About the book:
After publishing his third novel, Motor City Burning (Pegasus Books, 2014), Bill Morris turned his attention to researching, remembering and reliving some of the spectacularly lurid stories he covered in Chambersburg nearly forty years ago. These included arson, rape, murder, kidnapping, attempted suicide, the paranormal, prison breaks - all of it leavened by the more prosaic aspects of life in a picturesque small town in central Pennsylvania's Cumberland Valley. He has now collected his memories - along with explorations into the slippery nature of memory - in a non-fiction book he's called American Berserk: A Cub Reporter, a Small-Town Daily, the Schizo '70s.
Author biographies:
Bill Morris began his writing career as a reporter at Chambersburg, Pa.’s, Public Opinion, where he covered the lurid and sensational stories that appear in American Berserk: A Cub Reporter, a Small-Town Daily, the Schizo ‘70s. Since then he has published three critically acclaimed novels and has contributed to numerous newspapers and magazines, including The New York Times, The Washington Post Magazine, LA Weekly, and Popular Mechanics. He lives in New York City and is a staff writer at the online literary magazine The Millions.
Brad Bumsted is the bureau chief of a new print-only publication, The Caucus, which focuses on state issues. The weekly newspaper features investigative reporting and long form journalism in an era of sound bites, the 24-hour news cycle, and unending Tweets and Facebook feeds. Bumsted worked 18 years as an award-winning reporter for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review covering Harrisburg. Previously he was a reporter for Gannett News Service in Harrisburg and Washington D.C. and Florida. He began his career in journalism at the Chambersburg Public Opinion, where is top accomplishment was being hung in effigy in the Mercersburg Halloween Parade. He is the author of two books and co-author of another. His most recent book, Keystone Corruption Continues: Cash Payoffs, Porngate and the Kathleen Kane Scandal , is available here at the book store. Bumsted lives in Mechanicsburg with his wife Gail. They have a daughter, Lindsey, who just finished her JD degree at Temple Law School.
