The A.E. Stringer Visiting Writers Series, featuring Cat Pleska and Mary Barbara Moore, kicked off Sept. 15 in the Arthur Weisberg Applied Engineering Complex.

The Writers Harvest reading celebrates the community at Marshall University and the Tri-State area by showcasing award-winning local writers. The writers read some of their works and, afterwards, audience members have the chance to ask the writers questions and get their book signed.

Cat Pleska started the event by reading different sections from her memoir, “Riding on Comets,” which included “The Time of Perfect Mud Pies,” “No Salt,” “Shelter” and “Riding on Comets.”

“I’m greatly honored,” Pleska said. “I’ve been to several of these myself and I never really dreamed that one day I would be up here too. I was very honored to be asked and I’ve heard so many wonderful authors over the years read through the series.”

Former Marshall faculty member Dr. Mary Moore also read some of her literary work at the event, which included “At Second Sight,” “Venice Beach 1950,” “Amanda Who Has Seen and Not Heard” and “Persephone.”

“I’m very grateful to have been asked to read,” Moore said. “It is really sweet, I had former students in the audience, one batch of them from seventeen years ago. I was so moved by that.”

With September being the National Hunger Action Month, the event not only featured local writers, but also collected donations of nonperishable food items for the Facing Hunger Food Bank.

Facing Hunger has over 220 member agencies in seventeen counties in West Virginia, Kentucky and Ohio. In those counties alone there are around 117,000 people who do not receive enough food on a daily basis.

“I think it is very important to eliminate hunger,” Pleska said. “You never know when you are going to find yourself in that situation. It is important to have someone you can go to like a food bank or something for help.”

The next Visiting Writers reading will be a Hispanic Heritage Month reading Thursday, Oct. 13 at 7:30 p.m. with Joe Jiménez and Emmy Pérez. Another event, “Cultural Panel Discussion: Living and Writing Latin” will be Wednesday, Oct. 12 at 7 p.m. Both events will be at the Drinko Library Atrium and refreshments will be available.

Krislyn Holden can be contacted at [email protected].