Professors Dan Albergotti, Jason Ockert and Joe Oestreich will present a faculty showcase fundraiser-reading at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, April 27 in Coastal Carolina University’s Wall Auditorium. The showcase, which will raise money for The Words to Say It Visiting Writers Series, is open to the public; donations are suggested.

A reception and book signing will follow the reading where books will be available for purchase. Proceeds from book sales will also directly support the series.

Albergotti, assistant professor of English and coordinator of creative writing, joined the University in 2005. He earned a bachelor's and a master's degree in English from Clemson University and a doctorate in English from the University of South Carolina. His book, "The Boatloads" won the 2007 A. Poulin Jr. Poetry Prize and was published in March 2008. Albergotti's poems have appeared in the Cincinnati Review, Mid-American Review, Shenandoah, The Southern Review, The Virginia Quarterly Review and other journals. He is also editor of the online literary journal Waccamaw.

Ockert, an assistant professor of English, teaches fiction writing at the University. His debut collection of stories, "Rabbit Punches," was published in April 2006. He was the 1999 winner of the Atlantic Monthly Fiction Contest and the 2002 winner of the Mary Roberts Rinehart National Fiction Award. His stories have appeared in Black Warrior Review, Indiana Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, Mid-American Review, McSweeney's, Oyster Boy Review and other literary journals.

A creative nonfiction specialist, Oestreich’s essays have appeared in Esquire, Sports Illustrated, Ninth Letter, Fourth Genre and many other magazines and journals. He has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, noted in "The Best American Non-required Reading" and honored in The Atlantic Monthly. He teaches creative writing at the University.

For more information, call Dan Albergotti, coordinator of the series, at 843-349-2420.