Sharman Apt Russell, author of “An Obsession with Butterflies: Our Long Love Affair with a Singular Insect,” will give a free reading this week in Erie County.

Russell will be at Penn State Behrend in Harborcreek Township on Thursday, according to a news release from the school. An author’s reception will be held at 5:30 p.m., followed by her reading at 6 p.m. in the college’s Larry and Kathryn Smith Chapel.

A professor at Western New Mexico University, Russell has also written “Anatomy of a Rose: Exploring the Secret Life of Flowers” and “Standing in the Light: My Life as a Pantheist,” which was named one of Booklist’s top 10 religious books of 2008.

Her appearance is part of Behrend’s Creative Writers Reading Series. Call (814) 898-6108 to learn more.