Award-winning author Jill McCorkle will give a reading from her works on Thursday, March 6 at 4:30 p.m. in the Wall Auditorium at Coastal Carolina University. The event is free and open to the public.

McCorkle will sign her books during a reception after the reading. Her most recent books will be available for sale following the presentation.

The reading is part of the Words to Say It Visiting Writers Series, which is supported in part by CCU's Department of English and by the Nancy Arthur Smith Distinguished Visitors in Residence Series, which is bringing McCorkle to campus for an extended stay from March 5-7.

McCorkle is the author of eight works of fiction, including her most recent book, "Creatures of Habit," a collection of 12 short stories set in a fictional town in North Carolina. The light-hearted but penetrating tales depict the relationship between humans and the so-called lesser species; each story is named for a different animal.

McCorkle earned a bachelor's degree with highest honors from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a master's degree from Hollins College. She was first published in 1984 at the age of 26. McCorkle has received numerous awards, including the Jesse Render Prize and the Andrew James Purdy Prize.

She lives in Chapel Hill and teaches in the MFA creative writing program at NC State.

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