Posted: July 25, 2012

Hampshire College invites the public to a talk by author Jeff Sharlet on Friday, August 31, at 7:30 p.m. in the Robert Crown Center.

The event will include the author’s talk, a question-and-answer session, and a book signing. Doors open at 7:15 p.m. and admission is free.

Sharlet, a graduate of Hampshire College, is the author of Sweet Heaven When I Die: Faith, Faithlessness, and the Country In Between. The book has been chosen as the common reading for fall 2012 new students.

New students are reading the book this summer, and discussions about it will be part of orientation. Sharlet’s book was chosen from dozens of nominations submitted by the campus community.

Sharlet teaches creative nonfiction at Dartmouth College. His previous books include the bestsellers The Family and C Street, which received the Molly Ivins Prize. Sharlet is a contributing editor to Rolling Stone and Harper’s.

Publisher W.W. Norton & Co. says of Sweet Heaven When I Die: “No one explores the borderlands of belief and skepticism quite like Jeff Sharlet. … From Dr. Cornel West to legendary banjo player Dock Boggs, from the youth evangelist Ron Luce to America's largest ‘Mind, Body, Spirit Expo,’ Sharlet profiles religious radicals, realists, and escapists.”

For more information, please email studentlife@hampshire.edu or phone 413.559.5412.