West Virginia University will host a free public reading by award-winning short fiction writer Lee K. Abbott at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 15, in the Robinson Reading Room of the Wise Library.

The reading on the Downtown Campus is sponsored by the WVU Department of English and the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences.

A reception and book signing will follow.

Abbott is the author of six collections of short fiction, includingWet Places at Noon,the St. Lawrence Award-winningThe Heart Never Fits Its Wantingand the highly-praisedLove Is the Crooked Thing.

His stories have appeared in numerous journals such as The Atlantic, The Georgia Review and Story Quarterly. His work has also been published in The Best American Short Stories.

Abbotts collection, entitledStrangers in Paradise,includes his O. Henry Award-winning storyLiving Alone in Iota,the Pushcart Prize-winningX,as well asTime and Fear and Somehow Love,which was selected for Volume III of The Editor’s Choice.

Abbott received two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, and recently one of his works,Living After Midnight,was performed as a play in Los Angeles.

The author received his bachelors and masters degrees from New Mexico State University, studied at Columbia University and earned a Masters of Fine Arts from the University of Arkansas in 1977.

He has taught creative writing at Case Western Reserve University, Colorado College, Washington University and Rice University.

He currently lives in Columbus, Ohio and directs the Creative Writing program at The Ohio State University.

For more information, contact Marsha Bissett, WVU Department of English, at 304-293-3107, ext. 33404 or marsha.bissett@mail.wvu.edu .