Award-winning author Jason Ockert will read his acclaimed short story, "Jakob Loomis," at Coastal Carolina University on Thursday, Nov. 29 at 4:30 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.

The reading will be in the Wall Auditorium of the E. Craig Wall, Sr. College of Business. It is part of the Words to Say It Visiting Writers Series, which is supported by the Department of English.

"Jakob Loomis" originally appeared in Oxford American in the spring of 2006 and is included in the 2007 anthologies "New Stories from the South" and "The Best American Mystery Stories."

Ockert, an assistant professor of English, teaches fiction writing at Coastal. His debut collection of stories, "Rabbit Punches," was published in April 2006. He was the 1999 winner of the Atlantic Monthly Fiction Contest and the 2002 winner of the Mary Roberts Rinehart National Fiction Award. His stories have appeared in Black Warrior Review, Indiana Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, Mid-American Review, McSweeney's, Oyster Boy Review and other literary journals.

Ockert will sign copies of his book during a reception after the reading. "Rabbit Punches" will be available for sale.

For more information, call Dan Albergotti, coordinator of the series, at 349-2420.