LEWISTON – A poet whose most recent collection of poems won the Jane Kenyon Award for Outstanding Book of Poetry will read from her work at 8 p.m. today, Nov. 10, at Bates College.

Cleopatra Mathis will read from her award-winning “Who Will Tip the Boatman” in Chase Hall Lounge on Campus Avenue.

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. Donations will be accepted and proceeds will benefit area food banks.

Much of “Who Will Tip the Boatman” is about mothering, the poet as mother of a troubled and gifted daughter. A New York Times reviewer wrote that Mathis’ poetry “enthralls without throwing the reader off a cliff. And all the while she brandishes the gifts of a talented poet who has hit her stride.”

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’ Writers Harvest has raised more than $800,000 for the fight hunger.