DHS Grad To Speak at Book Fest

graduate Matthew O'Brien is returning over Labor Day Weekend to participate in the AJC Decatur Book Festival.

He's written two books about the dark side of Las Vegas. A press release tells about O'Brien's work:

Matthew O’Brien, who graduated from Decatur High School in 1988, is returning over Labor Day Weekend to participate in the 2011 Decatur Book Festival. Matt will read from and discuss his latest book, My Week at the Blue Angel: And Other Stories from the Storm Drains, Strip Clubs, and Trailer Parks of Las Vegas (Huntington Press, 2010), a collection of creative-nonfiction stories set in the darker corners of Sin City that most visitors, and even Las Vegas locals, seldom see or hear about. O’Brien, who played on Georgia State University's 1991 NCAA tournament basketball team, moved to Las Vegas in 1997 and quickly became one of the city's best-known journalists.

In 2007 he authored his first book, Beneath the Neon: Life and Death in the Tunnels of Las Vegas, which garnered international interest and acclaim for chronicling the city’s underground flood-channel culture, which he explored for more than four years after discovering a subterranean parallel universe co-existing beneath the bright lights of the famous Las Vegas Strip. Matt is also founder of Shine a Light, a community project that provides housing, drug counseling, and other services to the hundreds of people who live in the drains. The project is a collaboration between O'Brien and charity organization HELP of Southern Nevada. 

Matt’s reading and talk will take place from 11:15 a.m.-12 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 3, in the auditorium of Decatur High School. He will sign copies of both books immediately afterward. For more information, visit beneaththeneon.com or contact Jessica Roe at 702-252-0655 or jessica@huntingtonpress.com.