Peterkin and William P. Baldwin will give a public reading from their new book Heaven Is a Beautiful Place: A Memoir of the South Carolina Coast on Tuesday, May 9 at 4 p.m. in the Wall Auditorium on the Coastal Carolina University campus. The reading will be followed by an autograph session and reception at 5 p.m. The event, sponsored by the Waccamaw Center for Cultural and Historical Studies, is free and open to the public.

Published this month by the University of South Carolina Press, local historian Genevieve "Sister" Peterkin's memoir includes vivid reminiscences about people she has known and events she has witnessed as a lifelong resident of Murrells Inlet, S.C. Edited by noted South Carolina author William P. Baldwin, the book offers personal, revealing portraits of Peterkin's mother, folklorist Genevieve Willcox Chandler; her mother-in-law, novelist Julia Peterkin; famous Grand Strand ghosts such as Alice Flagg and the Gray Man; as well as chapters on Brookgreen Gardens and the great storms and hurricanes of the past.

For more information, contact Coastal's Office of Marketing Communications at 349-2015.