Description
Simultaneously communicating the vital importance of access to books and education, and conveying the power of community, the letters sent to APBP by incarcerated people spark conversations about race, poverty, and incarceration and shed light on the movement for accountability for state violence. This Book Is Free and Yours to Keep elucidates the violence and neglect perpetuated by carceral systems and offers a way forward based on solidarity and collaboration.
About the Author
Connie Banta is a social activist serving on the APBP Board of Directors, book artist, poet, and retired therapist living in Morgantown, WV.
Kristin DeVault-Juelfs is a social worker, therapist, and former APBP work-study student and APBP volunteer from West Virginia.
Destinee Harper is a researcher and activist for education access in prison.
Katy Ryan is a literature professor and founder of APBP.
Ellen Skirvin is a teacher, fiction writer, and dedicated APBP volunteer.
Reviews
"A beautiful book that really stands alone in literature exploring mass incarceration, the experience of incarceration, and the work of reform. As the editors note, this isn't really a book about any of those things in a traditional sense, even as it clearly is a book about all of them. Rather, the book is most clearly about the literary and intellectual lives of people incarcerated and the modest but urgent work of grassroots book projects." -Judah Schept, author of Coal, Cages, Crisis: The Rise of the Prison Economy in Central Kentucky
Book Information
ISBN 9781959000358
Author Connie Banta
Format Paperback
Page Count 208
Imprint West Virginia University Press
Publisher West Virginia University Press
Weight(grams) 454g