The Jack Ridl Visiting Writers Series of Hope College will feature fiction and non-fiction writer David Shields on Thursday, Nov. 11, at 7 p.m. at the Knickerbocker Theatre in downtown Holland.

The public is invited. Admission is free.

Shields's latest book, "Reality Hunger: A Manifesto," was published by Knopf in February. His previous book, "The Thing About Life Is That One Day You'll Be Dead," (Knopf, 2008), was a "New York Times" bestseller. He is the author of eight other books, including "Black Planet: Facing Race during an NBA Season," a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award; "Remote: Reflections on Life in the Shadow of Celebrity," winner of the PEN/Revson Award; and "Dead Languages: A Novel," winner of the PEN Syndicated Fiction Award.  His work has been translated into a dozen languages.

His essays and stories have appeared in the "New York Times Magazine," "Harper's," "Yale Review," "Village Voice," "Salon," "Slate," "McSweeney's" and "Utne Reader."  He's written reviews for the "New York Times Book Review," "Los Angeles Times Book Review," "Boston Globe" and "Philadelphia Inquirer."

Shields has received a Guggenheim fellowship, two NEA fellowships, an Ingram Merrill Foundation Award, a Ludwig Vogelstein Foundation grant, and a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship. He lives with his wife and daughter in Seattle, where he is a professor in the English department at the University of Washington. Since 1996 he has also been a member of the faculty in Warren Wilson College's low-residency MFA Program for Writers, in Asheville, N.C.

Additional information about the Jack Ridl Visiting Writers Series may be obtained online by going to www.hope.edu/vws.

A performance by a Hope jazz group will precede the reading beginning at 6:30 p.m.  The Knickerbocker Theatre is located at 86 E. Eighth St.