The Creative Writing Reading Series is thrilled to present the Writers’ Harvest benefit reading THIS THURSDAY, Oct. 23, 2014, at 7:30PM at the UCA Museum, 1400 Remington Street, featuring award-winning authors Ira Sukrungruang and Sasha Steensen, in support of the Larimer Food Bank. Bring a non-perishable food item to donate to the food bank (e.g., canned tuna, peanut butter) for a chance to win a gift basket from Whole Foods, breakfast for two at Snooze, or other great raffle prizes.

Ira Sukrungruang, a Chicago-born Thai-American, is author of the memoir Talk Thai: The Adventures of Buddhist Boy and the poetry collection In Thailand It Is Night. He co-edited What Are You Looking At: The First Fat Fiction Anthology and Scoot Over, Skinny: The Fat Nonfiction Anthology, both published by Harcourt Brace. What Are You Looking At? is the first book that looks at the fat experience through the lens of literature. His essays, poems, and short stories have appeared in many literary journals, including Creative Nonfiction, the Sun, the Bellingham Review, North American Review, Crab Orchard Review, Post Road, and Brevity. He is at work on several projects: a memoir about his time as Thai entitled Monk for a Month; a memoir about his love for dogs, titled Buddha’s Dog; a collection of short stories, Happy Ends; and a collection of poetry, The Green We Speak.

Poet Sasha Steensen grew up in rural Ohio and Las Vegas. She earned a BA and an MFA at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and a PhD in poetics at SUNY Buffalo. She is the author of several collections of poetry, including House of Deer (2014), The Method (2008), and A Magic Book (2004), which won the Alberta DuPont Bonsal Prize, as well as several chapbooks, including the collaboration Correspondence: For La Paz (2004) with Gordon Hadfield. She is an Associate Professor at Colorado State University.

A book signing and raffle will follow the reading. This event is free and open to the public.