Book Launch – Lisa Moore and Jack Whalen: Invisible Prisons

Library and Archives Canada and the Ottawa International Writers Festival invite you to an evening of riveting nonfiction as we welcome multi-award-winning author Lisa Moore back to the Festival stage with Invisible Prisons: Jack Whalen’s Tireless Fight for Justice. It tells the shocking true story of a teenaged boy who endured abuse and solitary confinement at a reform school in Newfoundland but survived through grit and redemptive love.

Book description

Invisible Prisons is an extraordinary, empathetic collaboration between the magnificent writer Lisa Moore, best known for her award-winning fiction, and a man named Jack Whalen, who as a child was held for four years at a reform school for boys in St. John’s, where he suffered jaw-dropping abuses and deprivations. Despite the odds stacked against him, he found love on the other side and managed to turn his life around as a husband and father. His daughter, Brittany, vowed at a young age to become a lawyer so that she could seek justice for him. Today, that is exactly what she is doing—and Jack’s case is part of a lawsuit currently before the courts.

As much as it is about an abusive system preying on children, it is also a tender tale of love between Jack and his wife Glennis, who saw the good man inside a damaged person and believed in him.

Don’t miss this opportunity to hear Lisa Moore and Jack Whalen in conversation with host Sara Power.

Event details

Date

Tuesday, October 8, 2024

Time

7 p.m. (ET)

Event admission

Free admission, registration is required

Event location

Library and Archives Canada, Alfred Pellan Room

Event address

395, rue Wellington, Ottawa (Ontario)

Seating is limited so please register.