A Past That Lies Before Me
by Steve Clark, PhD
When he entered the jail, fellow inmates called him “perfesser.” When he left, they called him “pastor.”
When an accomplished university professor is arrested and sentenced to jail, he experiences firsthand the criminal justice system, a deliberately indifferent healthcare system, and the challenges felons face while trying to rebuild a life after their sentence is over.
A Past That Lies Before Me is a raw, honest narrative about Steve Clark’s encounter with the legal system and the people he got to know in jail. It is also an exposé about adjusting to an alien world within the corrections system he dubs the “Entanglement System.” Simultaneously poignant, insightful, sad, provocative, and even funny at times, this memoir describes how jail delivered some unexpected blessings that left Clark a better man. All that—the bad, the good, and the unexpected—is the past that still remains before him.
Steve Clark, Ph.D., was a university professor with a Ph.D. in Immunology and a past Special Fellow of the Leukemia Society of America. Clark published dozens of papers based on his research and holds two drug patents. He taught medical and graduate students about cancer biology and genetics and about research ethics; directed an NIH-funded Ph.D. Graduate Program; and chaired several faculty committees, including the University’s Biological Sciences Executive Committee. Clark served on the University’s Chancellor’s Speaker’s Bureau. He is retired but has been blogging on the COVID pandemic, which is the subject of his next book.
Please take a look at two professionally-designed custom covers below and then vote on the one you recommend for his upcoming book. Thank you.
Cover A
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Cover B
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Speaking as a graphic designer, cover B catches the eye more. It is more humanizing. The only thing I would suggest is that you start the white text sooner as it is hard to read black on dark colors.