Women, Writing, and Prison

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.

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.

• Foreword- Sister Helen PrejeanDedicationPreface-Ann Folwell Stanford and Tobi JacobiIntroduction-Ann Folwell StanfordWhere We Are From-SpeakOut WritersSection 1: Writing and Reclaiming Self1. My Words are Brain and Bone Marrow-Jessica Hill2. From Nonna’s Table to Book Signings: Under the Influence of the Pen-Nancy Birkla3. This Ain’t No Holiday Inn, Griffin: Finding Freedom on the Blank Page-Dionna Griffin4. A Symphony of Medicine-Shelley Goldman, a/k/a S. Phillips5. The Girl Behind the Smile-Judith Clark6. Writing to Survive the Madness: Letters from Prison-Sarah Anonymous and Patricia O’Brien7. My Voice through a Deadbolt Door-Crista Decker8. Rolling with the Punches-Irene C. BairdSection II: Bridging Communities: Writing Programs and Social Practice9. Good Intentions Aside: The Ethics of Reciprocity in a University-Jail Women’s Writing Workshop Collaboration-Sadie Reynolds10. Jumble of Thoughts-Sandy Sysyn11. Incorporeal Transformations: The Power of Audience for Women Writing in Prison-Tom Kerr12. Writing Exchanges: Composing across Prison and University Classrooms-Wendy Hinshaw and Kathie Klarreich13. Mothers and Daughters: Meditations on Women’s Prison Theatre-Jean Trounstine14. As Others Stand By and Ask Questions-Roshanda Melton15. Poetry, Audience, and Leaving Prison-Hettie JonesSection III: Writing, Resistance, and the Material Realities of US Prisons and Jails16. “…to speak in one’s own voice”: The Power of Women’s Prison Writing-Judith Scheffler17. Writing is My Way of Sledge Hammering These Walls-Taylor Huey18. She Bore the Lyrical Name of Velmarine Szabo-Clarinda Harriss19. “You Just Threatened My Life”: Struggling to Write in Prison-Velmarine O. Szabo20. Out at the Swamp and Back-Gretchen Schumacher21. I am Antarctica: I Shriek, I Accuse, I Write-Boudicca Burning22. No Stopping Them: Women Writers at York Correctional-Bell Gale Chevigny23. Dear Shelly: Reflections on the Politics of Teaching Inside-Tshehaye Hebert24. All with the Stroke of a Pen-Joyce Cohen25. The Prisoner’s Lament-SamsaraAfterword Tobi JacobiHope is There CreeAbout the AuthorsAppendixResources for Facilitating Prison Writing WorkshopsSelected Bibliography Index