Damien Echols is best known as the lead vocalist for the American rock band, the West Memphis Three. The band was convicted of and subsequently exonerated of involvement in three murders that occurred in 1993.
Echols is a self-proclaimed anarchist and a prolific writer, having written works of fiction and nonfiction. His work has been characterized thusly: "A disconcerting mixture of the romantic and the grotesque… "In an effort to paint a picture of his life, he has made it hard to know what to believe."
In 2008, Echols released "Life After Death," a novel about a group of boys who go on a road trip from Kansas to South Dakota after they accidentally jump start their car in a corn field. The novel was published by One World One Love Publications, a publishing company owned by Damien Echols.
In 2010, Damien Echols released "", a book in which he describes his own prison experiences in detail with an emphasis on his physical, mental and spiritual growth during his incarceration
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The book also contains many essays from other prisoners who were interviewed at length by Echols when he was in prison. In 2016, "The American Zombie" was added to the list of banned books in Arkansas. In 2017, Damien Echols wrote another book titled "We Are Not What We Are Told." It details his own experiences as well as those of other people during their time incarcerated for crimes they did not commit.
Echols' first novel "Life After Death" was nominated for the 2012 Independent Publisher Book Awards Silver Award for fiction, but lost out to another book by Damien Echols titled "The Coming Nightmare".
Damien's second novel entitled "Hell Bound" was released on March 26, 2013. In 2014 Damien became a featured guest at Book Expo America as part of their Author Hallway Series where he discussed various topics with various authors including how he got involved with writing books and why he writes them. He has also been interviewed on several different radio shows including Rock 105 Jamz Radio and The Alan Cox Show.
In 2016 Damien wrote the book "I Am Not A Serial Killer" which details his experiences as one of the three young men wrongfully accused of murder and how it changed him completely from day one until his release from prison nearly two decades later.
In 2017, Damien began working with author Kelli Sorenson on her new book called "The Girl Who Was