The Jack Ridl Visiting Writers Series of Hope College will feature memoirist Melissa Delbridge on Thursday, Feb. 4, at 7 p.m. at the Knickerbocker Theatre in downtown Holland.

The public is invited. Admission is free.

Delbridge won the Great Lakes Colleges Association New Writers Award for "Family Bible," her critically acclaimed memoir of growing up along the banks of the Black Warrior River in Tuscaloosa, Ala. In a starred review, "Booklist" called the memoir "as much a cultural history of the South as a history of [Delbridge's] own life" and said, "Fans of Carson McCullers won't want to miss this one--witty, tragic, and relentlessly wise."

Delbridge lives with her family in Orange County, N.C., and works as an archivist in the Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library at Duke University.

A live performance by the Hope College Jazz Ensemble will precede the reading beginning at 6:30 p.m.

Additional information may be obtained online by visiting www.hope.edu/vws.

The Knickerbocker Theatre is located at 86 East 8th Street.