Please join the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance, Milestone Recovery, and PRINT: A Bookstore at Congress Square Park for a conversation with award-winning nonfiction writer Patrick Radden Keefe about his latest book, Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty. Keefe will be joined in conversation by award-winning journalist, science writer, and Portland resident Kathryn Miles.
In writing about the best books so far in 2021, Time Magazine describes Empire of Pain this way: “An engrossing and deeply reported book about the Sackler family, the owners of Purdue Pharma. Their company created Oxycontin, the opioid introduced in the mid-90s that sent a wave of addiction and death across the country. Unlike previous books on the epidemic, Empire of Pain is focused on the wildly rich, ambitious and cutthroat family that built its empire first on medical advertising and later on painkillers. In [Keefe’s] hands, their story becomes a great American morality tale about unvarnished greed dressed in ostentatious philanthropy.” PRINT: A Bookstore will be selling copies of Empire of Pain at the event or you can order a copy here.
This event is free and in person.
Patrick Radden Keefe is a staff writer at The New Yorker magazine and author of the New York Times bestsellers Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty and Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland. His work has been recognized with the National Book Critics Award for Nonfiction, the National Magazine Award for Feature Writing, and the Orwell Prize for Political Writing. A Boston native, he now lives in New York, and is also the creator and host of the 8-part podcast "Wind of Change."
Kathryn Miles is an award-winning journalist and science writer. The long-time editor of Hawk & Handsaw, Miles served as professor of writing at Unity College from 2001-2015 and has since taught in several graduate schools and low residency-MFA programs including, most recently, at Green Mountain College, where she was also writer-in-residence. Miles is the author of four books: Adventures with Ari, All Standing, Superstorm, and Quakeland: On the Road to America's Next Devastating Earthquake. Her essays and articles have appeared in publications including Audubon, Best American Essays, The Boston Globe, Down East, Ecotone, History, The New York Times, Outside, Pacific Standard, Politico, Popular Mechanics, and Time. She currently serves as a scholar-in-residence for the Maine Humanities Council, as an advisor in Chatham University’s low-residency MFA program, and as a private consultant available for emerging and established writers.