Shakespeare Saved My Life: Ten Years in Solitary With the Bard

Laura Bates

May 2015 · Tantor Media Inc · Narrated by Cassandra Campbell

About this audiobook

Shakespeare professor and prison volunteer Laura Bates thought she had seen it all. That is, until she decided to teach Shakespeare in a place the bard had never been before-supermax solitary confinement. In this unwelcoming place, surrounded by inmates known as the worst of the worst, is Larry Newton. A convicted murderer with several escape attempts under his belt and a brilliantly agile mind on his shoulders, Larry was trying to break out of prison at the same time Laura was fighting to get her program started behind bars. Thus begins the most unlikely of friendships, one bonded by Shakespeare and lasting years-a friendship that, in the end, would save more than one life.

About the author

Laura Bates is an English professor at Indiana State University, where she has taught courses on Shakespeare for the past 15 years to students on campus and in prison. Her work has been featured in national media, including MSNBC's Lock Up. Laura lives in Indiana.

Actress and director Cassandra Campbell has narrated nearly two hundred audiobooks and has received multiple Audie Awards and more than twenty AudioFile Earphones Awards, including for Orange Is the New Black by Piper Kerman.