Dubois/Jasper libraries to host author Laura Bates  

Laura Bates will speak at Northeast Dubois Middle School Multipurpose Room and the Jasper Public Library Theater on April 23rd.

For more than twenty-five years Laura taught throughout the state and federal prison system. She created the world’s first Shakespeare program in supermax—the long-term solitary confinement unit. Laura chronicled these prison experiences in “Shakespeare Saved My Life: Ten Years in Solitary with the Bard” (Sourcebooks, 2013). The book received positive reviews as well as national and international recognition, from Kirkus and Publishers Weekly to National Geographic and the Huffington Post. It was selected as the 2015 global Big Library Read and read by more than 100,000 readers in 12 countries.

Her interactive multimedia presentations introduce audiences to both Shakespeare and prison in new and thought-provoking ways. She has been called “highly engaging” and “inspirational.”

The conversation with the Eugene & Marilyn Glick Indiana Authors Award honoree is part of the Novel Conversations Speakers Program, sponsored by Indiana Humanities with support from The Glick Fund, a fund of the Central Indiana Community Foundation.

Laura Bates is a professor of English at Indiana State University, where she teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on Shakespeare and world literature.

“We are excited to offer this presentation to our two communities, not only to introduce them to this Indiana author, but as a way of introducing them to the ways that literature can change lives,” Anita Murphy, Branch Manager of the Dubois Branch library stated.

EVENT TITLE:  Shakespeare Saved My Life

When: April 23, 2018

Where: Dubois Middle School Multipurpose Room at 1:30 p.m. and Jasper Public Library Annex at 6:30 p.m.

Cost: Free and open to the public