“Writing has always been associated with freedom.” — Lleucu Siencyn, Wales Online

Our friends over in the United Kingdom share similar ideas about writing while incarcerated. A recent opinion piece in Wales Online discusses Literature Wales which ran creative writing classes and reading workshops in prisons through the Write for Life program. This program saw 500+ inmates over the course of a 2 year period. An anthology of that work will be published at the end of the month. Also of note, Siencyn discusses protests of the November 2013 United Kingdom ban on sending books (among other things) to prisoners. See the full article here.

“Through education, reading and creative writing, prison offers opportunities to learn new skills, hone old ones and build confidence, better preparing offenders for ‘life outside.'” — Lleucu Siencyn, Wales Online

Doran Larson, a Hamilton College professor, solicited prison education programs across the nation for submissions for the recently published book Fourth City: Essays from the Prison in America. In addition to editing and curating Fourth City, Larson teaches a class at Attica, as well as a “Prison Writing” course at Hamilton College.

The term “fourth city” comes from the idea that the 2.26 million incarcerated Americans out-number the fourth largest city in America (Houston, at 2.1 according to the 2012 census).

Larson’s experience stresses the importance of sharing the voices of those who are incarcerated. Of the book and its authors he states: “they cannot express the depth of their thanks; they are thankful even to know someone wants to read their work, let alone publish it.”

Read the full article here.