DECEMBER 2011


Sharlet Reads Sweet Heaven


Best-selling author Jeff Sharlet visits Shep- herdstown December 15 to read from his latest book, Sweet Heaven When I Die: Faith, Faithlessness, and the Country In Between, a collection of 13 es- says exploring contemporary America through faith and doubt. The event, sponsored by Four Seasons Books and CraftWorks at Cool Spring, takes place in the Robert C. Byrd Auditorium on the Shepherd University campus at 6:30pm; there is no admission charge. After the readings, Sharlet will field audience questions about this and his other books. Writing in the tradition of William Least Heat


Moon and John McPhee, in Sweet Heaven Shar- let’s travels reveal people in place and time. The stories are at once humorous and sad, while the characters from all corners lead lives both fulfill- ing and desperate. Sharlet is a contributing editor to Harpers and


Rolling Stone magazines, and teaches creative writing at Dartmouth College. He has been writ- ing about the connections between religion, poli- tics, and culture for over a decade, and has been a commentator on religion and politics for MSNBC, CNN, HBO, NPR, the New York Times, and Comedy Central’s Daily Show. He is cofounder of the online literary maga-


zine KillingtheBuddha.com and recently created OccupyWriters.com, on which hundreds of writ- ers have signed their names in support of the Oc- cupy Wall Street movement. You can hear Shar- let reading from Sweet Heaven When I Die at www. hampshire.edu/news/Author-Jeff-Sharlet-Nov-8 -Sweet-Heaven-When-I-Die.htm. Sharlet’s best known work is The Family, a


look at the story of Christian fundamentalism’s most elite organization, a self-described “invis- ible” network dedicated to a distortion of Chris- tianity they call “Jesus plus nothing”— a religion of power for the powerful. Headquartered in Arlington, Va., members of


the Family consider themselves the “new cho- sen,” congressmen, generals, and foreign dicta- tors who meet in confidential cells, to pray and plan for a “leadership led by God.” Sharlet is the only journalist to have written from inside its walls.


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Happy Holidays from The Observer!


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