Authors/Editors For April 1, 2017 (Saturday) at 2:00 PM
Laura Caldwell
Biography
Laura Caldwell is a former civil trial attorney who is now a law professor at Loyola University Chicago School of Law. She is also director of Life After Innocence and a published author of 14 novels and one nonfiction book.
Before beginning her writing career, Laura was a partner in a Chicago law firm, specializing in medical malpractice defense and entertainment law. In 2001 she joined Loyola University Chicago School of Law and has taught Advanced Litigation Writing and International Criminal Law, among others.
Laura began her writing career in women’s fiction and soon turned to mystery/thriller. Her first book, Burning the Map, was voted as one of the best books of the year by Barnes and Noble.com. Booklist declared “Caldwell is one of the most talented and inventive … writers around,” after the release of The Year of Living Famously and The Night I Got Lucky. The release of her trilogy in 2009 received critical acclaim and nominations for prestigious industry awards.
While researching her sixth novel, The Rome Affair, Laura was led to the criminal case of a young man who was coerced into confessing to a crime he didn’t commit. Charged with murder, he sat in a Cook County holding cell for nearly six years with no trial date. After hearing about his case, Laura joined a renowned criminal defense attorney to defend him, ultimately proving his innocence and inspiring her first nonfiction book, Long Way Home: A Young Man Lost in the System and the Two Women Who Found Him (Free Press, Simon & Schuster).
She is published in over 25 countries and her books have been translated into more than 13 languages. Laura is also a freelance magazine writer and has been published in Chicago Magazine, Woman’s Own, The Young Lawyer, Lake Magazine, Australia Woman’s Weekly, Shore Magazine and others.
Inspired by her court victory and the challenges her client faced in rejoining society, Laura founded Loyola’s Life After Innocence, which assists wrongfully convicted individuals and other innocent persons affected by the criminal justice system in order to help them re-enter society and reclaim their lives.
Leslie S. Klinger
Biography
Leslie S. Klinger is considered to be one of the world’s foremost authorities on Sherlock Holmes, Dracula, H. P. Lovecraft, and 19th-century genre fiction. Les is a long-time member of the Baker Street Irregulars, and served as the Series Editor for the Manuscript Series of The Baker Street Irregulars; he is currently the Series Editor for the BSI’s History Series. He served three terms as Chapter President of the SoCal Chapter of the Mystery Writers of America and on its National Board. He is also the Treasurer of the Horror Writers Association. He lectures frequently on Holmes, Dracula, Lovecraft, and their worlds, including frequent panels at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, Bouchercon, StokerCon, World Horror Convention, World Fantasy Convention, VampireCon, Comicpalooza, WonderCon, and San Diego Comic-Con, and he frequently teaches courses on Holmes and Dracula at UCLA Extension.
Les' work has received numerous awards and nominations, including the Edgar® for Best Critical-Biographical Book in 2005 for The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Short Stories and the Anthony for Best Anthology in 2015 for In the Company of Sherlock Holmes (co-edited with Laurie R. King) and two nominations for the Bram Stoker Award® for Best Nonfiction book. His introductions and essays have appeared in numerous books, graphic novels, academic journals, newspapers, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and Playboy Magazine; he also reviews books for the Los Angeles Times. He was the technical advisor for Warner Bros. on the film Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011) and served (without credit) in that role for Warner Bros.’ earlier hit Sherlock Holmes (2009). He has consulted on a number of novels, comic books, and graphic novels featuring Holmes and Dracula.
Les attended the University of California where he received an A.B. in English; he also attended the University of California School of Law (Boalt Hall), where he obtained a J.D. degree. He and his wife Sharon have five adult children, six grandchildren, and live in Malibu with their dog and two cats. By day, Les practices law in Westwood, specializing in tax, estate planning, and business law.
Title: Anatomy of Innocence: Testimonies of the Wrongfully Convicted.
Description
Wrongful convictions, long regarded as statistical anomalies in an otherwise sound justice system, now appear with frightening regularity. But few people understand just how or why they happen and, more important, the immeasurable consequences that often haunt the lucky few who are acquitted, years after they are proven innocent.
Now, in this groundbreaking anthology, fourteen exonerated inmates narrate their stories to a roster of high-profile mystery and thriller writers--including Lee Child, Sara Paretsky, Laurie R. King, Jan Burke and S. J. Rozan--while another exoneree's case is explored in a previously unpublished essay by legendary playwright Arthur Miller. An astonishing and unique collaboration, these testimonies bear witness to the incredible stories of innocent men and women who were convicted of serious crimes and cast into the maw of a vast and deeply flawed American criminal justice system before eventually, and miraculously, being exonerated.
Introduced by best-selling authors Scott Turow and Barry Scheck, these master storytellers capture the tragedy of wrongful convictions as never before and challenge readers to confront the limitations and harsh realities of the American criminal justice system. Lee Child tells of Kirk Bloodsworth, who obsessively read about the burgeoning field of DNA testing, cautiously hoping that it held the key to his acquittal--until he eventually became the first person to be exonerated from death row based on DNA evidence. Judge John Sheldon and author Gayle Lynds team up to share Audrey Edmunds's experience raising her children long distance from her prison cell. And exoneree Gloria Killian recounts to S. J. Rozan her journey from that fateful "knock on the door" and the initial shock of accusation to the scars she carries today.
Together, the powerful stories collected within the Anatomy of Innocence detail every aspect of the experience of wrongful conviction, as well as the remarkable depths of endurance sustained by each exoneree who never lost hope.
