Brad Land, the young South Carolina writer whose provocative memoir Goat climbed national best-selling lists last year, will be featured at a reading on Thursday, Feb. 17 at Coastal Carolina University.

Lands reading at 3 p.m. in the Wall Auditorium will be part of The Words To Say It: A Visiting Writers Series offered during Coastals two-day Celebration of Inquiry, a campus-wide offering of continuous lectures, programs, events, exhibits, plays and concerts open to the public for free.

The Conway residents first book, Goat: A Memoir, has provoked wide discussion about its portrayal of fraternity hazing at Clemson University. But Lands memoir touches on broader issues the random violence that initiates the memoir, his loving but competitive relationship with his older brother, and ultimately the question of how to negotiate between his individual identity and the social expectations attached to masculinity. Land resided in Florence when he wrote the book.

Publishers Weekly had this to say about the book: With a uniquely hip narrative style, gritty with plenty of heart, Land recounts what its like to pledge a fraternity in order to gain his peers respect and admiration. Lands tough yet tender book speaks to the fears and isolation of young alienated adults with compelling power, candor and compassion.

Land will read from Goat and answer questions.

Other writers who will be appearing in the series at Coastal include creative nonfiction writer Susan Neville on March 3; writing coach Rosemary Daniell (Fatal Flowers: On Sin, Sex and Suicide in the Deep South) on March 23, and Conway native Sheri Reynolds (Rapture of Canaan) on April 7.

For more information, contact Lisa Johnson in the Department of English at 349-2967.