"For forty years I have worked at the nexus where language intersects with the
lives of prison inmates, and it has proven to be one of the most exciting
intersections imaginable...Since 1974 I have directed a number of prison writing
workshops, all for male prisoners, in the Arizona State Prison. The writing that
is collected in this issue of Orion was selected from that of the hundreds of
writers who have participated in these programs. For me, reading the creative
writing of the inmates I have worked with is often like listening to a man
gasping for air while dying. The federal prison where I now work was obviously
designed for the purpose of keeping inmates in a confined area, but also for
keeping them from having any experience of the natural world, of substituting a
sterile environment for the real one."
More in this powerful post with an introduction by the late Richard Shelton.
