Additional information
by Lara Naughton (Author)
What happens when one harrowing incident changes your life, splitting it between before and after?
On the fourth day of what Lara Naughton thought would be two weeks of bliss in Belize, she was kidnapped and assaulted by a man pretending to be a cabdriver. Held in the depths of the tropical forest--alone with the jaguar man--she found that compassion was her only defense.
Lara's survival and journey of healing is poignant, compelling, and exceptional. Bending the limits of reality, she uses myth to process her experience. As Lara seeks a new understanding of herself, her lyrical, haunting prose reveals a belief that there is room for compassion--for self and and others--even in the midst of violence.
Lara Naughton is an author and documentary playwright. Her work includes Never Fight a Shark in the Water: The Wrongful Conviction of Gregory Bright. She is a certified Compassion Cultivation Trainer through The Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education (CCARE) at Stanford University School of Medicine. She lives and teaches in New Orleans.
Author Biography
Lara Naughton: Lara Naughton is a New Orleans-based writer and teacher. She currently leads writing workshops with inmates in New Orleans's Parish Prison and is Chair of the Creative Writing Department at New Orleans Center for Creative Arts.
Naughton received a BA in literature from the University of Notre Dame and a MPW in writing from the University of Southern California. She has published poetry and nonfiction and was the recipient of the Alice Judson Hayes Fellowship in 2012 for work that addresses social justice and the Surdna Arts Teacher Fellowship in 2009 for her work as a teacher. As a documentary playwright, she has created work with groups such as AIDS Project Los Angeles, the Program for Torture Victims, and Resurrection After Exoneration. Her play, Never Fight a Shark in Water, toured the United States. As a certified Compassion Cultivation Training (CCT) through The Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education at Stanford University's School of Medicine, Naughton serves as the Director of CompassionNOLA and teaches workshops and trainings on mindfulness and compassion.
