A Sliver of Light

Shane Bauer won the New York Public Library’s Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism for his book American Prison. He is a senior reporter for Mother Jones and a recipient of the National Magazine Award for Best Reporting. His writing has appeared in the Nation, Salon, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, and the Christian Science Monitor. He has received the Hillman Prize for Magazine Journalism, the John Jay Award for Criminal Justice Reporting, and the Media for a Just Society Award. He is the co-author of a memoir, A Sliver of Light, which details his time spent as a prisoner in Iran.

Josh Fattal, a graduate of Berkeley’s program in environmental economics and policy, is an activist and organizer focused on sustainable development. He has spoken at universities, human rights conferences, and private events to describe the experience of imprisonment in Iran.

Sarah Shourd is a writer, educator, and contributing editor at Solitary Watch currently based in Oakland, California. Sarah has done international human rights work with the Zapatista indigenous movement in Chiapas, Mexico; organized with women’s groups against unsolved murders of sweatshop workers in Juarez, Mexico; and taught for the Iraqi Student Project while living in Damascus, Syria. After her wrongful imprisonment in Iran, Sarah has become an advocate for prisoners’ rights, focusing her writing, speaking, and theater projects on the widespread use of prolonged solitary confinement in US prisons and jails. She has written for the New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, CNN, and Newsweek/Daily Beast, and contributes a blog to Huffington Post.

Michael Goldstrom is a Juilliard-trained actor and comedian. He has appeared on Comedy Central, HBO, A&E, NBC, and ABC, as well as on and off Broadway. His audiobook narrations have earned several Earphones Awards.

Julia Whelan is a novelist, screenwriter, lifelong actor, and multiple award-winning audiobook narrator. She graduated with a degree in English and creative writing from Middlebury College and Oxford University. She is a former child actor who has appeared in multiple films and television shows.

Tristan Morris is an Earphones Award–winning narrator. He received an MFA in acting from the New School for Drama in New York City after studying theater and philosophy at Pacific Lutheran University. His work as a voice actor began in 2011 after training with master teachers Scott Brick, Pat Fraley, and Nancy Wolfson. He works in New York City and Denver creating new theatrical works.