KYLE M. JOHNSON
STAFF WRITER

On April 12, Harold “Hal” Jaffe read from three of his books for the Community and World Literary Series.

Introduced at the event by Mark Wallace, Jaffe is the author of 19 books of fiction and docu-fiction, which he describes as a combination of factual reporting and fiction, which uncovers the crucial, human realities. His works often possess controversial and disturbing subject matter.

Jaffe began the reading with excerpts from his book “Anti-Twitter,” which is a collection of 150 stories that all consist of exactly 50 words, written in such a way to get close to the restrictions of the social networking site Twitter.

The stories of the book are based on real, published or found texts and treated by Jaffe to obscure the original subtext.

Jaffe followed up “Anti- Twitter” with a reading from his docu-fiction book, “OD,” which features well-known figures who either died from overdosing, or whose drug-use led to their death.

Jaffe, with musical accompaniment from Shane Roeschlein, read a selection from “OD,” which chronicled the figures of Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison and their overdoses.

Following the reading of this excerpt, which he presented with a fellow reader, Jaffe then read from his book, “Death in Texas,” which is based on transcripts from the final words of prisoners on death row in Texas. Jaffe stated that he treated, added and took away from the original documents.

At the end of the event, Jaffe and audience members took part in a Q&A session, which touched on such topics as the content of his work, writing male and female voices and Jaffe’s process when approaching such heavy topics that could be potentially depressing.

“By expressing the anger, even if it’s an impotent anger, I’m able to purge that depression,” Jaffe said.

Being a professor at San Diego State University, Jaffe was also asked what his briefest advice for his students is.

“Learn to dream. Learn to inhabit your dreams,” Jaffe said.