Michael Martone, author of more than a dozen fiction and nonfiction books and professor at the Program in Creative Writing at the University of Alabama, will give a reading on Thursday, Sept. 22, at 5:30 p.m. in the James J. Johnson Auditorium at Coastal Carolina University. This event is part of the "Words to Say It" series and is free and open to the public. A reception and book signing will follow the reading.

Born in Fort Wayne, Ind., Martone attended Butler University and graduated from Indiana University; he holds a master's degree from the Writing Seminars of The Johns Hopkins University and has taught at Iowa State University, Harvard University and Syracuse University. He has won two NEA fellowships and the Mark Twain Award for the Advancement of Midwestern Literature, and his stories and essays have appeared and been cited in the Pushcart Prize, "The Best American Stories" and "The Best American Essays" anthologies.

In his works, Martone blurs the lines of fiction and nonfiction and is frequently dubbed a "trickster." His self-titled work, "Michael Martone: Fiction," comprises 50 contributors' notes, many of which were previously published in literary magazines and include anecdotes of his own death and stints as a circus performer, assembly-line worker and movie extra.

"My fiction isn't work," Martone said in an interview with Matthew Baker, published in the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Devil's Lake, a literary journal. "My fiction is me at play."

Jessica Richardson, CCU assistant professor of English and a former student of Martone's, said, "He's a true literary trickster, challenging forms and reinventing the framework we use to think about them. His biggest accomplishment may lie in how he bends the frame of our expectations, places pictures inside that we don't expect, and so they light our eyes up with wonder again. At CCU, and in any university environment where we are working so hard and so much, someone who can stimulate not only our intellect but also our sense of wonder is a welcome force."

"Words to Say It" is a series sponsored by CCU's Department of English that brings noteworthy, contemporary writers to campus to read and discuss some of their works. For more information, call Jason Ockert at jockert@coastal.edu or call 843-349-2531.

The 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.