TOO POOR TO DIE book reading with author Amy Shea

Join Amy Shea author of Too Poor to Die: The Hidden Realities of Dying in the Margins and community death educator Anne Jungerman for December's Death Positive Event ~ an evening exploring what it means to die unseen, unclaimed, or without means and the vital role of community, compassion, and witness in after-death care.

The evening opens with a brief memorial for Napa County’s unclaimed dead of 2025, with words from Rev. Susan Panttaja and song from the Napa Valley Threshold Choir, followed by Amy’s reading, discussion and Q&A.

The program concludes with Too Poor to Die sales by Napa Bookmine, Amy signing books along with light refreshments.

In partnership with Napa Abode, an emergency shelter, we will be collecting donations to support community members in crisis. Please consider bringing:

• New, packaged toiletries (razors, soap, shampoo)
• Men’s and women’s t-shirts (all sizes)

Open to all & admission is FREE! Donations in any amount are deeply appreciated and help support Death Positive Event Series (DPES) programming. ❤️

ABOUT AMY:

Amy Shea is an essayist with an MFA and a doctorate in creative writing, and is the author of Too Poor to Die: The Hidden Realities of Dying in the Margins. She also co-founded Equitable Disposition Alliance, a multidisciplinary coalition that advocates for affordable and accessible disposition options for all, and is currently working on creating a shared database of public disposition programs around the country. Her work has appeared in The Missouri Review, Pangyrus, Portland Review, The Massachusetts Review, Spry Literary Journal, Fat City Review, From Glasgow to Saturn, & the Journal of Sociology of Health & Illness. She works as the Writing Program Director for Mount Tamalpais College, a free community college for the incarcerated people of San Quentin.

ABOUT TOO POOR TO DIE:

Death may be the great equalizer, but not all deaths are created equal. When someone dies indigent, homeless, disenfranchised from society, or without family or friends, there may be no easy path to resting in peace. With well over half a million people experiencing homelessness in the US. Too Poor to Die: The Hidden Realities of Dying in the Margins, a collection of closely connected essays, takes the reader on a journey into what happens to those who die while experiencing homelessness or who end up indigent or unclaimed at the end of life. Too Poor to Die bears witness to the disparities in death and dying faced by some of society’s most vulnerable and marginalized and asks the reader to consider their own end-of-life and disposition plans within the larger context of how privilege and access plays a role in what we want versus what we get in death.