By AMY JONES / Associate Editor

HOOVER — One of the South’s best-known authors will make an appearance in Hoover soon.

Daniel Wallace, best known for “Big Fish,” will lead a free workshop for local writers at 3 p.m. on Feb. 7 at the Shelby-Hoover Campus of Jefferson State Community College. At 7 p.m. that same day, he will give a reading from his works in the multipurpose room on the Shelby-Hoover Campus.

Jeff State English professor Sharon Devaney-Lovinguth said Wallace is coming as part of the college’s Red Mountain Reading series.

“He’s just an incredible writer. He’s done a lot here in the state of Alabama,” Devaney-Lovinguth said. “He’s just special. He’s not like every writer. Being from Birmingham, he talks about our home.”

Wallace is a talented, entertaining speaker, Devaney-Lovinguth said.

She said the Alabama Humanities Foundation provided a grant of $1,250 to help pay for Wallace’s travel costs. Jeff State also provided $1,250 in addition to the Alabama Humanities Foundation grant.

In addition to “Big Fish,” Wallace has written three other novels, including “Ray in Reverse,” “The Watermelon King” and “Mr. Sebastian and the Negro Magician.” He has also written a children’s book, “Elynora.”

On March 9, the Shelby-Hoover Campus will host Ralph Voss, a retired University of Alabama English professor who wrote “Truman Capote and the Legacy of ‘In Cold Blood.’”

For more information on Wallace’s appearance or on the Red Mountain Reading series, contact Devaney-Lovinguth at 807-7627 or at lovinguth@jeffstateonline.com.