The University of South Carolina’s Fall Literary Festival, now in its 18th season, brings three major authors to campus over the course of a few weeks every year. This fall authors Terrance Hayes (Oct. 26), Richard Michelson (Oct. 31.), and Lydia Millet (Nov. 9) visit campus.

Millet will read Thursday, November 9. A prolific novelist with a master’s degree in environmental policy, Millet is known for her dark sense of humor, her political bent, and her observations of modern climate and technological challenges. Her work ranges from the philosophical to the satirical, on subjects that include the discovery of mermaids in a coral reef, atom bomb inventors who time travel, and the crisis of climate change. Her first short story collection, Love in Infant Monkeys, centers on the interactions between celebrities and animals. It was one of three finalists for the 2010 Pulitzer Prize.

All readings are free, begin at 6 p.m. and are held in the Ernest F. Hollings Special Collections Library, which is entered through Thomas Cooper Library.

The festival is co-hosted by University Libraries and the Department of English, and sponsored by a generous anonymous donor, allowing each program to be free and open to the public.

Image: Ivory Orchid Photography