Jessica Lee Richardson, visiting English professor at Coastal Carolina University, will read from her book of short stories, "It Had Been Planned and There Were Guides," on Wednesday, Feb. 10, at 6 p.m. in the James J. Johnson Auditorium. The reading is part of the "Words to Say It" series, and it is free and open to the public.

Originally from New Jersey, Richardson earned her MFA in fiction from the University of Alabama in 2013. She lived in Brooklyn for a few years performing Off-Broadway before earning her degree. "It Had Been Planned and There Were Guides" won the 2014 Ronald Sukenick Innovative Fiction Prize. Other works of hers have been awarded by the National Society of Arts and Letters and the F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald Museum.

Richardson's book is full of spunk and magic -- families of spiders, monsters in triplicate, lovelorn factory workers and art world auctioneers. These stories explore the absurd and the real in creative and original ways.

"Words to Say It" is a series sponsored by the Department of English that brings noteworthy, contemporary writers to campus to read and discuss some of their works.

Johnson Auditorium is in Room 116 of the E. Craig Wall Sr. College of Business Administration Building, located at 119 Chanticleer Drive E. on the Conway campus.

For more information, contact Hastings Hensel, coordinator of the "Words to Say It" series, at whensel@coastal.edu or call 843-349-2917.