Vendor
	Mohrbooks Literary Agency Sebastian Ritscher
Original language
English
Categories
Memoirs

A LITTLE PIECE OF LIGHT

Kristine Gasbarre Donna Hylton

A Memoir of Hope, Prison, and a Life Unbound

Random Family meets Orange Is the New Black in A LITTLE PIECE OF LIGHT, the story of Donna Hylton, a woman who spent more than two decades in prison, enduring terrible conditions and brutality along the way, only to emerge in 2012 with two college degrees as a leading advocate for criminal justice reform.

Today, Donna Hylton is a groundbreaking advocate for criminal justice reform--she was a featured speaker at the 2017 Women's March on Washington, and she works hand-in-hand with other influential voices such as Eve Ensler, Michelle Alexander (The New Jim Crow), and Rosario Dawson to ensure prison safety and to end mass incarceration in the US. In fact, Dawson has signed on to play Hylton in a movie that's in development now.

But in 1986, Hylton experienced prison from the inside when she was sentenced to 25 years-to-life for kidnapping and second-degree murder. Like so many women before her and so many women yet to come, her life had been a nightmare of abuse that left her feeling alone and convinced of her worthlessness. With her sentencing, it seemed that Donna had reached the end--at age 19, due to her own mistakes and bad choices, her life was over.

But behind the bars of Bedford Hills Correctional Facility, alongside this generation's most infamous female criminals, Donna learned to fight and then, to thrive. For the first time in her life, she realized that she was not alone in the abuse and misogyny that she experienced; as she bonded with her new sisters, she discovered that her pain was not an anomaly, but a commonality among women from all walks of life.

It's a reality that she has since vowed to change. Since her release in 2012, Donna has emerged as a leading advocate for criminal justice reform and women's rights who speaks with politicians, violent abusers, prison officials, victims, and students to tell her story. But it's not her story alone, she is quick to say. She also represents the stories of thousands of women who are unable to speak for themselves because they've been silenced, imprisoned, or killed.

Donna Hylton is a women's rights activist, criminal justice reform advocate and accomplished public speaker. She helps women who have experienced traumatic events in to overcome their past traumas and transform their lives.
Kristine Gasbarre is a celebrity interviewer and a culture and lifestyle contributor to women's print and digital publications. A graduate of John Carroll University in Cleveland and Fordham University in New York City, she holds degrees in psychology and media studies, and she lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Available products
Book Published 2018-06-05 by Hachette
Book Published 2018-06-05 by Hachette

Comments

Donna has a remarkable capacity for turning pain into power. She's focused, determined, present, thoughtful, passionate, and tireless. She's an invaluable asset to us all.

Intimate and disturbing, the book reveals the ways women are silenced and victimized in society, and it also tells the inspiring story of how one woman survived a prison nightmare to go on to help other incarcerated women 'speak out about the violence in their lives.' A wrenching memoir of overcoming seemingly insurmountable abuse and finding fulfillment.

Gripping.... [A Little Piece of Light] is a meditation on redemption and learning to love and forgive.

Donna Hylton's painful yet liberating memoir will certainly be transformative for many who read her words. As a survivor of sexual abuse and violence--inside and outside prison--she tells the whole truth of her experience, including her deep regret for the moments that she's harmed others and her passionate commitment to co-creating a justice system that acknowledges the little piece of light that shines within us no matter who we are, what we've done, or what has been done to us.

I have witnessed Donna struggle with her difficult past, make tremendous gains in confronting and reconciling with her childhood abuse, take personal responsibility for her past actions, have deep remorse for the consequences of those actions, and commit herself to improving the lives of those around her.

Donna Hylton is a light warrior, an inspiration, a survivor, a profound storyteller, and an important teacher for our times.

The treatment of each unique child is the true measure of the state of the world. Donna Hylton was punished for being born female, black, and brilliant--yet she survived to create her own life. A Little Piece of Light will tell you just how fragile--and how indestructible--the human spirit can be.

Donna Hylton's A Little Piece of Light reveals her life journey in an exquisitely written memoir. Donna suffered so long before finding a place to belong. It brings into question how America criminalizes the trauma of poor women. This book is a real page-turner that has you sitting on the edge of your seat. . . . A must read.

I first met Donna Hylton at Riverside Church when she had just been released from prison after serving 27 years, and she is an unforgettable presence. In this riveting book Donna bravely and honestly does the difficult work of reconciling the harm she suffered and the harm she caused, and the reasons both are important. A Little Piece of Light is a gripping account of promises kept or broken, showing the incredible resilience and triumph of women in the face of neglect and violence. Donna Hylton's story is both wrenching and life-affirming, and essential reading to anyone who cares about women, safety and justice.