Leslie Heyood, author of “Pretty Good for a Girl,” will appear for a discussion of "Sports, Gender and Poetry" at Coastal Carolina University on Wednesday, Oct. 19 at 4 p.m. in Wall Auditorium. The event is free and open to the public.

“Pretty Good for a Girl” is Heywood’s disturbing sports memoir about being a former Arizona high-school track and cross-country star who soars to first place in races but spirals downward in areas of life skills. She also wrote “Bodymakers: A Cultural Anatomy of Bodybuilding” and “Dedication to Hunger: The Anorexic Aesthetic in Modern Culture.” Heywood co-authored “Built to Win: The Female Athlete as Cultural Icon” and co-edited “Third Wave Agenda: Being Feminist, Doing Feminism.”

The reading is part of “The Words to Say It” series. Copies of her books will be available for sale and signing after the reading.