Description
This collection includes a kaleidoscope of voices and perspectives from prisoners, former prisoners, scholars, and activists to examine the extraordinarily invisible and closed system of incarceration that characterizes the massive U.S. prison industry. The book explores in multiple ways, the role of writing in carceral settings, including material realities, ethics, and social justice. It is a book about the power of writing as well as its limits. It is a book that celebrates and critiques, challenges, and reveals. It is a book that, like the writing of incarcerated women, repays careful reading.
About the Author
Tobi Jacobi is an associate professor of English at Colorado State University where she teaches writing and literacy classes. Her research focuses on understanding the problems and possibilities of situating women's prison writing workshops as alternative literacy training. She has taught lifewriting at a county prison in upstate New York and currently facilitates a women's prison writing project in Fort Collins, CO. Ann Folwell Stanford is Vincent DePaul Professor of multidisciplinary and literary studies at the School for New Learning, DePaul University. A poet, she founded and directed the DePaul Project on Women, Writing, and Incarceration after having written poetry with women at Cook County Jail for over seven years. Her book, Bodies in A Broken World: Women Novelists of Color & The Politics of Medicine, was published in 2003. Her articles have appeared in African American Review, American Literature, Literature and Medicine, Feminist Studies, and other journals and books.
Reviews
This powerful volume is the best possible portal for approaching the vital impact of the word in the context of incarceration. The voices of advocates, activists, academics-and, most brilliantly, the voices of incarcerated and formerly incarcerated women-deploy astonishing and effective languages of clarity, truth, and justice. The rational passion on these pages is startling and unforgettable. -- Rickie Solinger, author of "Reproductive Politics: What Everyone Needs to Know" and co-editor of "Interrupted Life: Experiences of Incarcerated Women in the U.S."
This book provides glimpses of prison life that most of us would not otherwise know. As the women write, thoughts guarded so closely come spilling out upon the page. They invite us into their worlds to see them as human beings with human issues they are trying to resolve. I was moved by the beauty of their poetry and the poignancy of their life stories. -- Maureen McCormack, Ph.D., pioneered the Ira Progoff Intensive Journal (R) workshops in prisons and jails across the US
These writings undermine the very foundation of our nightmarish and shameful prison system. Like crews boring a tunnel from opposite ends, the writers from inside and outside meet in the middle with affirmations of life and humanity that offer a potent antidote to the deathly cruelties of the American gulag. And because the vast majority of women prisoners are incarcerated for non-violent crimes of poverty, this volume exposes the fundamental assumptions of the American criminal justice system as instruments of brutal class control. -- Bruce Franklin, John Cotton Dana Distinguished Professor of English and American Studies at Rutgers University, Newark; author, "Prison Literature in America: The Victim as Criminal and Artist."
A moving, sometimes unsettling, account of women caught within the prison industrial complex. Weaving together the voices of incarcerated and formerly incarcerated women, community activists, and academics, this innovative anthology reminds us why writing matters. -- Patrick W. Berry, Syracuse University
Women, Writing & Prison is the deepest and most helpful book I've read about teaching the arts inside prison walls. The authors tackle the complex challenges of working within a criminal justice system that by its very nature brutalizes those who are locked into it. The women's stories, and those of the teachers/activists who work with them, remind us that writing is a pathway to freedom within-a practice that affirms our humanity and reassures us that not only do we exist, but also, we have wings to fly. -- Kathryn Watterson, a.k.a. Kitsi Burkhart, author, "Women in Prison: Inside the Concrete Womb," lecturer, creative writing, University of Pennsylvania
This invaluable book shines a bright light on the harsh reality of women in prison, some of the most forgotten people in our country today. Languishing year after year locked away from society with few opportunities to express themselves, most have little opportunity to expand their minds, to grow and appreciate themselves as individuals. Writing and reflection through sharing poetry, prose and their deepest dreams in a safe and supportive group is a powerful form of restorative justice. When women acknowledge their truths and resist the dehumanizing experience of prison, it is possible for them to come to terms with their tangled past and painful present. Programs such as those described should be required in every jail and prison. Such healing innovations can make the difference to untold numbers of people caught in the United States web of incarceration. -- Susan Spangler Hendricks, LISW-CP, CJT, group therapy leader, Camille Griffin Graham Maximum Security Prison, Columbia, South Carolina, 2005-2012
A brilliant and necessary book bringing the voices of women in prison to the forefront. Not only do we witness the writings of the women, but also the writings of those teachers, scholars, and activists who share their experiences and awaken our hearts. This collection is astounding, igniting our moral passion and a must read for all of us. -- JoAnn Flynn, M.Ed., CPT, Connecticut Teaching Artist and Poetry Therapist
Book Information
ISBN 9781475808223
Author Tobi Jacobi
Format Hardback
Page Count 304
Imprint Rowman & Littlefield
Publisher Rowman & Littlefield
Weight(grams) 567g
Dimensions(mm) 235mm * 162mm * 27mm
About the Author
Tobi Jacobi is an associate professor of English at Colorado State University where she teaches writing and literacy classes. Her research focuses on understanding the problems and possibilities of situating women's prison writing workshops as alternative literacy training. She has taught lifewriting at a county prison in upstate New York and currently facilitates a women's prison writing project in Fort Collins, CO. Ann Folwell Stanford is Vincent DePaul Professor of multidisciplinary and literary studies at the School for New Learning, DePaul University. A poet, she founded and directed the DePaul Project on Women, Writing, and Incarceration after having written poetry with women at Cook County Jail for over seven years. Her book, Bodies in A Broken World: Women Novelists of Color & The Politics of Medicine, was published in 2003. Her articles have appeared in African American Review, American Literature, Literature and Medicine, Feminist Studies, and other journals and books.
