Richard Russo, the Camden author who won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize in fiction for his novel "Empire Falls," reads from his work at 8 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 14, in Chase Hall Lounge, Campus Avenue, Bates College. The public is invited to attend the event, part of the Writers Harvest, the annual literary benefit to fight hunger and poverty sponsored by the national hunger organization Share Our Strength (SOS). Donations will be accepted and proceeds will benefit the Maine Coalition for Food Security and the Good Shepherd Food Bank.

New York Times reviewer Rand Richards Cooper wrote "what makes Russo a supremely enjoyable novelist is the big swing he takes at small-town America: His sprawling novels keep large ensemble casts in play, making room for the hopes and delusions of even the most minor characters." 

Russo's most recent publication is "Whore's Child and Other Stories" (Knopf, 2002). His novels include "Mohawk"  (Random House, 1994), "The Risk Poo," (Random House, 1994), "Straight Man" (Knopf, 1998) and "Nobody's Fool" (Random House, 1997), which was made into a movie starring Paul Newman and Bruce Willis.  Publisher's Weekly called "Empire Falls" Russo's "biggest, boldest novel yet," in which the author "subjects a full cross-section of a crumbling Maine mill town to piercing, compassionate scrutiny, capturing misfits, malefactors and misguided honest citizens alike in the steady beam of his prose."

A native of Gloversville, N.Y., Russo is an alumnus of the University of Arizona Creative Writing Program and has taught at the University of Southern Illinois, the Iowa Writer's Workshop and Colby College. His many screenplays include "Nobody's Fool" and "Twilight."

Each fall, Writers Harvest invites writers to fight hunger and poverty by reading from their works at bookstores, college campuses and community centers around the country. SOS distributes 100 percent of event donations to statewide anti-hunger and anti-poverty efforts. Since its inception in 1992, SOS's Writers Harvest has raised more than $800,000 for the fight against hunger.