Events

Naseem Rakha, who as a reporter covered state run executions, discussess and signs her debut novel The Crying Tree (Broadway, $22.95), which has been praised as this year's Lovely Bonesand won the 2010 Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Book Award.

Rakha tells a story of a mother who must overcome the hate, grief, and secrets that surround the murder of her 15 year old son, and defy church and family as she attempts to stop the execution of the man who killed her boy.  Naseem explores the death penalty and forgiveness with her audience through the lens of our justice system, her experiences as a reporter for public radio, as well as subsequent interviews with crime victims, inmates, corrections officials and exonerated death row prisoners.  

Rakha is an award winning broadcast journalist who is intrigued by the capacity to forgive the unforgiveable - a quality she has witnessed in her work as a teacher and consultant for Native American tribes, as a mediator in the clean up of the nuclear site that created the Nagasaki bomb, and as a reporter covering state run executions.  Prior to journalism Naseem taught Holistic Resource Management to farmers, ranchers and tribes throughout the US and Canada.  Her stories have been heard on NPR's All Things Considered, Morning Edition, Marketplace Radio, Christian Science Monitor, and Living on Earth.