Reviews
This powerful volume is the best possible portal for approaching the vital impact of the word in the context of incarceration. The voices of advocates, activists, academics-and, most brilliantly, the voices of incarcerated and formerly incarcerated women-deploy astonishing and effective languages of clarity, truth, and justice. The rational passion on these pages is startling and unforgettable. -- Rickie Solinger, author of "Reproductive Politics: What Everyone Needs to Know" and co-editor of "Interrupted Life: Experiences of Incarcerated Women in the U.S."
This book provides glimpses of prison life that most of us would not otherwise know. As the women write, thoughts guarded so closely come spilling out upon the page. They invite us into their worlds to see them as human beings with human issues they are trying to resolve. I was moved by the beauty of their poetry and the poignancy of their life stories. -- Maureen McCormack, Ph.D., pioneered the Ira Progoff Intensive Journal (R) workshops in prisons and jails across the US
These writings undermine the very foundation of our nightmarish and shameful prison system. Like crews boring a tunnel from opposite ends, the writers from inside and outside meet in the middle with affirmations of life and humanity that offer a potent antidote to the deathly cruelties of the American gulag. And because the vast majority of women prisoners are incarcerated for non-violent crimes of poverty, this volume exposes the fundamental assumptions of the American criminal justice system as instruments of brutal class control. -- Bruce Franklin, John Cotton Dana Distinguished Professor of English and American Studies at Rutgers University, Newark; author, "Prison Literature in America: The Victim as Criminal and Artist."
A moving, sometimes unsettling, account of women caught within the prison industrial complex. Weaving together the voices of incarcerated and formerly incarcerated women, community activists, and academics, this innovative anthology reminds us why writing matters. -- Patrick W. Berry, Syracuse University
Women, Writing & Prison is the deepest and most helpful book I've read about teaching the arts inside prison walls. The authors tackle the complex challenges of working within a criminal justice system that by its very nature brutalizes those who are locked into it. The women's stories, and those of the teachers/activists who work with them, remind us that writing is a pathway to freedom within-a practice that affirms our humanity and reassures us that not only do we exist, but also, we have wings to fly. -- Kathryn Watterson, a.k.a. Kitsi Burkhart, author, "Women in Prison: Inside the Concrete Womb," lecturer, creative writing, University of Pennsylvania
This invaluable book shines a bright light on the harsh reality of women in prison, some of the most forgotten people in our country today. Languishing year after year locked away from society with few opportunities to express themselves, most have little opportunity to expand their minds, to grow and appreciate themselves as individuals. Writing and reflection through sharing poetry, prose and their deepest dreams in a safe and supportive group is a powerful form of restorative justice. When women acknowledge their truths and resist the dehumanizing experience of prison, it is possible for them to come to terms with their tangled past and painful present. Programs such as those described should be required in every jail and prison. Such healing innovations can make the difference to untold numbers of people caught in the United States web of incarceration. -- Susan Spangler Hendricks, LISW-CP, CJT, group therapy leader, Camille Griffin Graham Maximum Security Prison, Columbia, South Carolina, 2005-2012
A brilliant and necessary book bringing the voices of women in prison to the forefront. Not only do we witness the writings of the women, but also the writings of those teachers, scholars, and activists who share their experiences and awaken our hearts. This collection is astounding, igniting our moral passion and a must read for all of us. -- JoAnn Flynn, M.Ed., CPT, Connecticut Teaching Artist and Poetry Therapist
Book Information
ISBN 9781475808223
Author Tobi Jacobi
Format Hardback
Page Count 304
Imprint Rowman & Littlefield
Publisher Rowman & Littlefield
Weight(grams) 567g
Dimensions(mm) 235mm * 162mm * 27mm
