by Shaina Olmanson, Associate Editorial Director, Twenty-First Century Books

Colson Whitehead’s new novel, The Nickel Boys, came out this month, a fictional story based on the Dozier School for Boys in Florida. Whitehead’s novel follows one wrongfully indicted boy and the abuse experienced at a school modeled after Dozier. In her forthcoming Twenty-First Century Books title, The Dozier School for Boys: Forensics, Survivors, and a Painful Past, forensic scientist and author Dr. Elizabeth A. Murray investigates the school’s history, detailing stories by survivors, as well as digging into the forensic anthropology of the graves and skeletons found on the grounds. This true crime report looks at the institutional abuse that occurred at Dozier and seeks to uncover the facts of why and how this happened for so long.