The 2013 Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction has been awarded to Professor Paul Goldstein of Stanford University for his book “Havana Requiem.” The award is co-sponsored by The University of Alabama School of Law and the ABA Journal of the American Bar Association. Helen Cauthen, communications specialist at the School of Law, said the prize is named for Harper Lee, author of the classic novel “To Kill a Mockingbird.”
Cauthen said the School of Law has awarded and run the prize since 2011. A team of UA School of Law staff selected professors and the ABA Journal aid in the selection process.
Paul Goldstein’s novel “Havana Requiem” was awarded the prize after being selected from a pool of 28 entrants.
In addition to the School of Law staff, who help narrow down the initial pool, a selection committee makes the final decision. According to a press release from the ABA Journal, this year’s selection committee was composed of Moris Dee, the co-founder and chief trial counsel of the Southern Poverty Law Center; Sharon Malone, spouse of Attorney General Eric Holder and sister of Vivian Malone Jones, the first African- American female to graduate from The University of Alabama; Michael Connelly, a New York Times best-selling author; Richard North Patterson, also a New York Times best-selling author; and Katie Couric, host and special correspondent for ABC News.
Goldstein’s winning work focuses on a lawyer who helps a group of Cuban musicians get the rights to their work back 35 years after they lost them. Cauthen said Goldstein’s work as a novelist focuses on pro-bono work, a major theme throughout “Havana Requiem.”
“The novel chronicles efforts by a lawyer, recovering alcoholic Michael Seeley, to help a group of aging Cuban jazz musicians and their families reclaim copyrights to their works,” the press release stated.
Goldstein said his idea for “Havana Requiem” was to take an interesting legal concept and set it somewhere with both a rich musical tradition and a complex legal situation.
“The story turns on a unique aspect of American copyright law, under which somebody who conveys all of their rights in a book, or a piece of music as is the case in Havana Requiem, 35 years later, he can get it back,” Goldstein said. “That’s sort of interesting, but it doesn’t have any blood or guts to it. Let’s put this in the context of a really rich musical culture, which is Cuba, a complex and tense political situation, which is Cuba, and have some involvement of U.S. government state department interests. Put that together, and that’s a good mix for a story.”
