Biography

Lara Naughton is an author and documentary playwright. Her memoir, The Jaguar Man, was published by Central Recovery Press, and her play Never Fight a Shark in Water: The Wrongful Conviction of Gregory Bright has been performed around the country. She is a certified Compassion Cultivation Trainer through The Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education (CCARE) at Stanford University; Director of CompassionNOLA; and Chair of Creative Writing at New Orleans Center for Creative Arts.

Schedule

12:15 p.m. to 12:45 p.m.
State Capitol, House Committee Room 1
Book Talk
The Jaguar Man

1 p.m. to 1:45 p.m.
Barnes & Noble Bookselling Tent
Book Signing

The Jaguar Man: A Memoir

What happens when one harrowing incident changes your life, splitting it between before and after?

On the fourth day of what author Lara Naughton thought would be two weeks of bliss in Belize, she was kidnapped by a man who pretended to be a cabdriver, held in the tropical forest, and raped. In the depths of the jungle—alone with the Jaguar Man—compassion was her only defense.

Lara’s journey of survival and healingis poignant, compelling, and, at times, unconventional. She bends the limits of reality—using myth to process her experience—as she recalls the facts surrounding her assault. As Lara searches for a way to make herself whole again, she advocates a groundbreaking path for trauma survivors to find their own peace and healing.