UPDATE, 5-5-19: DATE AND PLACE CHANGED DUE TO CONSTRUCTION OVER-RUN AT TSUNAMI BOOKS. Apologies for the inconvenience.
Thursday, May 9, 6-8 PM, Eugene Public Library (Downtown), Bascom-Tykeson Room : National Book Release Celebration for Lauren Kessler, author of the new book, “A Grip of Time: When Prison Is Your Life.”
“A beautiful, tender-hearted story...keenly observed and deeply felt... This book, so original and so compelling, took hold of me, and wouldn’t let me go.” –Alex Kotlowitz, award-winning author of An American Summer and There Are No Children Here
A Grip of Time (prison slang for a very long sentence behind bars) takes readers into a maximum-security prison, and into the minds and hearts of the men who live there. These men, who are serving out life sentences for aggravated murder, join a fledgling Lifers' Writing Group started by award-winning author Lauren Kessler. Over the course of three years, meeting twice a month, the men reveal more and more about themselves, their pasts, and the alternating drama and tedium of their incarcerated lives. As they struggle with the weight of their guilt, Kessler struggles with the fiercely competing ideas of rehabilitation and punishment, forgiveness and blame that are at the heart of the American penal system. Gripping and heartfelt, A Grip of Time: When Prison Is Your Life shows what a lifetime with no hope of release looks like up-close.
Booksigning to follow. (free)