Off the Page Event: Steven Hale / Literary Magazine Launch 11/ 21 @ 7pm

 

The next Off the Page Reading Series event, which is both a celebration of the latest issue of Don't Shake the Spoon, a literary magazine of writing by folks incarcerated in South Florida prisons and a reading by Nashville journalist, Steven Hale, the author of Death Row Welcomes You: Visiting Hours in the Shadow of the Execution Chamber. 

The New York Times called Hale's book "…an eye-opening journey to a place that’s hard to access, rarely seen and shrouded by myths and abominations" and Publishers Weekly called it a "beautiful and spiritually uplifting account [that] finds hope in a dark place."

In his capacity as a journalist, Hale witnessed three executions by thestate of Tennessee (which executed seven men in a two year period). This led to Hale joining a group that made weekly visits into death row to spend time with the men imprisoned there. His book interweaves thestories of these men, including acknowledging the worst of their crimes, with the story of these visits.

A moving excerpt from the book, of death row prisoner Terry Lynn King's letters, can be found in Harper's and samples of Steven Hale's journalism can be found on his website.

The reading will take place Thursday November 21, at 7:00 p.m. in Grand Palm Room 3 in the Student Union.

A selection of work from Don't Shake the Spoon will also be read.

And refreshments will be provided.