Lara Love Hardin wins Christopher Award for “Sun Does Shine”

Lara Love Hardin, Santa Cruz, will receive a Christopher Award for Sun Does Shine: How I Found
Life and Freedom on Death Row, (St. Martin’s Press), co-written by Anthony Ray Hinton. It is one of 11 books for adults and young people to be honored on May 23rd at the 70th annual
Christopher Awards in New York. The Christophers will also recognize creators of 9 feature films and TV/Cable programs.

With a foreword by civil rights attorney Bryan Stevenson who helped win Hinton’s release, The Sun Does Shine is an extraordinary testament to the power of hope sustained through the darkest times. Destined to be a classic memoir of wrongful imprisonment and freedom won, Hinton’s memoir tells his dramatic 30-year journey and shows how you can take away a man’s
freedom, but you can’t take away his imagination, humor, or joy. Released in April 2015, Hinton now speaks widely on prison reform and the power of faith and forgiveness.

Hardin is the COO, Editorial Director, and Senior Collaborative Writer for Idea Architects. She holds an MFA in creative writing from UC Irvine and is a New York Times bestselling writer. The
published fiction writer is a radio talk show host, pet cemetery owner, and criminal justice advocate and taught creative writing at UC Santa Cruz and UC Irvine.

The Christopher Awards were created in 1949 to celebrate authors, illustrators, writers, producers and directors whose work “affirms the highest values of the human spirit.” A nonprofit organization founded in 1945 by Maryknoll Father James Keller, it is rooted in the Judeo-Christian tradition of service to God and humanity. The ancient Chinese proverb—“It’s better to light one candle than to curse the darkness”—guides its publishing, radio, and awards programs. Visit www.christophers.org for more information.