Author Tim Bascom will read from and discuss his latest book, “Chameleon Days,” at 7 p.m. on Thursday, March 2 in Jordan Lecture Hall.

Scheduled to be released by Houghton Mifflin Publishing in June, the book tells the story of Bascom as he was thrust into a world of eucalyptus trees and stampeding baboons at a young age when his family moved from the Midwest to Ethiopia. Unflinchingly observant, the young Bascom reveals his parents’ struggles in the sometimes-hostile country where his father was a doctor in mission hospitals. The book is the winner of the Bakeless Literary Prize for Nonfiction at the Breadloaf Writing Conference.

Bascom is a graduate of the University of Iowa and currently teaches at the Des Moines Area Community College Newton campus. He lives in Newton with his wife, an Episcopal priest, and their two sons.

The lecture is free and open to the public, held in Jordan Lecture Hall, which is located in the Carver Science Center. For more information, phone (515) 961-1600.