ICOA writer-in-residence, Sonali Samarasinghe and novelist Edward Hower, a longtime ICOA board member, were featured speakers at “Writing to Create Change,” a reading and panel discussion that is part of Ithaca’s Spring Writes Festival. The event took place on Saturday, May 4, at the Tompkins County Public Library at 3:00 to 4:30 p.m.

Samarasinghe is active in an international community of journalists engaged in issues of democracy and human rights. In addition to writing fiction and editing for the new Ithaca publisher Cayuga Lake Books, Hower teaches in Cornell’s Prison Education program. The ICOA participants will be joined by radio host Jim Murphy and writer Jennifer Pacanowski, who are active in the Veteran’s Sanctuary. Common Councilman Seph Murtagh will moderate the discussion.

Spring Writes is presented by the Community Arts Partnership and is now in its fourth year.