Photo courtesy of Gaby Gerster/Diogenes, Zuric.
The Massachusetts Bar Association is pleased to announce that
award-winning novelist and screenwriter Dennis Lehane will deliver
the keynote address at the Annual Dinner on Thursday, April 28, at
the Westin Boston Waterfront.
Since his first novel, A Drink Before the War, won the
Shamus Award, he has published 12 more novels with William Morrow
& Co. that have been translated into more than 30 languages and
become international bestsellers: Darkness, Take My
Hand; Sacred; Gone, Baby, Gone; Prayers
for Rain; Mystic River; Shutter Island;
The Given Day; Moonlight Mile and Live by
Night. His new novel World Gone By was published in
March 2015.
Dennis Lehane's novel, The Drop, was inspired by his
earlier short story entitled Animal Rescue. The
Drop has also been released as a movie featuring James
Gandolfini in his last role, alongside actors Noomi Rapace and Tom
Hardy. Lehane was a staff writer on the acclaimed HBO series
The Wire and a writer-producer on the fourth season of
HBO's Boardwalk Empire. Lehane currently has three
dramatic series in development at HBO, Showtime and WGN
America.
"Not only is Dennis Lehane an award-winning writer, he is a
native son whose career work shows a keen understanding of both
Boston and our criminal justice system. More importantly, he is
just an incredible storyteller," said MBA President Robert W.
Harnais. "We can all look forward to hearing more of his stories as
we welcome Mr. Lehane back to Massachusetts for our Annual Dinner
-- the signature event on the legal community calendar."
Three of Lehane's novels -- Mystic River; Gone,
Baby, Gone; and Shutter Island -- have been adapted
into award-winning films. In addition, Mystic River was a
finalist for the 2001 PEN/Winship Award and won the Anthony Award
and the Barry Award for Best Novel, the Dilys Award from the
Independent Mystery Booksellers Association and the Massachusetts
Book Award in Fiction from the Massachusetts Center for the Book.
His novel, Live By Night, was awarded the 2013 Edgar Award
for Best Novel of the Year. Live By Night was also awarded
the gold medal for general fiction in the annual Florida Book
Awards, and was in the top three of Readers Choice Awards at The
House Of Crime and Mystery.
Lehane was born and raised in Dorchester. Before becoming a
full-time writer, he worked as a counselor with mentally
handicapped and abused children, waited tables, parked cars, drove
limos, worked in bookstores and loaded tractor-trailers.