Critically acclaimed fiction author Brock Clarke will give a reading of his work for Coastal Carolina University's "The Words to Say It Visiting Writers Series" at 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 8, in Room 249 of the Thomas W. and Robin W. Edwards College of Humanities and Fine Arts. A reception and book signing will follow the reading. This event is free and open to the public.

Clarke is the author of five books of fiction, most recently the novels "Exley" and "An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England." His books have been reprinted in a dozen international editions, and he has been awarded the Mary McCarthy Prize for Fiction, the Prairie Schooner Book Series Prize, a National Endowment for Arts Fellowship and an Ohio Council for the Arts Fellowship.

Clarke's individual stories and essays have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Boston Globe, Virginia Quarterly Review, One Story, The Believer, Georgia Review, New England Review and Southern Review. He has also appeared in the annual Pushcart Prize and "New Stories from the South" anthologies. His sixth book, the novel "The Happiest People in the World," will be published in September 2014. He lives in Portland, Maine, and teaches creative writing at Bowdoin College.

The Edwards College of Humanities and Fine Arts is located at 133 Chanticleer Drive W. in Conway.

For more information on this event, contact Joe Oestreich at 843-349-2433 or joeo@coastal.edu.