Virginia Author Beth Macy to Speak on Opioid Crisis   Clifton Forge, VA (Se0pt. 10, 2018) - The public is cordially invited to spend an evening with noted author Beth Macy. Sponsored by the Clifton Forge Public Library in partnership with the Historic Masonic Theatre, the program will be held in the Theatre’s Thomas P. Dean, Racey and Dean Inc., Underground Lounge and Cafe. It will begin at 7:00 p.m. on Monday, September 24. Admission is free. Ms. Macy will speak about the opioid crisis, the topic of her third and newest book, “Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America.” Hailed by the “New York Times” as “a harrowing, deeply compassionate dispatch from the heart of a national emergency,” Beth Macy’s book takes the reader “into the epicenter of America’s twenty-plus year struggle with opioid addiction.” The author says she wrote the book “the only way I knew how – by witnessing the epidemic’s landing in three Virginia communities over two decades and getting to know the people on the front lines.” She continues, “From distressed small communities in central Appalachia to wealthy suburbs, from disparate cities to once idyllic farm towns, it’s a heartbreaking trajectory that explains how the national crisis became so entrenched.” Macy’s investigation of the drug epidemic started in 2012. It had begun to invade the suburbs around her adopted hometown of Roanoke, VA, where she worked for 20 years as a reporter for “The Roanoke Times.” As she retraced the epidemic’s stealthy move across the country, she saw that it was a human-made disaster that was predictable, very lucrative, and did not have to happen. Powerful figures permitted its progress and disregarded sound warnings. Says Macy, “We had invited into our country our own demise.” “Dopesick” is unsparing yet deeply human as it hones in on families, victims, first-responders, criminals, and law enforcement personnel. The families and first-responders are “the very hearts of the people who are running the long marathons of struggle and survival,” says actor and author Tom Hanks. He calls the book “another deep – and deeply needed – look into the troubled soul of America.” Macy’s first book, “Factory Man,” is now in development to become a film with Tom Hanks playing the title character. Her second book, “Truevine,” is also in the developmental stage for becoming a movie. Macy has won more than a dozen national journalism awards, including a Nieman Fellowship for Journalism at Harvard in 2010. She has written for online journals, radio, and magazines, including “Oprah Magazine”, “Parade”, “The New York Times”, “Salon”, and “Christian Science Monitor”. Beth Macy’s program will conclude with a book signing. Copies of her book will be available for purchase. Light refreshments will be provided. The Masonic Underground is located at 510 Main Street. For more information, call the Clifton Forge Public Library at 863-2519, or the Historic Masonic Theatre at 862-5655.

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