Join a conversation between Ohio Humanities Executive Director Pat Williamsen and Ohio University professors Daniel Skinner and Berkeley Franz as they discuss their new book Not Far from Me: Stories of Opioids and Ohio.

With support from Ohio Humanities, Ohio University medical school professors Daniel Skinner and Berkeley Franz have launched a website that provides resources for facilitating community conversations and reducing stigma around the issue of opioid abuse. The website is hosted at www.NotFarFromMe.org

The site is a companion to Skinner and Franz’s co-edited book, Not Far from Me: Stories of Opioids and Ohio, which features more than 50 first-person accounts of the opioid crisis in Ohio. The book’s contributors include educators, medical professionals, sports coaches, teachers, community leaders, family members, and recovering opioid users. Former Ohio Governor Ted Strickland wrote the book’s forward. Of the book, the award-winning author of Dreamland, Sam Quinones, said: “As a journalist and storyteller, I’m convinced that only through stories of real people will the stigma surrounding addiction fade. Which is what makes projects like Not Far from Me: Stories of Opioids and Ohio so important and worth reading. We hear from them all: doctors, addicts, poets, mothers, librarians, nurses, pastors, inmates and football coaches. Even though this volume is about one state, and only a few people from that state, together they tell one of the crucial stories of America today.