ Harvest. The Writers’ Harvest program is the United States’ largest literary benefit to fight hunger. Donations of cash, checks, and non-perishable food are welcome, and all contributions will go to the Food Bank of Iowa.

Kelcey Parker is the author of For Sale By Owner, winner of the 2011 Next Generation Indie Book Award in Short Fiction. She is a recipient of an Individual Artist Grant from the Indiana Arts Commission and a Promise Award from the Sustainable Arts Foundation. Her stories have appeared in numerous literary journals, and her next book, Liliane’s Balcony, will be published in 2013.

Parker served as one of the 2012 contest judges for Drake’s student literary and art journal, Periphery. Winners selected for this year’s awards in prose and poetry—Drake students Quint Hall, Lucca Soria, Carly Noyes, and Lily Prinsen—will also read their works at the Harvest Festival. To show collaboration in action, the readings will be paired with live responses by several visual artists, which will be auctioned after the event.

For more information on author Kelcey Parker, visit her web site. Visit http://artsci.drake.edu/english/node/44 to find out more about the Writers and Critics series and for a complete list of events.