April 1, 2003

For more information:
Frank R. Scatoni
619-807-1887
frank@ventureliterary.com


"No Kill Date"

Venture Literary Sells Narrative-Driven Book on Hate Crimes to Palgrave/St. Martin’s


On April 1, 2003, Greg Dinkin of Venture Literary, representing award-winning journalist David Neiwert, sold the World rights to Death on the Fourth of July: Hate Crimes and the American Landscape to Brendan O’Malley at Palgrave/St. Martin’s.

Like the successful film Boys Don’t Cry and the award-winning best-seller Death in Texas, Neiwert’s Death on the Fourth of July explores the deeper nature of hate crimes by focusing on an unusual case that rocked a small community and sent reverberations throughout the nation—the Ocean Shores case in which a victim of a hate crime ended up killing the perpetrator. Neiwert’s narrative also examines the myths surrounding hate crimes, delineating exactly what a "hate crime" is and what it is not. It reveals the patchwork reality of hate-crime laws, where varying statutes from state to state and innate weaknesses in both the state and federal codes, make enforcement haphazard at best and virtually nonexistent in rural districts. And it relates the visceral fear of rural districts—particularly those with a reputation for hate crimes—which many minorities feel almost reflexively. In short, Neiwert’s book will be the first to fully explore a growing problem that is tearing the very fabric of America.

The author of two books, Neiwert began his work on hate crimes in 1978, when he covered the neo-Nazis and other right-wing extremists who were beginning to filter into northern Idaho. He has written extensively about hate crimes, and his reportage on domestic terrorism for MSNBC won a National Press Club Award in 2000 for distinguished online journalism. After the April 1995 bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Neiwert was sought out regularly by local and national media as the expert on terrorism in America. He has made numerous television and radio appearances, ranging from MSNBC news programs to his appearance in an episode of Court TV’s Forensics Files. He will also be featured in a forthcoming PBS documentary about hate crimes, Not in Our Town.

To learn more about Venture Literary, visit: www.ventureliterary.com.
To learn more about Palgrave, visit www.palgrave.com.
To learn more about David Neiwert, visit: www.dneiwert.blogspot.com.