Fourth Annual JPL Mystery Readers / Writers Literary Festival

Four professionals – a physician, nurse, police officer and author – will make presentations at the fourth annual JPL Mystery Readers / Writers Literary Festival at 9:30 a.m., Saturday, June 23, at the East Bank Regional Library, 4747 W. Napoleon Ave., Metairie. The purpose of the seminar is to connect readers and writers of crime fiction with medical and crime prevention professionals who can add veracity and provide basic information about real-life crime scenarios. The festival is intended not just for mystery writers but for readers as well. This event is free and open to the public. There is no registration.

9:30-10:45 a.m. – Physician William Hill, Suicide and PTSD

William Hill, PsyD, works for Southeast Louisiana Veterans Health Care where he is a Suicide Prevention Manager. The office works closely with mental health and primary care providers to coordinate care for veterans deemed high risk for suicide. This includes managing the high-risk list to ensure that veterans are being seen within the high-risk protocol guidelines, and consulting with providers on complex cases where suicide risk is a concern. 

11 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. – Nurse Anne Troy, Forensic Nursing

Anne Troy, FNP-BC, is a licensed Family Nurse Practitioner at the Audrey Hepburn Care Center and an expert in the field of Child Abuse Pediatrics. She is a graduate of Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center in New Orleans. She has served as an Assistant Professor for the LSU School of Nursing since 1993. Troy has been a trained Darkness to Light facilitator since 2010. She has extensive professional education in the field of child abuse. 

12:30 to 1:45 p.m. – Officer Michael Verrett, Homicide Investigation and Police Sketching

Michael Verrett retired with 25 years with the Baton Rouge Police Department where he spent 16 years as a homicide detective and a police sketch artist. He is one of the most decorated detectives in the history of the department with more than 90 percent clearance rate having investigated more than 200 homicides and many more attempted murders. He is a graduate of the FBI Facial Forensic Course, and he has assisted federal, state, and local agencies by providing more than a hundred sketches.

2 p.m. – Author Constance Adler, Guided Meditation and the Creative Process

Constance Adler is the author of the memoir "My Bayou, New Orleans Through the Eyes of a Lover."  Her stories have appeared in numerous publications that include Oxford American, Utne Reader, Spy Magazine, Bayou, and Blackbird. Her profile of Mardi Gras float designer Henri Schindler in Gambit Weekly was honored by the Louisiana Press Association with a first place award in feature writing.  She lives near Bayou Saint John in New Orleans.

For more information regarding this presentation, contact Chris Smith, Manager of Adult Programming for the library, at 504-889-8143 or wcsmith@jefferson.lib.la.us.